Monday, January 22, 2007

Callahan's Con (Spider Robinson)

[**] ISBN: 0786183470

I had some fun listening to this book. But I have to hold back on giving it a very high rating. Even knowing that one has to suspend disbelief for this sort of book and that this book is meant to be over the top, I thought the characters, situation and plot were a bit too contrived. The denizens of "The Place" are too varied, too goofy and too understanding to be remotely believable. It's hard enough to get four or five people to agree on anything, much less a hundred or more. The whole mob plot was much too stereotyped. And Mr. Robinson violated some of his own rules of time traveling when it came right down to carrying out the con.

To top it off, I found the prose to be somewhat forced. And the humor was off the mark. I will probably try another Callahan book. Perhaps the earlier volumes that actually include Mike Callahan, where the story is just getting started are better.

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