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Overview
Opening Night at Mary's Place is the hottest ticket in the galaxy - a brand-new bar with some old familiar faces. Jake's back, along with Doc, Fast Eddie, and the rest of the Callahan's gang. And just when things couldn't get crazier, guess who shows up in the Nick of Time to make sure they do...Callahan's Crosstime Saloon is just a memory, but a new bar is taking its place as the hottest watering hole in the galaxy: Mary's Place. Opening Night draws the old gang--Jake, Doc, and Fast Eddie--as well as some strange new faces. After all, all beings are welcome . . . as long as they don't stiff the bartender.
Editorials
Library Journal
When a creature that resembles a drunken leprechaun drops in unexpectedly at Mary's Place, bartender Jake Stonebender gets his first inkling that his establishment might just live up to his expectations as a special bar where unusual things happen. Like Robinson's other Callahan stories, this tale unfolds at a leisurely pace that contrasts delightfully with the strangeness of the events chronicled. A good choice for sf collections and for series fans.John Mort
Does this popular series ("Lady Slings the Booze" ) start to run thin? Yes, if you're expecting any sort of plot line; no, if you delight in its playfulness and intellect. Jake Stonebender is back--earnest, wisecracking, and elliptical--to tell us of the opening of a new bar called Mary's (rather than Callahan's) Place and to call forth the memories the series has created. A stranger named Jonathan materializes and announces that he is responsible for introducing AIDS to the human race. An intriguing debate about the origin of AIDS and moral responsibility in general follows but then drifts away--as bar conversations tend to do; other characters--such as "the Duck," "Fast Eddie" the musician, and those weird newlyweds Isham and Tanya--take stage. The story is a rambler, in other words, but more or less hangs together on the strength of Jake's appealing voice and the bar scene, which is hip and witty. It's coffeehouse science fiction, one might say. An acquired taste, but a good number of readers have acquired it, and Robinson has won many awards.“Nobody’s perfect, but Spider comes pretty damned close.”
"Spider Robinson is the Tom Robbins of the 21st century."
"Robinson's creative imagination is admirable."
Spider Robinson is the hottest writer to hit science fiction since Harlan Ellison, and he can match the master’s frenetic energy and emotional intensity, arm-break for gut-wrench.”
"If one were given the task of creating Spider Robinson from scratch, the best way to do it would be to snatch James Joyce from history, force-feed him Marx Brothers films and good jazz for the better part of a decade, then turn him loose on a world badly in need of a look at itself."
Book Details
Published
December 31, 1996
Publisher
Ace Books
Pages
240
Format
Paperbound
ISBN
9780441001330