Search Worlds Without End

Stories and other diversions by Hugo and Nebula Award-winner Spider Robinson

Includes:

• Antinomy
• Half an Oaf
• Rhythms and "Rithms
• Tidbit:Two Puns
• The Shamin' of the Shaman
• Too Soon we Grow Old
• Valkyrie Ride
• Tidbit: Two Songs
• Feed Me Fire
• When No Man Pursueth
• Tidbit: Afterward to "When No Man Pursueth"
• Nobody Likes to be Lonely
• Tidbit: Interleaf
• Satan's Children
• Three-Time Winner
• Tidbit: a Triple Feghoot and a Carton
• Cartoon: "Sorry, Mr. Griffin: He Says He Can't See You Now
• Apogee
• A Standing Joke
• The Snoopy Scientist
• Tidbit: Two Puns (includes some artwork)
• No Renewal
• Tidbit: Afterward to "No Renewal", an ilio, and a weapon list
• Through My Eyes - Illustration of Mike Callahan
• Silly Weapons Throughout History
• Overdose
• Perspective
• Tidbit: Two More Songs
• Mountain Lady
• Tin Ear
• Tidbit: Forward to "The Magnificent Conspiracy"
• The Magnificent Conspiracy
• This Time Next Year
• Come To My Bedside

Hugo Award winning novella. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, November 1976. The story can also be found in the anthology The Hugo Winners, Volume 4: (1976-79) (1985), edited by Isaac Asimov. It is included in the collection By Any Other Name (2001).

From the crime to the ridiculous. From the offbeat but razor-edged imagination of Spider Robinson; Stranded time travelers; squabbling cosmic warriors; reincarnated rock stars; blind starship pilots; monsters both human and alien; tomorrows formed by today's trends-- this Spider weaves a web of wonder. Sound profound? Nah! Herein we've got a partially-disembodied Brooklynite looking for his, er, bottom half, a pasttense-ignoring player of a certian New York crap game from 1930 running loose in the present, a compendium of the silliest weapons history never had, and plenty more. The warped and way-out combine in a book that by any name would be really cool!

Includes:

• Foreword
• Melancholy Elephants
• Half an Oaf
• Antinomy
• Satan's Children
• Apogee
• No Renewal
• Tin Ear
• In The Olden Days
• Silly Weapons Throughout History
• Nobody Like to be Lonely
• If This Goes On--
• True Minds
• Common Sense
• Chronis Offenders
• High Infidelity
• Rubber Soul
• The Crazy Years
• By Any Other Name

Collection Includes:

• Melancholy Elephants
• Antinomy
• Half an Oaf
• Satan's Children
• No Renewa;
• The Olden Days
• Not Fade Away
• True Minds
• Chronic Offender
• It's A Sunny Day
• High Infidelty
• Rubber Soul

Hugo Award winning short story. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, June 1982. The story is included in the anthology The New Hugo Winners: (1983-85) (1989), edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg. It is included in the collections Melancholy Elephants (1984) and By Any Other Name (2001).

Read the full story for free at the Baen website.

The place: a future New York City torn by racial tension and ripe for rebellion. The revolutionaries have high technology and careful planning on their side, their are well trained and sworn to secrecy, and their plans are unsuspected... until the Night of Power. Caught in the middle of the insurrection are Russell and Dena Grant and their daughter Jennifer, a 13-year-old whose genius-level intelligence saves her life more than once after inssurection breaks out. As an interracial couple, the Grants face the problems every couple does-but the Night of Power becomes the ultimate test, of their loyalty to each other and their seperate races.

The novel's protagonist, Isham Stone, is on a mission to kill the man allegedly responsible for the destruction of civilization: a scientist named Wendell Carlson, currently living alone at the former Columbia University in what used to be New York City.

Isham has been told by his father, scientist Jacob Stone, that Carlson is a madman who brought the world to its current state by releasing a "hyperosmic plague: a virus that increases the sensitivity of the human sense of smell by many hundred times. With their senses of smell thus heightened, humans were unable to tolerate the odors produced by their own pollution-producing technology; the result was mass insanity and widespread rioting.

Another result was the discovery of a species of "Muskys" -- intelligent plasmoids -- that live in the Earth's upper atmosphere and feed on human pollutants. The curtailment of technological activity has caused them to approach the planet's surface and attack human beings, on whose fear they are apparently able to feed.

Isham sets out for New York and succeeds in locating Carlson. He learns from Carlson, however, that the man actually responsible for developing and releasing the plague is Isham's father Jacob. Isham returns to his home colony and sets a trap to kill his father, then returns to New York.

The original novella By Any Other Name ends at this point. The novel continues as Isham's old teacher, Collaci, sets out to bring him back from New York to face a murder charge.

Isham is successfully captured, but before he can be tried, his colony is attacked by Agros (anti-technology worshippers of Pan) and he is taken prisoner.

Eventually Isham manages to bring about a measure of peace between the scientists and the neo-Luddites -- and also learns that his father is not dead. The newly reconciled factions of humanity set out to rebuild civilization.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword - essay by Spider Robinson
• Introduction to Larry Niven's "Inconstant Moon" - essay by Spider Robinson
• Inconstant Moon - (1971) - novelette by Larry Niven
• Introduction to "Spud and Cochise" by Oliver La Farge - essay by Larry Niven
• Spud and Cochise - (1936) - novelette by Oliver La Farge
• Introduction to "Need" by Theodore Sturgeon - essay by Spider Robinson
• Need - (1960) - novella by Theodore Sturgeon
• Introduction to "Hop-Friend" by Terry Carr - essay by Theodore Sturgeon
• Hop-Friend - (1962) - short story by Terry Carr
• Introduction to "Duel Scene" by William Goldman - essay by Spider Robinson
• "Duel Scene" (from The Princess Bride) - (1973) - short fiction by William Goldman
• Introduction to "Seventh Victim" by Robert Sheckley - essay by William Goldman
• Seventh Victim - (1953) - short story by Robert Sheckley
• Introduction to "Portions of This Program..." by Dean Ing - essay by Spider Robinson
• Portions of This Program... - (1977) - novelette by Dean Ing
• Introduction to "They Bite" by Anthony Boucher - essay by Dean Ing
• They Bite - (1943) - short story by Anthony Boucher
• Introduction to "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants" by Robert A. Heinlein - essay by Spider Robinson
• The Man Who Traveled in Elephants - (1957) - short story by Robert A. Heinlein
• Introduction to "Our Lady's Juggler" by Anatole France - essay by Spider Robinson
• Our Lady's Juggler - (1908) - short story by Anatole France (trans. of Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame 1892)

On the run from a terrible past, twelve-year-old Mike seeks refuge in America's most beloved theme park, Dreamworld. On yet another attempt to "disappear" into Dreamworld, Mike is helped by Annie, a woman has successfully hidden in Dreamworld for years.

Mike faces many challenges: he must help stop hired killers who seek to destroy his new home, and also help uncover the nature and purpose of some very strange creatures who are infiltrating Dreamworld.

Spider Robinson has won every major award that the science fiction field has to offer with his Heinlein-influenced, solidly scientific, warmly human stories. "User Friendly" is a new solid chunk of Spider's universe that is inimitably reader friendly. Welcome to a world where your wife may be inhabited by an alien symbiote; where the fabulously rich hire hitmen to be their own assiasins in a bizarre conspiracy; where a brave woman must change the course of Halley's Comet on its next turn to save the life of her lover; and where you can't tell the real time travelers from the frauds without a program...

Includes:

• User Friendly
• Copyright Violation
• The Magnificent Conspiracy
• Mentors
• Teddy the Fish
• His Own Petard
• Admiral Bob
• When No Man Persueth
• Too Soon we Grow Old
• Plus Ca Change
• The Gifts of the Magistrate
• Distraction
• Orphans of Eden
• Pandora's Last Gift
• --And Subsequent Construction
• Not Fade Away
• Seduction of the Ignorant

A never-before-published masterpiece from science fiction's greatest writer, rediscovered after more than half a century.

When Joel Johnston first met Jinny Hamilton, it seemed like a dream come true. And when she finally agreed to marry him, he felt like the luckiest man in the universe.

There was just one small problem. He was broke. His only goal in life was to become a composer, and he knew it would take years before he was earning enough to support a family.

But Jinny wasn't willing to wait. And when Joel asked her what they were going to do for money, she gave him a most unexpected answer. She told him that her name wasn't really Jinny Hamilton---it was Jinny Conrad, and she was the granddaughter of Richard Conrad, the wealthiest man in the solar system.

And now that she was sure that Joel loved her for herself, not for her wealth, she revealed her family's plans for him---he would be groomed for a place in the vast Conrad empire and sire a dynasty to carry on the family business.

Most men would have jumped at the opportunity. But Joel Johnston wasn't most men. To Jinny's surprise, and even his own, he turned down her generous offer and then set off on the mother of all benders. And woke up on a colony ship heading out into space, torn between regret over his rash decision and his determination to forget Jinny and make a life for himself among the stars.

He was on his way to succeeding when his plans--and the plans of billions of others--were shattered by a cosmic cataclysm so devastating it would take all of humanity's strength and ingenuity just to survive.

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Introduction (True Minds) - essay
• 7 - High Infidelity - (1984) - short fiction
• 21 - Afterglow - (1990) - poem
• 23 - In the Olden Days - (1984) - short story
• 31 - Dis Traction - (1990) - poem
• 33 - Chronic Offender - (1981) - short story
• 61 - Time Travel Blues - (1990) - poem
• 63 - Rubber Soul - (1982) - short story
• 73 - Concordiat to "Rubber Soul" - (1985) - essay
• 81 - Please Dr. Frankenstein - (1990) - poem
• 83 - True Minds - (1984) - short fiction
• 107 - Moments Good and Bad - (1990) - poem

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, October 1977. The story is included in the collection Time Travelers Strictly Cash (1981).

Callahan's Place is the neighborhood tavern to all of time and space, where the regulard are anything but. Pull up a chair. grab a glass of your favorite, and listen to the stories spun by time travelers, cybernetic aliens, telepaths... and a bunch of regular folks on a mission to save the world, one customer at a time.

The second book continuing the stories of the neighborhood tavern to all of time and space. Pull up a chair, grab a glass and listen to stories spun by the most entertaining characters in this galaxy and beyond.

Callahan's Place is open for business, and all the "regulars" are here-- a talking dog, an alcoholic vampire, and two telepaths--enhancing their joy by drowning their sorrows. Everyone, that is, but Mickey Finn, a seven-foot tall alien in danger of enslavement at the hands of a traveller from across the galaxy...

Come inside, pull up a chair, order a drink, make a toast, and let Spider Robinson introduce you to the most unique patrons to frequent any establishment, at a bar where the most important law is "shared pain is lessened: shared joy is increased." And if there's time left at the end of the night, just maybe they'll save the world...

A HOUSE OF "HEALTHY" REPUTE... Welcome to Lady Sally's, the House that "is" a home-- the internationally (hell, the interplanetarily) notorious bordello. At Lady Sally's House, the customer doesn't necessarily come first: Even the staff are genuinely enjoying themselves. Wife of a time traveling bartender Mike Callahan, and employer of some of the most unusual and talented performing artists ever to work in the field of hedonistic interface, Her Ladyship has designed her House to be an "equal opportunity enjoyer" discreetly, tastefully and joyfully catering to all erotic tastes and fantasies, howerver unusual. Like her famous husband, Lady Sally doesn't even insist that her customers be "human"... as long as they have good manners. Small wonder, then, that she and her staff encounter beings as unique and memorable as the superhuman Colt, whose banner never, ever flags... Diana, the deadly dominatrix who "cannot" be disloyal... Tony Donuts, the moronic man-moster even the mafia doesn't want to mess with... or Charles, the werewolf with a distinct difference...

Mike Callahan's wife, Lady Sally, runs an establishment where some unusual customers enjoy erotic entertainment and where a down-on-his-luck private detective gets a second chance.

Opening night at Mary's Place draws a packed house, including Lucky Duck, who has a talent for defying the laws of probability, a member of Ireland's fairy folk, and a mysterious stranger carrying around a deadly secret.

All the best lines from the Saloon at the far-out edge of space-time!

Off the Wall at Callahan's is a collection of epigrams, maxims, proverbs, observations, eye-watering puns, and original song lyrics distilled from the first five volumes of the Callahan's Place series (from Callahan's Crosstime Saloon to Lady Slings The Booze). After the original Callahan's Place was destroyed. all these gems were painstakingly deciphered from blown-up old photos of the wall behind the bar, where Callahan let his customers scrawl graffiti in place of the usual mirror. So technically, every word is "off the wall." Further ennobled by numerous interior B&W illustarations by Phil Foglio, there are even capsule bios at the end for every person (real of imaginary) quoted in the graffiti section.

Welcome to Callahan's Crosstime Saloon... There's no place like it in this, or any other, universe.

Once again the Callahan regulars and bartender Jake Stonebender must save the world, this time from the designs of a nasty alien via group telepathy. Full of wit, riotously funny puns and a treasure trove of wisdom, this novel gives the full flavor of Spider Robinson's genius.

Nobody blends good science with bad puns as brilliantly as Spider Robinson, as his legions of devoted fans will attest. Now he's back with the latest chapter of the Callahan saga-- an imporobable tale of impending doom, a road trip, spce, drugs, and rock 'n' roll.

The universe is in deperate peril. Due to a cluster of freakish phenomena, the United States' own defense system has become a perfect doomsday machine, threatening the entire universe. And only one man can save everything-as-we-know-it from annihilation.

Unfortunately, he's not available.

So the job falls instead to bar owner Jake Stonebender, his wife, Zoey, and superintelligent toddler, Erin.

Not to mention two dozen busloads of ex-hippies and freaks, Robert Heinlein's wandering cat, a whorehouse parrot, and misunderstood genius-inventor Nikola Tesla, who is in fact alive and well...

Jake Stonebender's bar in Key West gets a visit from mafioso Tony Donuts, who is looking for "protection money." Jake and the barflies have other challenges as well, as when Jake's wife is suddenly lost in a space-time continuum...

Wireheads, addicted to an electric current led into the pleasure centers of the brain, are the new junkies. Karen, a former wirehead who barely escaped death by pleasure, is determined to bring down those who sell the wireheading equipment, but she and her lover Joe intead turn up evidence of a shadowy global conspiracy - not to control the world, but to keep anyone from realizing that the masters of mind control have been controllling us all for some time now...

When a beautiful girl appeared in a globe of blue light in a snowbound forest and said she had come back in time, Sam thought it was the most wonderful thing that could possibly happen. But then he began to notice sinister things about her, and thought he would have to kill her to save the present. Except that there was a third possibility, and that really was the most wonderful thing that could possibly happen...

June Bellamy had gone for a walk in a park - and came back with memories missing. She didn't know that, but her partner could tell because she'd told her answering machine about strange people in the park. Now June and Paul are on the run from insidious superhumans who can edit their memories and track them down no matter where or how well they hide. They are desperate - but not nearly as desperate as their pursuers...

Hugo, Nebula and Locus Award winning novella.

Shara, a gifted choreographer and dancer, can't find work. Together with Charlie, a camera man who wants to help Shara achieve her dream, they discover a new way for her to dance: in zero gravity... from space! When an alien force invades, it is up to Shara to find a way to communicate and save Earth.

The story originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, March 1977. The story Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, March 1977. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction of the Year #7 (1978), edited by Terry Carr, Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Seventh Annual Collection (1978), edited by Gardner Dozois, Nebula Winners Thirteen (1980), edited by Samuel R. Delany and The Hugo Winners, Volume 4: (1976-79) (1985), edited by Isaac Asimov. The story is included in the collection God Is an Iron and Other Stories (2002). It is incorporated in the fixup novel Stardance (1979).

Shara Drummond was a gifted dancer and a brilliant choreographer, but could not pursue her dream of dancing on Earth, so she went to space, creating a new art form in three dimensions. And when the aliens arrived, there was only one way to prove that the human race deserved not just to survive, but to reach the stars. The only hope was Shara, with her stardance.

When a personal tragedy destroys her hopes for fame as a dancer on Earth, Rain McLeod volunteers for the Starseed Foundation, a symbiotic lifeform that enables her to defy the laws of gravity in space.

With the help of the benevolent Starmind, the planet Earth has finally achieved peace and prosperity, but a terrorist sect, threatened by the Starmind, plots to destroy it before the human race approaches its final evolution.

Aging baby-boomer Russell Walker wants only to retreat from the world and the shattering death of his beloved wife, into the woods of British Columbia. But the real world won't let him become a hermit. Instead, he finds himself thrust into the mystery of a series of mass murders by a monsterous sadist and seriel killer who makes Hannibal Lector look like a boy scout. And he is caught in a frightening predicament: He is the only possible intermediary between a telepath called Smelly, so sensitive he can't stand to be near most people, and a skeptical police officer who needs to hear and believe what Smelly knows about the fiend. This involuntary trio may be the only ones who can catch the inhuman butcher before he kills again-if he doesn't catch them first.

After the shattering death of his beloved wife, aging baby-boomer Russell Walker had wanted only to hide from the world in the woods of British Columbia. Instead, an old college acquaintance called Smelly, who was a telepath, had knocked on his door and demanded his help in stopping a seriel killer who made Hannibal Lector look like a boy scout. They had managed to convince Nika, a hard-headed and skeptical police officer, and the trio had stopped the killer, though nearly at the cost of their own lives, and things could go back to normal... they thought.

But then Russell was visited by his estranged son, Jesse, a PR exec from New York, still angry over his father's role in his mother's death. And, to their dismay, Nika and Russell learn that agreeing to help Zudie conceal the fact that he can read minds involves commiting to help him hide from the CIA, who have been hunting him desperately ever since he escaped from the MK Ultra project back in the 60's. Constable Nika must decide what being a peace officer means. Russell must decide on the fly whether or not Smelly is the kind of friend you'd die for. And Jesse, who lives in America, must decide just where his own national -- and personal -- loyalties lie.