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Just discovered this thread thanks to Pragmatica's announcement post. Yay! Callahan's Crosstime Saloon is a game I replay every few years or so, and it was through it that I discovered Spider Robinson's books. Hope discussion of the stories isn't considered derailing the thread. I had The Callahan Chronicals (the collection of the first three books) forever, and just a few months ago I completed my collection up to Callahan's Con and the two Lady Sally books and went on a complete rereading binge. And boy howdy, as a non-native speaker with a reasonable understanding of English, deciphering some of the puns can be hard work. Especially when they're references to cultural phenomena of the 1960s that 1970s American readers of the books would of course know - but when you've been born in Germany in the mid-1970s, even cultural osmosis has its limits. The "yule gibbons" joke in one of the stories nearly broke my brain until I googled it. Also, we don't have the "traveling salesman and the farmer's daughter" as joke tropes, so I didn't get the punchline of the Al Phee story until this year's reread. Still, the books are an utter joy to read, and I'd heartily recommend them to anyone who even mildly enjoys the game. The overarching theme of making the world a better place through empathy is something the world desperately needs more of. Not since Terry Pratchett have I read an author whose worldview is so... well, human at its core. That's not to say some of the material isn't a bit dated. The writer is/was of his time, and some of the views expressed (especially with regards to sexual topics, and especially where the topic overlaps into the area of minors) made me cringe and probably wouldn't fly today. Especially the way rape is sometimes talked about as almost a casual thing really stuck out. It's also obvious that Robinson has his favorite topics / obsessions, and sometimes when the characters talk at length about their love of certain musicians or science fiction authors, you feel like you're reading Ready Player One, just for a different subsection of geekdom. (Even so, I'm now convinced that I need to start reading at least some Asimov and some Heinlein, if only to get more of the references.) And some of the writing, especially in the later books, is frankly getting absurd. The way the heroes deduce the impending space catastrophe in Callahan's Key is nothing short of ridiculous. The mood also gets a bit mean-spirited around the time of Key, with an unexpected amount of body-shaming for a certain antagonist, but luckily that's addressed, admitted to and resolved in Callahan's Con. One could also accuse Robinson of lazyness: What's an author to do if he created a memorable villain and effectively killed him off (well, shipped him of to prison, presumably to be raped and killed there) in one of the books? Just invent a son of the villain, who is almost identical to his father. And then of course there's the fact that all the later books from Callahan's Secret onwards hinge on nearly the same method of resolution (telepathic mind meld). In case it sounds like I'm putting down the material, here's the thing: I love those books. Even with all the criticism, the good in them so far outweighs the bad that they're still a hugely enjoyable read and give me the warm fuzzies like almost nothing else. I just mention these points for newcomers: Be aware that you may find some material objectionable, and once you've made your peace with that, you're in for a rare treat. Anyway, apologies for the ramble. It's just that I'm so happy to finally find a place where I can talk about this. On with the game, and thank you, Rocket Baby Dolls, for creating this thread! Dave Syndrome fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Nov 24, 2023 |
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Nov 24, 2023 06:05
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BlankSystemDaemon posted:I basically agree with everything in this post, and only want to add that Spider Robinson is, as I see it, the epitome of humanist science fiction. Do you have any specific book or story recommendations (from any of the two) for someone who enjoyed the Callahan books?
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Nov 24, 2023 10:25
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BlankSystemDaemon posted:Becky Chambers' Wayfarers series is the one series I remember reading recently, which gave me the same kind of humanist science fiction vibes. Thanks for the tip. My wife was given two Becky Chambers books for her birthday earlier this year, but she hasn't read them yet. Guess I'll give them a go. I meant Asimov and Heinlein specifically though - their output is somewhat massive.
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Nov 24, 2023 11:21
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Tiggum posted:The girl in question is 14. Yeah, Jake Stonebender's two-year-old daughter (who is hyperintelligent because she fused with the living embodiment of the internet at the moment she was born - long story) also voices some pretty  stuff about what she plans to do once she turns fourteen. She also invites Nikola Tesla (another long story) to be on her "list", which he graciously accepts. Both her parents are in the room at the time and are OK with this.
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Nov 28, 2023 09:54
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Crazy Achmed posted:This game is clearly made with a lot of love and care (especially all the puns), but yeah, I definitely feel like it's not aged well in terms of its reliance on the audience being of a certain age and cultural background to get all the references that it relies on. Absolutely. It's even worse with the original stories, which assume that you're a Sci-Fi aficionado to even get the punchlines that some of the narratives are built on. Crazy Achmed posted:I also get the feeling that it also assumes the player is very familiar with the source material? Not really. I played the game ages before I ever read the stories, and - just having completed a full readthrough of them last year - I can say with confindence that there are pretty much no clues in them that would influence one's gameplay. If anything, I was taken aback at first that most of the stories are much less wacky and outlandish and much more human than the game. The whole Transsylvania chapter especially really stands out - you'd never find a character like the sinew-and-bones shopkeeper in the stories.
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Jan 2, 2024 11:39
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