Potted bookshelf, episode 1.2

Filed by: Darren on January 31, 2007 at 21:48
Filed In: Books

The Callahan Touch by Spider Robinson

How best to describe Spider Robinson's Callahan books to someone who hasn't discovered them yet? Okay, try this: imagine the best bar in the world. It serves the best beer, has the best ambience, is run by the best bar staff and entertains the best clientele. And then imagine being a regular at that bar. Not to go all Cheers on you, but imagine if everyone there really did know your name, and your life story, and your faults and foibles, and even some of your deepest, darkest secrets... but still loved you, unconditionally, and wanted to help you whenever you had a problem, or were feeling blue, or just needed to laugh out long and loud. Does that bring a bit of a mist to your eye? If so, then Spider Robinson's Callahan books are probably the closest you can get, without being incredibly, exceptionally lucky with your local watering hole.

Me, I absolutely love these books and Robinson's Lady Sally books, too. They're one of the very few series I've actually gone back and re-read in the past few years, and I know I'll do so again, at least a couple of times, before I turn 40-something. But I've still got two or three of the later volumes on the 'to-be-read' shelf, and I'm saving them - hoarding them - for a special occasion, or for when I particularly need cheering up. Can't remember quite why I decided to treat myself to The Callahan Touch this time around but, as always, I was very glad I did.

And oh, for five minutes alone with the God's Blessing machine...

Now You See It by Richard Matheson

This one was a rather interesting novella / novelette-length book from the author of the classic I Am Legend [Amazon]. The narrator of this tale is a former stage-magician who has now lost just about all of his physical faculties - to the point of total paralysis - although his mind is still as sharp as it ever was. He becomes the unwitting focus of an unfolding drama as his son - also a famous stage magician - becomes the victim of a fatal crime of passion... or does he?

It's a cleverly constructed piece, is well written and moves along at a fair old clip. I think the narrator's predicament - at the epicentre of events, yet cursed with an inability to directly influence the unfolding of events - is intended to mirror the relationship between the reader and the narrative. If so, then it's a clever device that works particularly well in this instance. Throw in plenty of intrigue, trickery and sleight-of-hand and it adds up to a story that's relatively short, but intense and well crafted. Good stuff.

The Gypsy by Megan Lindholm and Steven Brust

Megan Lidnholm also writes as Robin Hobb. In her Hobb guise she's written some of the finest character-driven fantasy I've read to-date (her Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man sagas were superb, although I have to confess that to my great disappointment, I found it hard to get into her latest series, The Soldier Son). Prior to developing that persona, she wrote some intriguingly original fantasy material, including this title another that I read a few years back, The Wizard of the Pigeons. Both stories are similarly themed, in that their protagonists are practitioners of 'urban magic'; modern-day magicians with genuine powers and abilities.

I have to confess, I read this one a while ago (quite possibly whilst on holiday, so there may have been a quantity of alcohol involved) and so I'm a little hazy on the details, but I do remember coming away with the impression that it was a good story, well-written and well-told. Good characterisation as well, heavy on the folklore. And enough to make me want to track down the rest of Lindholm's earlier work, and to read more by Steven Brust as well.

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