Under the of the world's finest theme park lies a secret which could alter the course of human history.
Twelve-year-old Mike, a misfit genius with a terrible secret to hide, takes refuge behind the scenes of Dreamworld, a futuristic theme park where hope exists as it does nowhere else. Annie, a midget old enough to be Mike's mother, has lived in Dreamworld for 13 years without revealing her presence to visitors or staff. She takes Mike in hand, and they settle down to a long, happy life together…until they discover that the trolls who maintain Dreamworld are multiplying at an alarming rate without explanation. As the trolls continue to multiply, they must discover why, or it could mean the end of Dreamworld—and the real world.
Knotted in conflict and turmoil, what was a wonderful, carefree place becomes a battleground on which Earth's future is at stake. Only Mike and Annie, two unconventional heroes, can save it.
Under the façade of the world's finest theme park lies a secret which could alter the course of human history.
Mike and Annie, refugees from the world outside, find a home underground, behind the scenes of Dreamworld, a theme park where hope exists as it does nowhere else. But Dreamworld is threatened by a jealous competitor who kills what he can't have. As if this were not trouble enough, the two discover that each day there are more of the "trolls" who maintain Dreamworld than there were the day before. As the trolls continue to multiply, they must discover why, or it could mean the end of Dreamworld-and the real world.
Knotted in conflict and turmoil, what was a wonderful, carefree place becomes a battleground on which Earth's future is at stake. Only Mike and Annie, two unconventional heroes, can save it.
"You get much more than you bargained for in this fun-filled yet serious novel. Spider's the antidote for entropy, the blahs, and the pernicious notion that humor and good grace are absent from the SF field."-Ben Bova
This omnibus edition contains the trilogy of science-fiction books that introduced the world to Mike Callahan and all of the regulars at Callahan's Place.
Callahan's Crosstime Saloon is the neighborhood tavern to all of time and space, where the regulars are anything but. These time travelers, talking dogs, alcoholic vampires, and cybernetic aliens really, truly care about each other.
Time Travelers Strictly Cash is the policy. Lay your money on the bar and after drinking, make a toast and throw the glass into the fireplace. It's an odd tradition, but one that's led to some interesting stories.
Callahan's Secret may be one that nobody would guess, or it may be as simple as listening to all those post-toast stories. After all, shared pain is lessened and shared joy is increased'a concept that could, after a few drinks, lead to saving the world.
'Blackstone Audio has created a combination impossible to beat in its pairing of The Callahan Chronicals and narrator Barrett Whitener'.This production has the tone of a one-on-one conversation with a remarkable individual whose deep insights illuminate an even more remarkable universe and its inhabitants.''AudioFile
This concluding novel in the Stardance Trilogy takes readers to the year 2064; Earth is enjoying an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity due to the Starmind, a universal overmind engineered by benevolent aliens. Art in all its forms flourishes, and composer Rand Porter has been offered the job of a lifetime as a shaper of visual effects and music in High Orbit for the world's most famous zero-gravity dance company. But his beloved novelist wife, Rhea Paixao, has her roots sunk deep in the Earth and her beloved Cape Cod. As they wrestle with their private dilemma, bizarre things'small miracles, really'are beginning to occur everywhere on Earth and throughout the entire Solar System. The human race and its evolutionary successors, the space-dwelling Stardancers, find themselves approaching the terrifying cusp of their shared destiny, an appointment made for them a million years ago'a make-or-break point beyond which nothing, anywhere, can ever be the same again.
This sequel to Stardance returns to the rarified world of Top Step, an asteroid in orbit above 21st-century Earth. There, for the price of all one's worldly possessions, humans are able to live in a vaccum indefinitely by joining with a symbiotic lifeform that provides all needed nourishment. For Rain McLeod, a 46-year-old dancer whose failing body is about to end her career, the Starseed program is the only way to continue living her dream. But for others, including several religious groups and power hungry countries back on earth, the existence of Stardancers represents a threat to all humanity. When a missle attack threatens Top Step and Morgan's lover, Robert, is implicated as a prime suspect, Rain must choose between her private dream and the greater good in a world poised on the verge of an evolutionary leap.
"The Robinsons' message-that love and communication are what being human are really about-is delivered with plenty of action, high tech and character development in a story that moves along briskly."-Publishers Weekly
Shara Drummond was a gifted dancer and a brilliant choreographer, but she 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.
The Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Stardance series pioneered the concept of zero gravity dance, which even sparked the interest of NASA and shortlisted co-author Jeanne Robinson for a seat on a space shuttle to become the first actual freefall dancer in space. Though the Challenger explosion cancelled that dream, now Jeanne is being given a second chance to choreograph dance in space...on film. See www.stardancemovie.com for more.
Twenty years after Callahan's Crosstime Saloon was revealed, the original bar is gone, but Mike Callahan's spirit lives on in the new bar, named Mary's Place for his daughter. On this inauspicious day, Mary Callahan and her husband show up literally out of nowhere, and they bring bad news: a nasty three-eyed, three-toed, three-everythinged purple monster is going to descend upon them within mere hours. Through laughter and tears, the most famous bar in all spacetime is going to rock this night...but will the Earth survive?
At his death in 1988, Robert A. Heinlein left an unfinished manuscript. The Heinlein estate then authorized award-winning author Spider Robinson to expand the outline into a novel. The result is vintage Heinlein, a story of two young lovers driven apart by pride, power, and the vastness of space.
Twenty years since Spider Robinson first revealed the existence of Callahan's Place, the original bar is gone. Mike Callahan is gone, too, but his spirit lives on in the new bar, named Mary's Place for his daughter.
On this particular day, nothing seems to be going right for Jake Stonebender, proprietor of Mary's Place. First a huge storm rips the roof off the bar-and moments later, drops another, better roof on it. Then, Mary Callahan and her husband show up, unconscious, literally out of nowhere, and they bring bad news to the barfolk: a nasty three-eyed, three-toed, three-everythinged purple monster is going to descend upon them within mere hours.
Through laughter and tears, with puns powerful enough to melt Formica, the most famous bar in all spacetime is going to rock this night. But will the Earth survive?
Upon his death in 1988, Robert A. Heinlein left a legacy of novels and short stories that almost single-handedly defined modern science fiction. But one of Heinlein's masterpieces was never finished. In 1955, he began work on Variable Star, a powerful and passionate tale of two young lovers driven apart by pride, power, and the vastness of interstellar time and space. Then he set it aside to focus on other novellas.
The detailed outline and notes he created for this project lay forgotten for decades, only to be rediscovered almost a half-century later. Now the Heinlein estate has authorized award-winning author Spider Robinson to expand that outline into a full-length novel. The result is vintage Heinlein, faithful in style and spirit to the Grand Master's original vision.
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. Now that she was sure Joel loved her for more than just 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. There he found himself 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.
After ten laid-back years, the zany crew at Jake Stonebender's little Key West bar is presented with a problem so complex that even the entire gang, equipped with telepathy, teleportation, and time travel might not be able to crack it in time.
"Blend a madcap plot involving the legendary Fountain of Youth with a zany cast of barflies, a thin SF twist, and you've got the ingredients for the latest frothy concoction in Hugo-winning Robinson's multivolume tall tale."-Publishers Weekly
Nobody blends good science with bad puns as brilliantly as Spider Robinson. Now he's back with the latest chapter of the Callahan saga, an improbable tale of impending doom, a road trip, space, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. The universe is in desperate peril. Due to a cluster of freakish phenomena, the United States' own defense system has become a doomsday machine, threatening the entire universe. 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 their 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.
"[Spider Robinson] proves as consummate at maintaining suspense as he is at keeping the laughs coming. Fans and the uninitiated alike will devour this intoxicating blend of character comedy and hard SF, for Robinson's writing remains as potentially addictive and as full of earthy delight as Stonebender's famed Irish coffee."-Publishers Weekly
