Callahan's Crosstime Saloon
Callahan's Place is the neighborhood tavern to all of time and space, where the regulars 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. Callahan's Crosstime Saloon contains the following stories, virtually all of which were published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact: • "The Guy With the Eyes" • "The Time-Traveler" • "The Centipede's Dilemma" • "Two Heads Are Better Than One" • "The Law Of Conservation of Pain" • "Just Dessert" • "A Voice is Heard in Ramah..." • "Unnatural Causes" • "The Wonderful Conspiracy"
Stats for nerds
5recommend
6mentions
6people
2011–2024years
83% recommend17% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I vaguely remember The Gods Themselves by Asimov being a strong contender here, but it's been decades since I read it.
Spider Robinson's "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon" series had a story towards the end that blew my tiny little teenaged mind back in the 90's.
Octavia Butler, of course. Xenogenesis.
- Yes, it’s ”The time traveler”, first published in Analog, April 1974. Reprinted in the collection “Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon”, and in the meta-collection “The Callahan Chronicals”. Is shows how much cultural shift can take place in a decade: the protagonist is taken prisoner in 1963 and returns to a changed society in 1973. Highly recommended!
- Callahan's Crosstime Saloon.
"Shared pain is lessened, shared joy increased." It's really that simple, folks.
- Lot's of my favorites already listed
Some more good ones: Ilium/Olympos - Dan Simmons Centuries - A. A. Attanasio Callahan's Crosstime Saloon - Spider Robinson Signal to Noise - Eric Nylund
- I disagree. Legend Entertainment managed to make some great "text & graphics" adventure games: Companions of Xanth, Deathgate, Shannara, and Callahan's Crosstime Saloon spring to mind. Perhaps it helped that they were all based on novels.
- I remember that one of Spider Robinson's Callahan's crosstime saloon stories (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callahan%27s_Crosstime_Saloon) had a similar situation with a guy getting back from being a prisoner of war or in prison in solitary for a couple of decades and being in effect a stranded time traveler (somewhat fuzzy on the details as I read it probably about 40 years ago - ironically enough)
I also recall that there was a little fandom controversy at the time where people complained that it wasn't really a time travel story and what was this jerk Spider Robinson trying to pull anyway!
