I am conflicted about this one. I just read it again - in whole, so It is good enough, surely? Niven writes well, no question. I am a fan of his writing, and have read many of his books. However this one, at the end of the day, annoys me. Unfortunately, to explain why, I must refer toi specific plot points, so ============ SPOILER ALERT =============== ============ SPOILER ALERT ===============The books contains two sub-stories, and I find them both problematic, in similar ways. In the first the protagonist finds he has to kill the villain. Moreover he is very clear that giving the villain any warning, however short, is very dangerous.He plans an ambush where he waits, well-armed, and hidden behind cover in a small corridor where Mr. Villain is due to pass. But, under these conditions, he doesn't just shoot the villain from cover and be done with it - no, he plans a setup where people have to jump the villain physically, immobilize him, to transport him to another room and THEN kill him. No real reason is given for this decision. Needless to say, it goes wrong, Villain does get enough of a warning to do bad stuff before good prevails over evil. As a reader, I am left wondering why? Why would an intelligent protagonist do this? In the second sub-story the villain is planning Armageddon. At a certain point, the villain captures the protagonist, his lover and a his friend. All three are have bullet-proof skin (trust me here - you'll have to read it to see how this comes about), but the Villain kills the protagonists friends by shooting them in the mouth. HE does this not because he finds they have bullet-proof skin. He just does this. I ask you - how plausible is this? (not the bullet-proof skin - that is part of the suspension-of-disbelief, and organic to the plot. The shoot-captives-in-the-mouth to kill them thing - when have you read this/seen it in a movie? Why would the villain do this?)to top it off, when Mr. Villain decides to kill our hero, he does NOT shoot him in the mouth, he just shoots him in his bullet-proof torso, hence the story can go on. So, our Super-villain is suddenly inconsistent. As a final annoyance, when he kills the protagonist's friend, the protagonist is mad "My hear died, and a man with a dead heart is a dangerous man". Then, the villain proceeds to kill his love-interest. The protagonist tells us he has now lost his heart completely, and that "a man without heart is a very dangerous enemy". So, when our hero will catch up to the villain we expect something spectacular by way of retribution. A little while later our hero manages to catch up to the Villain and - wait for it - Punches him in the nose, Once. Seriously? This is the "very dangerous enemy"? Not emotionally satisfying.
Lady Slings the Booze is the first actual novel in the Callahan's series, and it still has quite a few of the hallmarks of a set of short stories stitched together. It's nominally a detective novel, with the gumshoe as our wide-eyed novice to the world of Lady Sally's, and the initial story works well enough. Joe spends some time getting acquainted with the place, which is charming as always, and then solves the mystery of the invisible rapist, which is not charming at all but works more or less fine. Then things take a very odd left turn into the larger Callahan's cosmology, and we get a find-the-bomb scenario for the last third, that didn't really work all that well for me.It's not a bad book, and it does pick up some steam in the second half, but it doesn't end up being all that satisfying. (And no amount of punning will make me care about puns.) It's got some very offputting bits about rape (especially the inherent justice of prison rape) and male homosexuality that don't mesh well with the intended inclusiveness of the setting. And the split focus between the two mysteries makes neither one of them feel all that important. I don't mind it, but I don't love it, either. I think I'd really rather stick to funny, lighthearted short stories in this setting.
What do You think about Lady Slings The Booze (2004)?
Spider Robinson is the only author whose short stories I like better than his longer works. The Callahan series continues getting weaker with the second Lady Sally's House entry. The story moves much too quickly – actual elapsed time is absurdly low for the number of events, especially given that the two halves of the book have nothing to do with one another (again, it's two novellas strung together). The character interaction and development is a lot less solid than previous works, I just never understood why the female lead likes the protagonist.
—Steven
If you love puns, Spoonerisms,jokey noir, and meticulous descriptions of whorehouses that don't exist, this is your book. Otherwise it comes off too clever to actually be a narrative. It starts with a lengthy encounter between a clever dick and his newest client (which fails to impress me), and then we reach Lady Sally's House in which the plot falls by the wayside entirely to describe the workings of the whorehouse which is useless because it never factors into the story, points out that whores are being raped but they don't appear to be too upset or traumatized by this, the plot falls off the road again for a love story between clever dick and psychic twins, introduces the element of time travel only to run with it past the point of interest into a doomsday let's save the world from nukes plot in which people die (seriously) and more puns are made.
—Korynn
