http://www.amazon.com/review/R33... ( )

Book signed by Robinson at the 2006 National Book Festival, where Robinson was promoting his Stardance novel compilation that he cowrote with his wife, Jeanne Robinson, and also his treatment of the Robert Heinlein outline, Variable Star. The Robinsons were awesome and goofy.

I first encountered Robinson’s books via his Callahan’s series, but The Free Lunch is by far and away my favorite novel of his. I was better prepared for this NBF, and I ordered a hardback copy of this book two months in advance so I could have it signed. I also purchased a copy of Variable Star in advance with the intention of getting it signed with a friend’s name, and giving the book as a birthday gift. Which she loved, although I had to break the surprise and send the gift early in order to keep her from purchasing her own copy.

The Robinsons gave a fascination talk on how they wrote the first novel Stardance and how they handled cowriting in general and the book’s publishing and award history. Jeanne read an excerpt, and I really want to get a copy of the book now. I loved how the Robinsons alternated speaking. They were having the grandest time, and one would start a sentence, and the other would finish it, and then one would run off in a tangent and the other would continue it and then haul the conservation back on track. They seem like they have a wonderful marriage.

Robinson gave a very passionate talk about how he wrote Variable Star and what it meant to him. He’s been very public about how much he loves and admires Heinlein’s work (I would nominate him for biggest Heinlein fan), and he was both honored and intimidated by creating a novel from Heinlein’s story outline. My favorite part of his talk was when he told about the very first time he discovered Heinlein’s books, when he was a small child and a librarian handed him one as a recommendation. No, my very favorite part was when the Robinsons were being called to wrap up their talk (which had already run over, but only the NBF workers cared), and did a quick shout out for questions. A gentleman in the back jumped up, flung his arms in the air, and shouted, “What was the title of that first Heinlein book you read?” Robinson got the biggest grin on his face and shouted back “The Rocket Ship Galileo!” before leaving the stage.

My least favorite part was when he and Jeanne sung a folk song. Of their own creation. Eee.

I was my usual babbling self when I meet them to get my books signed. Robinson picked up The Free Lunch and said something about how lots of people love this book, and I was like, “Yeah, I love this book.” Inane! But I got Variable Star signed for my friend, and the Robinson’s were so struck by my friend’s name that they asked me to spell it for them and jotted it down to file away for a potential character name. AWESOME!

The book: Imagine Disneyland as you envisioned when you were a child. Now go there. That’s Dreamland, the setting for the novel and the place that young Mike decides to run away too. As Mike finds out he’s not only the one who had this idea, the evil rival amusement park works to find a way to destroy Dreamland and the time-travelers arriving from a future Earth to give humanity free lunch might just have given it to them. (Wiki TANSTAAFL if free lunch is new to you. And read Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.)

There were some scenes in the book I didn’t like (namely the peeing scene and the naked scene), but those were minor and the ending couldn’t have been more perfect. ( )