The Free Lunch

I think one of the reasons I like Spider Robinson is because he reminds me so much of Robert Heinlein. And, in this book, we have an entire novel set around Heinlein's axiom "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch (TANSTAAFL for short)." Although the premise of this book is that there is a free lunch or at least could be.

Mike is a young boy who, for reasons we don't know until the near the end of the book, decides to try to live in Dreamworld. Dreamworld is a theme park where nothing bad ever happens. Mike has figured out a number of things about how to stay in Dreamworld and escape notice but he would have been caught almost immediately if he hadn't been rescued by Annie, the Mother Elf. Annie has been living in Dreamworld almost show more from the time it opened and she has an encyclopedic knowledge of how it works. But even Annie is stumped when she realizes that more employee trolls are leaving the park at the end of shift than the number that clocked in. Can Annie and Mike figure it out in time and save Dreamworld? Read the book to find out.

The tantalizing details that Robinson gives about Dreamworld makes it sound like one theme park I would like to visit. There's a whole section devoted to Heinlein's universes including Podkayne's Mars (one of my favourite Heinlein books). There are areas from Beatle songs like Strawberry Fields. Truly a place for baby boomer sf fans. Wish it was real. show less

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 show more 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. show less

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/an-additional-book-set-in-2023-the-free-lunch-by...

The setting is an American theme park in 2023, where our twelve-year-old protagonist decides to establish himself as a runaway from desperate circumstances. He befriends a woman who has been living undercover in the park since before he was born, and then both need to deal with the ongoing threat posed to them by park security, and also incidentally the time travellers from a doomed future who have started appearing in the park’s midst.

The future technology here is entirely to do with surveillance systems and how to evade them, and the weapons used by the various goons. It’s not very exciting, really, and misses the key point that could have been made show more about the political dominance of the entertainment induistry. The story offensively romanticises homelessness and disability. Too much of the plot depends on just happening to be in the right place at the right time for it to be believable even on its own terms. It’s difficult also to see who the intended audience are – the protagonist is twelve, as mentioned above, but the violence is pretty squicky for a YA book. show less

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