Just started reading them.

For those who don't know, Spider Robinson writes short stories about a bar on Long Island, which is like the platonic ideal of a friendly local bar. The drinks are cheap, everyone knows each other, and it operates on the principle of "shared pain is lessened, shared joy is increased."

For this very reason, various people and beings are constantly wandering into this bar. Maybe it'll be a time traveller, agonizing about the decision he needs to make. Maybe it will be an alien, feeling guilty and conflicted about his orders from his planet to destroy the Earth. Maybe it will simply be another type of time traveller, a man who was locked in a Central American prison for decades before finally returning home and being paralyzed by the changes around him.


It's not "hard" sci-fi. It's barely even "soft" sci-fi. It's just a bar where people come to drink, talk, laugh and make puns. Many, many, many puns.

I love doorstoppers, but sometimes it's nice just to take 15 minutes to read an interesting story. I highly recommend these classics.