By Any Other Name

by Spider Robinson

“By Any Other Name” is a collection of wonderful Spider Robinson stories including two Hugo winners: “Melancholy Elephants” and his novella “By Any Other Name”, along with excerpts from “The Crazy Years” — columns on the state of Planet Earth written for Toronto’s Globe and Mail.

The many stories in this volume display Spider Robinson’s inimitable wit, wisdom, wicked puns, at times pathos, and the hard decisions that humans sometimes have to make.

“Like Heinlein in his prime, Mr. Robinson writes a crisp, tightly controlled prose about a future that is recognizably descended from today’s world, yet provocatively altered.”
- The New York Times

"If one were given the task of creating Spider Robinson from scratch, the best way to do it would be to snatch James Joyce from history, force-feed him Marx Brothers films and good jazz for the better part of a decade, then turn him loose on a world badly in need of a look at itself."
- Vancouver Sun

"Nobody's perfect. But Spider comes pretty damned close."
- Ben Bova

"Spider Robinson is the hottest writer to hit science fiction since Harlan Ellison, and he can match the master’s frenetic energy and emotional intensity, arm-break for gut-wrench.”
- The Los Angeles Times

"Spider Robinson is the Tom Robbins of the 21st century."
- John Varley

"Spider Robinson is a master storyteller…"
- Allen Steele

[Spider Robinson] "embodies the best of Sturgeon, Heinlein, and Asimov."
- David Gerrold

"Robinson's creative imagination is admirable."
- Publishers Weekly

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Collections, Anthologies, Hugo Awards

382 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 30, 2001

About the author

Spider Robinson is an American-born Canadian Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction author. He was born in the USA, but chose to live in Canada, and gained citizenship in his adopted country in 2002.

Robinson's writing career began in 1972 with a sale to Analog Science Fiction magazine of a story entitled, The Guy With The Eyes. His writing proved popular, and his first novel saw print in 1976, Telempath. Since then he has averaged a novel (or collection) a year. His most well known stories are the Callahan saloon series.

Reviews

[Marko · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I like about Spider Robinson's stories is that he focuses on people and society, and the near-future settings are more backdrop than focus. This collection of short stories provides just that, with his usual sense of humor. They range in quality, but overall the stories are good and remain relevant despite the age of the writing. All the puns are terrible, though.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of Robinson's short stories ranges from copyright dystopia (“Melancholy Elephants”) to the resurrection of John Lennon (“Rubber Soul.”) to the Damon Runyonesque time-travel tale “Chronic Offender” to the title story, which is one of the weaker ones. It has a few turkeys but mostly fun, and Robinson's ability to keep things interesting when people just sit and talk about ideas impresses me.

[Wetdryvac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really well executed shorts.

[A Jaylis]

++

[Christopher Herrig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed a lot of these short stories and appreciate Spider Robinson's connection to Robert Heinlein.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Melancholy Elephants ****
there area a finite number of musical melodies and b/c each song is copyrighting it is next to impossible to create a new song),

"Satan's Children" ***
man creates a "truth drug" which he passes along to two a couple. The couple travel around giving the truth drug to unsuspecting people.

"Tin Ear" **
two space pilots use music to communicate in code and prevent an invasion


"No Renewal"***
man discovers he has an expiration date literally

"The Crazy Years" ***
was somewhat interesting (discussing how the 1990s were a crazy time),

"By Any Other Name" ****
in which a man is hunting the man he believes responsible for releasing a virus/plague which made all humans have a super sensitive sense of smell. Many people went crazy as a result and all cities were abandoned. He discovers that his father is actually the one responsible and the man he's been hunting is innocent.

"Olden Days" ****
a grandfather tells his grandchildren about the good old days when children weren't allowed to work, things were easier etc compared to "now" in which they seem to be in a really bad depression or post some sort of catastrophe that has left everyone struggling to survive.

[Millerbug · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is full of Spider Robinson's short stories. And it was ok. Lots of drug use and sex, not for young readers. The stories that I liked best were By Any Other Name and his series of newspaper articles called The Crazy Years. Most of the stories were ok, and some were kind of strange. It wasn't bad, but I don't think I'll actively seek out more of this authors work, although I do have some of his other work here at home on Mt. TBR that I'll probably read

[John E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather a disappointing collection of stories. They are very uneven, but that is probably to be expected since they are all of his uncollected stories over twenty years. Not up to his excellent Callahan's Crosstime Saloon stories.

[QuoththeRaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another collection of short stories and essays. "Rubber Soul" is one of the greatest short stories EVER!

[Brett]

Science Fiction

[Lynn Calvin]

baen ebook

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love reading sci-fi mixed with a old fashioned detective. This isn't the best book of this type, but it is pretty good.

I'm reading this for the second time...

[Matt Shively · Rating 4 out of 5]

not the quickest reading short stories but all engaging.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

didn't realize that it was
an omnibus
so it was a mixed bag of
short stories
but I tend to enjoy this author

[Ann aka Iftcan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories are better than others. I figured it averaged out to about 60% positive, 40% negative, so I gave it 3 stars.

[Jeff Youngstrom]

My review from June 1, 2001

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The collection hasn't aged well. Robinson's writing is still fun and punny, but the stories, written in the 70's and 80's, missed the mark.

[Docxen · Rating 5 out of 5]

great author good stories loved it