What do you think?
Rate this book
Tales from the Spaceport Bar
This collection of twenty-two tales depicting the marvels of the universe includes the story of a little guy who gets sweet revenge, an antigravity field day with a flying saucer fan, and a chess game to end the human race.
Contents:
• Preface by Darrell Schweitzer and George H. Scithers
• The Green Marauder, by Larry Niven
• Don't Look Now, by Henry Kuttner
• Getting Even, by Isaac Asimov
• What Goes Up, by Arthur C. Clarke
• Social Lapses, poem by Darrell Schweitzer
• One for the Road, by Gardner Dozois
• Elephas Frumenti, by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
• Unicorn Variation, by Roger Zelazny
• Strategy at the Billiards Club, by Lord Dunsany
• Through Time & Space with Ferdinand Feghoot! #102, by Reginald Bretnor [using the pseudonym Grendel Briarton]
• On the Rocks at Slab's, by John Gregory Betancourt
• Hands of the Man, by R. A. Lafferty
• Endurance Vile, by Steven Barnes
• The Centipede's Dilemma, by Spider Robinson
• The Causes, by Margaret St. Clair
• For a Foggy Night, by Larry Niven
• They Loved Me in Utica, by Avram Davidson
• A Pestilence of Psychoanalysts, by Janet Asimov [using the pseudonym Janet O. Jeppson]
• The Regulars, by Robert Silverberg
• The Man Who Always Knew, by Algis Budrys
• Infinite Resources, by Randall Garrett
• What's Wrong with This Picture?, by John M. Ford, Barry B. Longyear, and George H. Scithers
Contents:
• Preface by Darrell Schweitzer and George H. Scithers
• The Green Marauder, by Larry Niven
• Don't Look Now, by Henry Kuttner
• Getting Even, by Isaac Asimov
• What Goes Up, by Arthur C. Clarke
• Social Lapses, poem by Darrell Schweitzer
• One for the Road, by Gardner Dozois
• Elephas Frumenti, by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
• Unicorn Variation, by Roger Zelazny
• Strategy at the Billiards Club, by Lord Dunsany
• Through Time & Space with Ferdinand Feghoot! #102, by Reginald Bretnor [using the pseudonym Grendel Briarton]
• On the Rocks at Slab's, by John Gregory Betancourt
• Hands of the Man, by R. A. Lafferty
• Endurance Vile, by Steven Barnes
• The Centipede's Dilemma, by Spider Robinson
• The Causes, by Margaret St. Clair
• For a Foggy Night, by Larry Niven
• They Loved Me in Utica, by Avram Davidson
• A Pestilence of Psychoanalysts, by Janet Asimov [using the pseudonym Janet O. Jeppson]
• The Regulars, by Robert Silverberg
• The Man Who Always Knew, by Algis Budrys
• Infinite Resources, by Randall Garrett
• What's Wrong with This Picture?, by John M. Ford, Barry B. Longyear, and George H. Scithers
235 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
3 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 14, 2023
I was a little disappointed in this themed anthology of reprinted fantasy and science fiction stories set within the framework of tales told in or about bars at spaceports because the title leads you to expect something exotic like the Mos Eisley cantina (yeah, Han short first), but only one of the twenty-two pieces actually conforms to that idea. (A Draco Tavern story by Larry Niven.) There are some excellent stories, and famous fantastic landmarks like Spider Robinson's Callahan's Place, Arthur C. Clarke's White Hart, and Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp's Gavagan's Bar (not to mention the granddaddy of them all, a Jorkens story by Lord Dunsany) are all included, but the title is misleading. (The book appeared before Allen Steele wrote his Diamondback Jack's stories, and everyone should go read them in his Rude Astronauts collection.) There were a few bits that made me wince a bit for the way some stories seem to have aged poorly... for example, in the Callahan's story, "The hat still hung gaudily to his skull like a homosexual barnacle." Huh? And in a story by Steven Barnes set in a health food bar, he describes character Suzie: "She was a redhead on the pretty side of plain, with a history major's mind in a cheerleader's body. I sometimes thought the combination was awkward, then remembered that that equation could have been reversed, and remained silent." Ouch, right?) My favorites in this book were stories by Robert Silverberg, Larry Niven (the only author with two stories included), Margaret St. Clair, and Roger Zelazny's classic Unicorn Variations.
September 7, 2015
This is a fun collection of stories but a disappointing anthology overall. I read this as a teenager, 17 I think, and I was deeply disappointed by the false promise of the title. Only 2 of the 22 stories involve spaceport bars, and one of those isn't really a spaceport bar, just a bar favored by spacemen. The other 20 stories are completely non-spaceport, non-space stories.
The stories are classic speculative tales, but with the vast majority being non-spaceport bars, it's a failure as a themed anthology. Five stars for the story quality, dropped to three for lying with that title.
The stories are classic speculative tales, but with the vast majority being non-spaceport bars, it's a failure as a themed anthology. Five stars for the story quality, dropped to three for lying with that title.
February 20, 2020
I have long enjoyed a sub-genre that I call "barfly science fiction." This category includes Arthur C. Clarke's White Hart stories, Fletcher Pratt and L. SPrague de Camp's Gavagan's stories, Spider Robinson's Callahan's Crosstime Saloon tales, and of course, Lord Dunsany's Jorkens yarns, the genesis of the sub-genre. This collection, edited by Scithers and Darrell Schweitzer, presents one each from the above collections and 18 new stories by various SF writers.The preface by the editors sets the stage with its discourse on barroom ambiance, the sort of thing that made "Cheers!" such along-running hit on television. The best story is Robert Silverberg's "The Regulars,"a fascinating look at the people who occupy those seats at the bar. A lot of fun.
March 1, 2023
A great before bed or beach read. Something that can be picked up once In a while and put aside for better things. Two standout stories from Robert Silverberg and Harry Turtledove that shouldn’t be missed. A few good stories from Asimov and Clarke sprinkled in and a couple duds. It’s a fairly enjoyable read but don’t break your neck to get it.
June 15, 2024
My girlfriend thought that a book of science fiction stories taking place in bars would be a good Christmas gift for me, and she was totally right: It's got a strong lineup of classic SF authors from the 50s through the 80s, including some stories that I've already read them in other anthologies. I want to give each short story a short review of its own, so I'll get to that before I start ranting and rambling about this like one of the more long-winded patrons in one of this collection's varied establishments would...
--We start with "The Green Marauder" by Larry Niven, a Draco Tavern story featuring a conversation between a human and an ancient alien woman who recounts how , which is a wonderful setting of the stage for this anthology, which is mostly about tall tales told at bars. The storyteller is a little dubious, but the story itself is brilliant and ignites a spark of wonder. 7.5/10, as even though it's alluring, it's too short.
--"Don't Look Now" by Henry Kuttner isn't about a tall tale told at a bar but instead a paranoid personality seeking refuge at one. He believes these shapeshifters are running around infiltrating our society, and that one of his fellow patrons (who you shouldn't look at right now) is one of them. He tells another drinker about his theory, . This story would've felt just right in Rod Sterling's Twilight Zone (and is vaguely reminiscent of "Would the Real Martian Please Stand Up"), which makes sense because of Kuttner's period. 7.5/10.
--Asimov's "Getting Even," written just for this anthology, is another story that uses the ol' watering hole as a framing narrative. The storyteller in this case is an independent inventor screwed out of profits by a big conglomerate, leading him to ... it's clever, and made me smile. Probably worthy of a 7.75/10.
--Arthur C. Clarke's long-running tavern tales were always set in the White Hart, and "What Goes Up" is one of those stories. This time the man doing the tale-telling is a scientist who knows that his account of scientists' response to a Terran gravitational anomaly is bullcrap, but if it can scare away the pest who's started hanging around the White Hart, it'll be worth it. I thought I had read this before but confused it for a different White Hart story; regardless, while I like the concept, the physical framing and narrative of the story doesn't do it for in the moment and doesn't have a habit of sticking in my head. I blame Clarke's prose; 7/10.
--Editor Darrell Schweitzer wrote a poem called "Social Lapses"; I don't do poetry, so I will spare you of whatever adolescent critical commentary I could muster.
--Speaking of editors, this book anthologizes a Gardner Dozois tale called "One for the Road". It riffs off the age-old question of "what would you do if the world was ending" through the lens of an eccentric man, who may be a scientist, dropping by and making cryptic commands to a narrator who's currently in a row with his wife. Inconclusive but fun, I guess, but its being printed next to all these other bar stories makes it feel like it was only written to fit the theme even though it was published on its own merits in Playboy five years previously. Oh well; still a 7.25 from me.
--Gavagan's Bar was L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt's favorite flophouse, and "Elephas Frumenti" makes it easy to see why; they're infested with . I don't know why it took the one woman to figure this out, or if this is just some manifestation or something, but regardless of the origin, it's too cute to get too critical about. 7.5/10.
--"Unicorn Variations" by Roger Zelazny is one of the most famous SF/Fantasy stories set in bars, and as I explained in my review of the titular collection (see here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), and it hasn't even been a year since I first read it, so I don't have anything new to add to my previous thoughts. As before: 8/10.
--We take a trip back to the 1940s to read Lord Dunsay's "Strategy at the Billiards Club" and a story about how . It's not bad, and I could've enjoyed it, but I just wasn't in the place to read, and I think that by this point stories started feeling a bit too similar because all of the framing narratives blurring together. 7/10.
--Reginald Bretnor, someone who I know next to nothing about, is up next with "Through Time & Space with Ferdinand Feghoot!". It's a goofy tale of SF association that wasn't bad, but was over before I could really sink my teeth into it. 7/10.
--"On the Rocks at Slab's" by John Gregory Betancourt is one of the book's few fantasy stories. It feels like it's part of a larger, more fleshed out world than I think it is, and that says good things about Betancourt's ability to write stories solely through the lens of the moment they're written through, one of the better traits for any fantasy author to have. The story itself is about this tavern which plays host to a slew of the kind of supernatural activity that the city's ruler doesn't want occurring within the city's boundaries, and he's put between a rock and a hard place when the king's guard show up to search his establishment. The ending where is a bit anticlimatic, but it's a fun story nonetheless. 7.5/10.
--R.A. Lafferty's "Hands of the Man" is about a con within a con within a con within a con within a... well, it's not bad, but this tale of some spaceport ruffian taking this bet and whatnot certainly gets close. I enjoyed it at the time, but it really didn't leave a lasting impression, which could be my fault or Lafferty's. Since we can't be certain, we'll compromise and call this a 7.25.
--A story set in a health food bar was certainly one of the collection's most intriguing loglines, and while "Endurance Vile" by Steven Barnes doesn't quite meet expectations, it does make a pretty good effort with a story about a man who found a book on arcane magic and . Funny, and a clever ending that won't stick with me forever but which did make me smile a little. 7.5/10.
--I usually love Spider Robinson stories, but "The Centipede's Dilemma" didn't do it for me; I blame the anthology. Anywho, it looks at the patron-favorite bar game of darts, and specifically how one newcomer to Callahan's (a setting Robinson used often, I believe) was doing so well at it. The secret? . I probably missed some stuff due to this book's thematic blur and my unfamiliarity with Callahan's, so I'll give Spider the benefit of the doubt along with a 7.5/10.
--Margaret St. Clair's "The Causes" is another story where the bar plays host to insane and improbable stories - this time about the reason why life on Earth sucks nowadays - but it outshines its counterparts by including multiple stories for why life is going by the wayside, including those about Greek Gods and Tantrist magic. The stinger ending reveals , if anything at this godforsaken bar can be believed. 7.5/10.
--Larry Niven returns to the world of bars with "For a Foggy Night," which postulates that walking through fog can take you into different dimensions without your knowledge. As one could expect, two bargoers are wrapped up in these theories and the practical application of their logical endpoints. It's a decent story, but not particularly thoughtful or anything. 7.25/10?
--"They Loved Me in Utica" by Avram Davidson originally failed to grab me, but when I realized that , Davidson won me over; this story's misleading framing and conceptual breakthrough is everything than SF should usually strive to have even if the story itself isn't SF; 8.5/10, probably the best story in the collection despite (or due to) its fleetness.
--Janet O. Jeppson (better known to you as Janet Asimov) wrote "A Pestilence of Psychoanalysts," one of the book's least bar-trawling stories while being one of its more paranoid. It's about this one shrink who believes that his field's reliance on words that start with "P" is sign of influence from some evil entity or... something. I'm not one-hundred-percent sure even if it was engaging and the dialogue gets hilarious and a good representation of the placebo effect; 7.5/10.
--Robert Silverberg wrote "The Regulars" just for this collection because the editors were fans and wanted to include him; that's a nice gesture, and the story's even good to boot. It's rather reminiscent of the lotus eaters as it's about a group of bar goers who seem to spend all their time there despite realizing it, and who are rumored to occasionally fade out of existence. This last fact may induce more tension and paranoia for the reader than is reflected in any of the characters or conversation 7.5/10.
--I really need to read an Algis Budrys novel, but at least I've had "The Man Who Always Knew" to hold me over. It's about this famous inventor from the perspective of the bartender of his favorite watering hole. The inventor starts acting rather depressed and eventually admits to his bartender that . I liked it, just wish we could've got some better resolution for the characters. Still, it gets a lot across considering its short word count. 7.5/10.
--Randall Garrett penned our penultimate tale, "Infinite Resources." It's something about fake time travel and string theory and while I enjoyed it, it wasn't really... well, it didn't stick, as I say. Which is too bad, because string theory representation from 1954 should be lauded. For that... 7/10.
--Our final story was a collaboration between John M. Ford and Barry B. Longyear with some input from George H. Scithers, one of our editors. It's called "What's Wrong with This Picture?" and is about digging through the titular character's memories (or something like that). There're some awesome references to a bunch of SF authors and works (like "Darkness" needing his left hand back after a lightsaber match straight out of Mos Eisley or a play on Roebrt L. Forward's name) which ends in this crazy dialogue-within-dialogue crap that I couldn't really understand. I think it's really clever and would seem a lot better with a re-read, which is a trend I might be sensing with John M. Ford's work. I'll give it an optimistic 7.5/10, and if I ever have time between cramming books from my endless mounds of Purgatory into my literary schedule, I'll try to revisit this.
That's a lot of stories about bars, and unlike a lot of themed anthologies, I don't think it was for the better. Being crammed in next to stories with the similar framing devices didn't help these stories in the long run, as you can probably tell that by looking at how my engagement with the various texts went downhill as the book went on. A lot of these stories could've been cooler in their author's collections or in their original places of publication. That's going to be my main consideration with my rating instead of the average level of quality of the stories anthologized, which is slightly higher, although there were only a couple stories (Davidon's, Zelazny's, Ford and co's, and I guess Asimov's) which I found to be "cream of the crop."
And on a slight personal aside, as a DJ and live musician who has played in a good amount of bars, not a single story about bar musicians? Is this because of editorial oversight and ignorance or a genuine lack of bar musician story? I guess I know what my next science fiction short story needs to be about...
*Tales From the Spaceport Bar* gets a 7/10. It's good, but nothing to write home about, and shouldn't be your first pick if you're just getting into themed 80s SF anthologies, or any category broader than that. There are some gems, but you'll have better luck getting engaged elsewhere. Anthologies are always tricky to review, but I enjoy them, and plan on reading more soon and no-so-soon. I'll see you if you chance upon those reviews in the future; otherwise, I'll bid you a good day and wishes that your next boozing runs are less eventful than all those covered in *Tales From the Spaceport Bar*....
--We start with "The Green Marauder" by Larry Niven, a Draco Tavern story featuring a conversation between a human and an ancient alien woman who recounts how , which is a wonderful setting of the stage for this anthology, which is mostly about tall tales told at bars. The storyteller is a little dubious, but the story itself is brilliant and ignites a spark of wonder. 7.5/10, as even though it's alluring, it's too short.
--"Don't Look Now" by Henry Kuttner isn't about a tall tale told at a bar but instead a paranoid personality seeking refuge at one. He believes these shapeshifters are running around infiltrating our society, and that one of his fellow patrons (who you shouldn't look at right now) is one of them. He tells another drinker about his theory, . This story would've felt just right in Rod Sterling's Twilight Zone (and is vaguely reminiscent of "Would the Real Martian Please Stand Up"), which makes sense because of Kuttner's period. 7.5/10.
--Asimov's "Getting Even," written just for this anthology, is another story that uses the ol' watering hole as a framing narrative. The storyteller in this case is an independent inventor screwed out of profits by a big conglomerate, leading him to ... it's clever, and made me smile. Probably worthy of a 7.75/10.
--Arthur C. Clarke's long-running tavern tales were always set in the White Hart, and "What Goes Up" is one of those stories. This time the man doing the tale-telling is a scientist who knows that his account of scientists' response to a Terran gravitational anomaly is bullcrap, but if it can scare away the pest who's started hanging around the White Hart, it'll be worth it. I thought I had read this before but confused it for a different White Hart story; regardless, while I like the concept, the physical framing and narrative of the story doesn't do it for in the moment and doesn't have a habit of sticking in my head. I blame Clarke's prose; 7/10.
--Editor Darrell Schweitzer wrote a poem called "Social Lapses"; I don't do poetry, so I will spare you of whatever adolescent critical commentary I could muster.
--Speaking of editors, this book anthologizes a Gardner Dozois tale called "One for the Road". It riffs off the age-old question of "what would you do if the world was ending" through the lens of an eccentric man, who may be a scientist, dropping by and making cryptic commands to a narrator who's currently in a row with his wife. Inconclusive but fun, I guess, but its being printed next to all these other bar stories makes it feel like it was only written to fit the theme even though it was published on its own merits in Playboy five years previously. Oh well; still a 7.25 from me.
--Gavagan's Bar was L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt's favorite flophouse, and "Elephas Frumenti" makes it easy to see why; they're infested with . I don't know why it took the one woman to figure this out, or if this is just some manifestation or something, but regardless of the origin, it's too cute to get too critical about. 7.5/10.
--"Unicorn Variations" by Roger Zelazny is one of the most famous SF/Fantasy stories set in bars, and as I explained in my review of the titular collection (see here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), and it hasn't even been a year since I first read it, so I don't have anything new to add to my previous thoughts. As before: 8/10.
--We take a trip back to the 1940s to read Lord Dunsay's "Strategy at the Billiards Club" and a story about how . It's not bad, and I could've enjoyed it, but I just wasn't in the place to read, and I think that by this point stories started feeling a bit too similar because all of the framing narratives blurring together. 7/10.
--Reginald Bretnor, someone who I know next to nothing about, is up next with "Through Time & Space with Ferdinand Feghoot!". It's a goofy tale of SF association that wasn't bad, but was over before I could really sink my teeth into it. 7/10.
--"On the Rocks at Slab's" by John Gregory Betancourt is one of the book's few fantasy stories. It feels like it's part of a larger, more fleshed out world than I think it is, and that says good things about Betancourt's ability to write stories solely through the lens of the moment they're written through, one of the better traits for any fantasy author to have. The story itself is about this tavern which plays host to a slew of the kind of supernatural activity that the city's ruler doesn't want occurring within the city's boundaries, and he's put between a rock and a hard place when the king's guard show up to search his establishment. The ending where is a bit anticlimatic, but it's a fun story nonetheless. 7.5/10.
--R.A. Lafferty's "Hands of the Man" is about a con within a con within a con within a con within a... well, it's not bad, but this tale of some spaceport ruffian taking this bet and whatnot certainly gets close. I enjoyed it at the time, but it really didn't leave a lasting impression, which could be my fault or Lafferty's. Since we can't be certain, we'll compromise and call this a 7.25.
--A story set in a health food bar was certainly one of the collection's most intriguing loglines, and while "Endurance Vile" by Steven Barnes doesn't quite meet expectations, it does make a pretty good effort with a story about a man who found a book on arcane magic and . Funny, and a clever ending that won't stick with me forever but which did make me smile a little. 7.5/10.
--I usually love Spider Robinson stories, but "The Centipede's Dilemma" didn't do it for me; I blame the anthology. Anywho, it looks at the patron-favorite bar game of darts, and specifically how one newcomer to Callahan's (a setting Robinson used often, I believe) was doing so well at it. The secret? . I probably missed some stuff due to this book's thematic blur and my unfamiliarity with Callahan's, so I'll give Spider the benefit of the doubt along with a 7.5/10.
--Margaret St. Clair's "The Causes" is another story where the bar plays host to insane and improbable stories - this time about the reason why life on Earth sucks nowadays - but it outshines its counterparts by including multiple stories for why life is going by the wayside, including those about Greek Gods and Tantrist magic. The stinger ending reveals , if anything at this godforsaken bar can be believed. 7.5/10.
--Larry Niven returns to the world of bars with "For a Foggy Night," which postulates that walking through fog can take you into different dimensions without your knowledge. As one could expect, two bargoers are wrapped up in these theories and the practical application of their logical endpoints. It's a decent story, but not particularly thoughtful or anything. 7.25/10?
--"They Loved Me in Utica" by Avram Davidson originally failed to grab me, but when I realized that , Davidson won me over; this story's misleading framing and conceptual breakthrough is everything than SF should usually strive to have even if the story itself isn't SF; 8.5/10, probably the best story in the collection despite (or due to) its fleetness.
--Janet O. Jeppson (better known to you as Janet Asimov) wrote "A Pestilence of Psychoanalysts," one of the book's least bar-trawling stories while being one of its more paranoid. It's about this one shrink who believes that his field's reliance on words that start with "P" is sign of influence from some evil entity or... something. I'm not one-hundred-percent sure even if it was engaging and the dialogue gets hilarious and a good representation of the placebo effect; 7.5/10.
--Robert Silverberg wrote "The Regulars" just for this collection because the editors were fans and wanted to include him; that's a nice gesture, and the story's even good to boot. It's rather reminiscent of the lotus eaters as it's about a group of bar goers who seem to spend all their time there despite realizing it, and who are rumored to occasionally fade out of existence. This last fact may induce more tension and paranoia for the reader than is reflected in any of the characters or conversation 7.5/10.
--I really need to read an Algis Budrys novel, but at least I've had "The Man Who Always Knew" to hold me over. It's about this famous inventor from the perspective of the bartender of his favorite watering hole. The inventor starts acting rather depressed and eventually admits to his bartender that . I liked it, just wish we could've got some better resolution for the characters. Still, it gets a lot across considering its short word count. 7.5/10.
--Randall Garrett penned our penultimate tale, "Infinite Resources." It's something about fake time travel and string theory and while I enjoyed it, it wasn't really... well, it didn't stick, as I say. Which is too bad, because string theory representation from 1954 should be lauded. For that... 7/10.
--Our final story was a collaboration between John M. Ford and Barry B. Longyear with some input from George H. Scithers, one of our editors. It's called "What's Wrong with This Picture?" and is about digging through the titular character's memories (or something like that). There're some awesome references to a bunch of SF authors and works (like "Darkness" needing his left hand back after a lightsaber match straight out of Mos Eisley or a play on Roebrt L. Forward's name) which ends in this crazy dialogue-within-dialogue crap that I couldn't really understand. I think it's really clever and would seem a lot better with a re-read, which is a trend I might be sensing with John M. Ford's work. I'll give it an optimistic 7.5/10, and if I ever have time between cramming books from my endless mounds of Purgatory into my literary schedule, I'll try to revisit this.
That's a lot of stories about bars, and unlike a lot of themed anthologies, I don't think it was for the better. Being crammed in next to stories with the similar framing devices didn't help these stories in the long run, as you can probably tell that by looking at how my engagement with the various texts went downhill as the book went on. A lot of these stories could've been cooler in their author's collections or in their original places of publication. That's going to be my main consideration with my rating instead of the average level of quality of the stories anthologized, which is slightly higher, although there were only a couple stories (Davidon's, Zelazny's, Ford and co's, and I guess Asimov's) which I found to be "cream of the crop."
And on a slight personal aside, as a DJ and live musician who has played in a good amount of bars, not a single story about bar musicians? Is this because of editorial oversight and ignorance or a genuine lack of bar musician story? I guess I know what my next science fiction short story needs to be about...
*Tales From the Spaceport Bar* gets a 7/10. It's good, but nothing to write home about, and shouldn't be your first pick if you're just getting into themed 80s SF anthologies, or any category broader than that. There are some gems, but you'll have better luck getting engaged elsewhere. Anthologies are always tricky to review, but I enjoy them, and plan on reading more soon and no-so-soon. I'll see you if you chance upon those reviews in the future; otherwise, I'll bid you a good day and wishes that your next boozing runs are less eventful than all those covered in *Tales From the Spaceport Bar*....
November 24, 2021
I love vintage Sci-fi. This is sci-fi in bars—some in space and some on earth— but all sci-fi. There are two Larry Niven stories, which I loved. One by Isaac. Asimov, one by Arthur C. Clarke, one by R. A. Lafferty, and others by great names in sci-fi. This is a fun read. I highly recommend it.
November 21, 2017
It's a nice collection of stories, but it does feel distinctly dated, and that's not always a good thing in science fiction.
March 11, 2018
My favorite is still "Getting Even" by Isaac Asimov.
October 18, 2021
A little underwhelming overall, a few gems hidden in there, but far from the author’s best works.
April 2, 2011
This collection of short stories had several that I'd read before, but it was still a great collection of tales all set in bars of various types, both fantastic and not. It was perfect bedtime reading.
Read
August 22, 2008Tales from the Spaceport Bar by George H. Scithers (1987)
September 27, 2009
A collection of short stories featuring tales told in bars. Includes The Regulars by Robert Silverberg which I hadn't ever read or seen before.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews