Book review editor Max Wyman of the Vancouver Sun once summarized the effect that the prolific science fiction author Spider Robinson has had on his readers in these words: "He articulated a simple slogan of social belief that has become the watchword mantra for a substantial chunk of the Internet generation." Indeed, looking back on Robinson's early writings, it is apparent that the writer has a knack for predicting quirky emerging technological devices and trends, such as the virtual reality gadgets and games in Mindkiller, for example. However, while the award-winning writer's plots and characters often involve a strong element of the fantastic, he is also a rationalist who has an unshakeable faith in the power of the human mind to create a better world, and even to rescue it from our own potentially cataclysmic mistakes. Robinson's fiction is humanistic and bubbling with optimism; reviewer Shannon Rupp of...