At the end of BUFFALITO DESTINY, Conroy had lost his fortune and fled Earth. Reggie, his buffalito, had survived diving into a volcano, but slipped into a coma.
Now Reggie is dying and the buffalito's internal nuclear furnace is growing unstable. Conroy's only hope lies with the Arconi, the aliens he ripped off to create his empire. Their help comes with a price: he has to go on trial for his crimes, against people who can telepathically tell when he's lying. Conroy knows he's guilty, but Reggie must be saved!
Lawrence M. Schoen holds a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology, is a past Astounding, Hugo, and Nebula, nominee, twice won the Cóyotl award for best novel, founded the Klingon Language Institute, and occasionally does work as a hypnotherapist specializing in authors’ issues. He is a chimeric cancer survivor.
His science fiction includes many light and humorous adventures of a space-faring stage hypnotist and his alien animal companion. Other works take a very different tone, exploring aspects of determinism and free will, generally redefining the continua between life and death. Sometimes he blurs the funny and the serious. Lawrence lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with his wife and their dog.
Today's review of a Nebula-nominated novella is Lawrence M. Schoen's gap-filling Trial of the Century, between Buffalito Destiny and Buffalito Contingency. which is at my blog.
Fun and funny far-future SF with aliens and economics. I hadn't read any of the other works set in this world and was able to follow everything just fine.
I was expecting a court procedural story, what I found was a story of wits like Stainless Steel Rat. I loved it and am going to read more from Mr.Schoen.
Another great (short) Amazing Conroy tale from Schoen! Bridging a gap between the two novels (Buffalito Destiny and Buffalito Contingency), Trial of the Century fills in a gap about the fate of one of our favorite characters, left in doubt at the end of Buffalito Destiny. It felt like a fairly short novella, and the trial itself doesn't really get going until halfway through, but I feel like it excelled at the story it told. I love Schoen's strange aliens, and I love the solutions he comes up with to get Conroy out of (or into) trouble.
I have given this novella 5 stars, but would have given it ten were that allowed. I would STRONGLY recommend that the Amazing Conroy stories be read in order, if only to insure that readers don't miss a single example of Mr. Shoen's outrageously entertaining imagination. I'm not going to drop any story spoilers here for the same reason. However be advised that if you were to miss this series it would be such a HUGE shame that Fate would find a way to force your hand. Instead, don't walk, RUN, t po your ereader or bookstore and get started. ENJOY!
I may just have to realize that the Conroyverse stories don't click with me. Like Barry's Tale, I felt unsatisfied by this story. It's a light-hearted interstellar tale of a rogue (think Retief or the Stainless Steel Rat) and his pet "buffalito". But I didn't laugh at the jokes, and I found the aliens too one-dimensional.
I probably did not enjoy the short novella as much as a person that read the previous installments of it would. I liked the focus of psychology, but I really could not get into the dog sized buffalo with an internal fusion reactor pet idea. For more information about this and other 2013 nebula finalist, please refer to my blog post here: http://books.zennaro.net/category/hug...
Schoen's Amazing Conroy stories are great fun. The character is engaging, and I love the variety of problems that he faces over the course of the series. I'm not big on series that hit the same notes in every book, so this is a pleasure. Reggie is adorable, and I'd happily sign up for the next available buffalo dog.
The Amazing Conroy's beloved Buffalito Dog, Reggie is in a coma. But worse news is to come. Can the little guy be healed or must Conroy lose him forever? Worse, the alien race that Conroy got him from by dubious means is still after him. Has Fate caught up with them both?