A review by trevert
The Free Lunch by Spider Robinson

4.0

A great choice if you enjoy Spider Robinson's brand of warm, empathetic, "human" SF. If you're looking for hard SF or bleakness, move on - Spider's characters are flawed, likable people trying to find redemption, and his books are like warm winter socks. Many critics might dismiss the term "cozy", but when times are hard, that's not such a bad thing. "Free Lunch" is like a happy vacation into the theme park of your dreams, and shares the sort of escapist fun that made "Dream Park" such a hit all those years ago. It's about a young boy who escapes into Dreamland... literally, a huge, automated fantasy park of the Disney style, with areas devoted to SF, fantasy literature, counterculture icons, and even some self-reference (Callahan's bar). The plan is to "live the dream" - To hide out and live inside the park as a runaway, but things get more complex when our lad discovers that he's not the first to do this, and that there are powerful corporate forces outside the park that want to destroy it. Lots of enjoyable fun ensues. A great book for young and old alike.