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Jan. 24th, 2006
Book review: Hospital Station
Jan. 24th, 2006 09:05 pmToday's book review is Hospital Station by James White.
This was the book I had along for the trip to ConFusion, and between it being short, it sucking me in, and having a little more time to read than I might have wanted, I nearly finished it at the con.
I've read some of the Sector General stories before, but I was fairly sure I hadn't read this one, and I'm pretty sure I was right; a few bits seemed slightly familiar, but I didn't feel like I'd read it before. This is old-school classic space opera, focusing on interesting aliens and adventures, but from the perspective of a doctor trying to save people rather than a warrior trying to kill them. The characters are a bit weak, but the narrative is pretty zippy, and the stories are puzzle-oriented. Although they're presented as a novel, they definitely seem to be several shorter pieces very slightly stitched together; it would have been best to rewrite them more completely as a single novel, but better to leave them separate than to pretend they're a novel.
Good yarns, easy reading, engaging writing. Not the best SF ever, but worth reading; it deserves to be remembered. (Did I mention it was written before I was born?) 8 out of 10.
This was the book I had along for the trip to ConFusion, and between it being short, it sucking me in, and having a little more time to read than I might have wanted, I nearly finished it at the con.
I've read some of the Sector General stories before, but I was fairly sure I hadn't read this one, and I'm pretty sure I was right; a few bits seemed slightly familiar, but I didn't feel like I'd read it before. This is old-school classic space opera, focusing on interesting aliens and adventures, but from the perspective of a doctor trying to save people rather than a warrior trying to kill them. The characters are a bit weak, but the narrative is pretty zippy, and the stories are puzzle-oriented. Although they're presented as a novel, they definitely seem to be several shorter pieces very slightly stitched together; it would have been best to rewrite them more completely as a single novel, but better to leave them separate than to pretend they're a novel.
Good yarns, easy reading, engaging writing. Not the best SF ever, but worth reading; it deserves to be remembered. (Did I mention it was written before I was born?) 8 out of 10.