Double Contact

by James White | Science Fiction & Fantasy |
ISBN: 0812568605 Global Overview for this book
Registered by winghyphen8wing of Honolulu, Hawaii USA on 7/23/2020
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This book is in the wild! This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by winghyphen8wing from Honolulu, Hawaii USA on Thursday, July 23, 2020
This is not an ordinary book: it's a BookCrossing book! BookCrossing books are world travelers - they like to have adventures and make new friends...and with your help, they can even write home to say what they've been doing! (You may remain anonymous if you wish.)

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Not sure where this copy came from, but it's an extra. I enjoy the Sector General books so I have keeper copies of most of them...

Here's another copy on my BookCrossing shelf.

Journal Entry 2 by winghyphen8wing at Honolulu, Hawaii USA on Thursday, July 23, 2020
Promised as a wishlist tag.

Journal Entry 3 by winghyphen8wing at Honolulu, Hawaii USA on Saturday, July 25, 2020

Released 3 yrs ago (7/24/2020 UTC) at Honolulu, Hawaii USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Friday, July 24, 2020: the Sector General gang is off to New Hampshire via media mail.

USPS tracking: 9549 0104 3302 0206 6566 65
ETA 8/14

Released for my Seeking Septads challenge and Davros-10's 2020 Science Fiction Challenge.

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I'm so glad you've found this book! Won't you make a journal entry so the previous readers know that it's safe with you?

How and where did you find the book? What did you think of it? What are you going to do with it next?

This is now your book, for you to do with as you please: keep it as long as you wish, pass it to a friend, or maybe even leave it where someone else can find it!

If you've ever wondered where your books go after they leave your hands, join BookCrossing and you may find out: you'll be able to follow your books as new readers make journal entries - sometimes from surprisingly far-flung locations.

BookCrossing: making the whole world a library!

Journal Entry 4 by wingGoryDetailswing at Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Tuesday, July 28, 2020
The wishlist-tag book arrived safely today; many thanks! (That was one quick trip from Hawaii, too!) It's another entry in the marvelous "Sector General" series about a space hospital and its staff dealing with the physical and psychological problems of ailing aliens of many different types. (Seems to be the last of the novels published, following Mind Changer, so I don't know if I want to read it right away or save it to savor later on {wry grin}.)

Later: Decided to start it - and so far it's a doozy, with some pretty grim fates for the hapless space crew that went before. [Found the BC supplies tucked into the pages; thanks so much!]

Luckily for the survivors, medical treatment is such that they have a much better prognosis than I'd dared hope, and by the end of the book they've spent some time basking on a beach and enjoying the sight of Pathologist Murchison in bathing apparel. But that's all a sideline to the twisty plot that makes the title comprehensible! Turns out the initial attack was a mistake/accident resulting from the meeting of species previously unknown to each other, where the humans resembled strongly a species of predatory ancestral foes that have been systematically destroying the first alien species on their homeworld. Takes quite a while for the empathic Prilicla and team to work this out - and, indeed, most of the book relies VERY heavily on Prilicla's abilities, to the point where it seems he's a serious point-of-failure; if anything happens to him the overall effectiveness of Sector General would be cut in half, and that's still giving full credit to the many other brilliant staff members.

That aside, the story's dramatic and exciting, mixing several different kinds of first-encounter, with issues ranging from immense destruction to those that could almost be seen as humorous - the piratic spider-like aliens attempting to bring their impressive but low-tech powers to bear on what is, to them, a dangerous invader, but whose power outstrips theirs by so much they can't even conceive it.

The ways in which the characters explore the settings of the events, decipher information, make diagnoses, attempt rescues, attempt diplomacy... yeah, it's a very busy novel, and quite a lot of fun. And yes, in the end, they manage to achieve surprising levels of diplomacy among some wildly disparate lifeforms. Another victory for Sector General! (But they really should try to get more of Prilicla's species on board - or perhaps clone him? Poor guy!)

[There's a TV Tropes page for the "Sector General" series, with some entertaining tidbits.]

The series, in order of publication:

Hospital Station
Star Surgeon
Major Operation
Ambulance Ship
Sector General
Star Healer
Code Blue - Emergency
The Genocidal Healer
The Galactic Gourmet
Final Diagnosis
Mind Changer
Double Contact

Journal Entry 5 by wingGoryDetailswing at Little Free Library, Moran Rd in North Billerica, Massachusetts USA on Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Released 3 yrs ago (12/31/2020 UTC) at Little Free Library, Moran Rd in North Billerica, Massachusetts USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I left this book in the TARDIS-styled Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

*** Released for the 2020 D for December challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2020 Science Fiction challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2020 Keep Them Moving challenge. ***

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