Med Ship

Editors Eric Flint and Guy Gordon have done a real service in assembling all eight of Murray Leinster's Med Service stories in a single volumn. The stories appeared in various magazines from 1957 through 1966 and used a standard plot formula. Dr. Calhoun (no first name) and his alien sidekick Murgatroyd encounter a series of situations on alien planets in which a medical problem is coupled with social or political troubles. Calhoun solves the medical problem, administers rough justice where necessary, and then moves off to another planet. Honesty compels me to point out that this was the same formula used in an earlier science fiction medical series-- L. Ron Hubbard's Ole Doc Methuselah stories (1947-50). Hubbard's stories were crisply told, but were a bit marred by his pseudoscientific bent. Leinster's stories are a bit more rational and logical in tone, but one sometimes wishes that they had a bit of Hubbard's color and dash. There are two Med Service novels in the omnibus. The first novel is _The Mutant Weapon_ (originally "Med Service," _ASF_, 1957). This novel has a theme that doesn't entirely mesh with the plot. The theme is that the universe provides a series of forces that prevent wrongdoing from getting out of hand; but the plot recounts how some villains come within a hair of committing planetary genocide. The second novel is _Pariah Planet_ (_Amazing_, 1961), which has an understated romance between Calhoun and a spunky heroine that leaves the reader with a mild feeling of regret that it doesn't work out at the end. Neither novel is a classic, but they are both solid, well-crafted pieces that rank among Leinster's top half-dozen novels. [For the record, my candidates for the other four novels are _The Forgotten Planet_ (1954), _The Pirates of Zan_ (1959), _The Wailing Asteroid_ (1960), and _The Duplicators_ (1964).] The remaining six novelettes are (in order of book appearance): "Med Ship Man" (_Galaxy_, 1963), "Plague on Kryder II" (_ASF_, 1964), "Ribbon in the Sky," (_ASF_, 1957), "Tallien Three," (originally "The Hate Disease," _ASF_, 1963), "Quarantine World," (_ASF_, 1966), and "The Grandfather's War," (_ASF_, 1957). My three favorite short pieces are "The Grandfather's War," for its interesting take on the generation gap; "Ribbon in the Sky," for its theme of how chance events can both create problems and contribute to their solution; and "Tallien Three," for its metaphor of hate as a disease. "Med Ship Man," a heavy-handed satire of ruthless business practices, is easily the most obvious and weakest of all the Med Service stories. John Clute (1972) has shrewdly noted that Murray Leinster's futuristic setting shares many of the characteristics of old-time Virginia, the author's home state. It is politically conservative, with a weak central government and a _laissez-faire_ economic system. People populating it are frequently isolated from one another. It is not a setting jostling with colorful, competing alien races and c

I'm reading an ebook edition of Med Ship and am enjoying it. It does repeat some things a bit but it really is a good book.

Med Ship is a collection of stories written by Murray Leinster between 1957 and 1966. They are the continuing adventures of Calhoun, a physician with the Interstellar Medical Service. He travels the galaxy in his own small spaceship with his pet and companion, Murgatroyd, visiting planets to try to solve public health issues. Each story is self-contained, and tells of Calhoun's adventures on a new planet that has a health crisis. Murgatroyd is utterly charming, and steals every scene he appears in. I was a little bit disappointed by the stories, because they were not what I was expecting. I thought that they would be stories of Calhoun trying to find solutions to health problems, but more often they are stories of Calhoun trying to defeat ruthless, greedy people who are using the health crises for their own advantage. I was also a bit put off by the tendency for every epidemic to be called "the plague." Overall, though, they are an enjoyable collection of stories about trying to stamp out ignorance and restore good health and prosperity to the peoples of the galaxy.

I loved Med Ship I passed it on rather than turn it in to the used book store. Each story is complete within itself but complemented the other stories.P.S. It is a book of short stories and novellettes.