Post by Lynn McGuireFive SFF Books About Healers and Medicine
From space hospitals to magical amulets, from science to blood sorcery,
the healers, doctors, nurses, and medics of speculative fiction.
https://reactormag.com/five-sff-books-about-healers-and-medicine/
#ReacTor #tordotcom
Zero for five again !
How about the clone growers of Jackson's Hole in the Vorkosigan
adventure of "Mirror Dance" ?
https://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Dance-Lois-McMaster-Bujold/dp/B0073AQ1O4/
_Healer_ concludes Wilson's LaNague Federation series.
The trilogy begins by busting big banksters behind a bogus
established narrative in _An Enemy of the State_. The bankster busting
is my favorite part (naturally). The protagonist also carries around a
bonsai tree with an ancestor's ashes in the pot. Such homage works
better for me than a memorial tattoo. YMMV.
_Healer_'s low point is a libertarian public whipping reminiscent of
_Starship Troopers_. The story's symbiosis is similar to Fellmer
Lloyd's situation in Perry Rhodan Zyklus 2 _Atlan and Arkon_.
The approach taken to portray the inner dialog of symbiotical mind
with two independent streams of consciousness is most interesting.
Perry Rhodan chooses to have either Fellmer Lloyd, or his host,
Onot, be present in prose, but not both simultaneously at the same time.
Whoever happens dominate at a particular point speaks for the host body.
OTOH _Healer_ uses typography, along the lines of Dorthy's:
<https://www.kithrup.com/~djheydt/intlife20161027.epub>
to achieve simultaneous dialog between the protagonist's host mind and
its symbiosis, as showcased with this pertinent excerpt:
("Keep going!")
He managed to run, although his left leg dragged due to
the embedded arrow. But the Healer felt no pain from
this wound. As he left the temple's bloody anteroom and
entered another corridor, his vision suddenly blurred
and his equilibrium wavered.
/What was that?/
("The same knockout punch that separated us on Clutch.
Only this time I was ready for it. Now the going gets
tough—the goddess has decided to step in.")
He started to run forward again but glanced down and
found himself at the edge of a yawning pit. White
tentacles, slime-coated and thick as his thighs,
sprang out from the walls and reached for him.
"Where'd that come from?" he whispered hoarsely.
("From Kali's mind. It's not real—keep going.") /You sure?/
("Positive ... I think. Keep going!")
Danke,
--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.