FACT SF Reading Group

August 2000

August 1: Stardoc by S. L. Viehl

Nine people showed up at to discuss Stardoc, a book about "doctors in space". The novel follows the adventures of brilliant young Dr. Cherijo Grey Veil, who leaves the safe confines of Earth to work in a clinic on a frontier planet where she must treat hundreds of different alien species.

Our meeting started a little differently, with the distribution of handouts sent by the author to our group. Ms. Viehl had noticed several weeks earlier on the Internet that we would be discussing her book, so she mailed some giveaways to us at Adventures in Crime & Space. The packets contained autographed bookmarks, Ms. Viehl's personal newsletter, and sample chapters from Stardoc's just-released sequel, Beyond Varallan. It was a generous touch by the author.

Once we started the discussion, it was obvious that everyone found Viehl's writing style accessible and the story engaging. All had finished the book, and two had even bought and read the sequel. We enjoyed reading about the intrepid doctor and her endless variety of patients with strange illnesses. The medical details and jargon seemed believable, and the atmosphere of the clinic seemed like a real workplace. Dr. Grey Veil was an interesting protagonist, and we enjoyed watching her develop friendships and romances with humans and non-humans from cultures much different from her own.

We did find some problems. A few of our group were disappointed that this book was not a "hard SF" novel with much scientific detail. One person felt that there were so many problems in the story's science that this book offered "boneless SF". A couple of folks also had an aversion to romance plots, and were disappointed that so much of Stardoc was devoted to Dr. Grey Veil's love life.

Despite our reservations, we found Stardoc to be a successful first novel. It was a fun, quick reading experience. We had such a good time reading and discussing it that several of us bought the sequel.

August 15: Mad Ship by Robin Hobb

We had a crowd of eleven for the discussion of Mad Ship. This book is the sequel to Ship of Magic, discussed by our group earlier in the year. Mad Ship is a fantasy novel featuring pirates, slaves, talking ships, and dragons.

We liked Mad Ship a lot. Everyone had found the book hard to put down, and all but one had finished it. (Yours truly got too busy working on ArmadilloCon, but I do plan to finish Mad Ship. Maybe after Cryptonomicon...) Three people had even read the sequel, Ship of Destiny, which came out in hardback the previous week. One person said she loved the book completely, noticed no flaws or extraneous words, and didn't want to hear anyone find fault with the book. Despite a span of several months since we read the first book, we all were able to pick up Mad Ship and resume the story without a hitch.

We were impressed by the growth of characters from Ship of Magic to Mad Ship, and felt that many of the characters could become heroes. We were almost disappointed that Malta, a teenage girl we'd loved to hate in the first book, underwent a lot of maturation and redemption and eventually became a sympathetic character. Fortunately for those who love to hate villains, Malta's father Kyle was just as evil as ever.

We liked that this book contained more action, and more answers to its mysteries were developed. Secrets involving dragons and the talking ships were revealed, setting up a potentially great tragedy. We learned a lot more about the pirates and their background. The story was so fascinating that many of stayed up late or reported to work late in order to keep on reading.

We recommend Mad Ship heartily, and all of us plan to read the next book. We think that Robin Hobb is writing some of today's best fantasy. Expect to read a report on our discussion of Ship of Destiny in about a year.

-- A. T. Campbell, III