Medstar I: Battle Surgeons (Star Wars: Clone Wars Novel)

Customer Reviews:

Clone Wars MASH Unit.......2006-11-14

Battle Surgeons is our introduction to a Clone Wars MASH unit on the Planet Drongar, a pestilential quagmire of a world. The Republic medical team of surgeons, nurses, and droids is headed by Dr. Jos Vondar. Their primary function is to keep as many wounded clone troopers alive as possible. Their medical skills are impressive but the team is working under extremely difficult conditions and is having to treat a steady flow of injured troopers brought in by medlift.

Further complicating the situation is the presence of a Separatist spy and a Black Sun operative. Black Sun is particularly interested in a miracle plant called bota that is a cross between a mold and a fungus and has amazing medical uses. Bota grows only on Drongar and is immensely valuable.

As the book unfolds we come to understand the pressures of constantly trying to save lives while operating under huge pressure. We also are introduced again to Jedi Padawan Barriss Offee. We first met her in The Approaching Storm. We also meet once again the droid I-5, one of my favorite characters from Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter. Throw these characters in with the Sullustan reporter Den Dhur and Dr. Vondar's fellow surgeon and friend Zan Yant, and you get a volatile mix. The tale moves along at a good pace and gets the reader to think about the ethics of using clone troopers as cannon fodder. Also, Padawan Offee continues to struggle with the use of the Force and the appropriate ways for a Jedi to function. An entertaining tale that will be followed by Medstar II: Jedi Healer.

Medical adventures in the Clone Wars.......2006-09-18

Much of the Star Wars Expanded Universe is heavily focused on the main characters as presented in the films. However, there are some definite exceptions to this rule, and what I find particularly interesting is how little of the Clone Wars literature follows that trend. This is the fifth book in chronological order telling the story of the war, and so far one has focused on Obi-Wan, one on Mace Windu, and three have not featured main film characters in any meaningful way. Anakin has had essentially a handful of paragraphs, while Padme has been non-existent.

Medstar I: Battle Surgeons is the tale of a medical unit desperately fighting to keep clone troopers alive on a hostile world. The story could be summarized as M.A.S.H. blended with Star Wars. Like in Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, Michael Reaves (with Steve Perry this time) shows a strong capability for writing likable characters and snappy dialogue. The book flows well and is a quick read. I was excited to see the return of I-Five, the protocol-droid-with-an-attitude from Shadow Hunter. His acerbic attitude fits perfectly with the survival-through-sarcasm approach of the Rimsoo (a medical unit) the book follows.

I-Five also is a tool for exploring the nature of droids and their standing in the order of the universe. Jos Vondar, the lead surgeon in this particular camp, has narrowed his worldview to exclude many possibilities. This keeps him able to make it through the daily horror of his wartime surgery post. However, this attitude prevents him from dating outside his culture, from keeping an open mind to the possibilities inherent in a developed artificial intelligence, and from gaining a deeper understanding of the hundreds of clone troopers passing by his operating table. I-Five's self-exploration, important to him after the climactic events of Shadow Hunter, pushes Jos to begin his own journey within.

Also, the encounters Jos has with a clone trooper, CT-914, stir within him a dawning awareness that these soldiers are not just simple mindless vat-grown automatons; they are fully functioning human beings, only limited by the environment they were raised in and the accelerated aging forced into their genes. This running theme in the EU has totally changed how I view the troops of the Star Wars universe, adding considerably more interest to their progression from servants of the Republic and the Jedi to enforcers of the Empire. In the two Republic Commando books, The Cestus Deception, and Battle Surgeons, this theme has gotten some serious play.

I was struck by the Jedi Master/Padawan pair of Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee the very first time I saw them together in Attack of the Clones publicity photos, and it's cool to get Barriss as a main character for a second time (The Approaching Storm being the first). Keeping a Jedi in the character mix helps to firmly root this book in the Star Wars universe. The rest of the cast is a snappy group as well: Den Dhur the Sullustan reporter adds a non-combatant viewpoint to the war and the shadowy intrigues of several other characters look to be setting up a big payoff in Medstar II: Jedi Healer.

I wasn't hooked yet by the spy segment of this story: Column/Lens is written so vaguely as to be more frustrating than teasing. Generally my favorite stories focus very closely on following what the main characters know, and when knowledge is introduced that we as readers know but the heroes don't, I like to have some explanation. Otherwise I generally prefer to see these elements only come to light when the main characters discover them.

Overall, Medstar I: Battle Surgeons is an engaging and breezy tale, with strong characterization and solid if not completely gripping plotlines. I'm looking forward to reading the second book in the duology.

M*A*S*H in space...sort of.......2006-07-26

I originally bought this book based on how the back cover made it sound like it was MASH, Star Wars style. I love both MASH and Star Wars, so I thought putting them together would be awesome. It's not bad, but not that great either.

This book is on the verge of making way too many MASH-like references, down to the main wise-cracking surgeon, to an alien phrase that's obviously from "meatball surgery". But before you get too critical, the whole idea has an interested message: even in a technologically advanced and sophisticated future, war is still violent and pointless.

So all in all, give this book a chance. As soon as I finished this one, I went out to buy the next one. The middle drags a bit, but the end is pretty good. Overall an entertaining book.

Not enough Barriss Offee.......2006-03-07

Based on the authors and the character Barriss Offee, I was looking forward to reading this one. The characters were made interesting enough, but Barriss was not included in very much of the story. It was well written, but seemed to go nowhere. It was enjoyable enough to read I guess, but nothing special.

Surprisingly good!.......2006-01-02

I really wasn't expecting much from this novel. In fact, I'm not sure what even led me to pick it up. Suffice to say I was pleasantly surprised. This is one of the few Star Wars books I've read that contains almost no references to the main characters from any of the movies, and that's what makes it so refreshing. The idea of a Star Wars MASH unit may sound a little cheesy, but the book doesn't try to be 'Star Wars ER' rather it's much more of a character-driven novel that emphasizes the human cost of the Clone Wars. It's nice to see Star Wars novelists finally stop trying to create characters who can "out-Vader" Darth Vader and instead focus on the personalities who populate the Star Wars universe.

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A Fascinating Voyage
Collison - Unmemorable but well-written
It was a good book
Gritty realism, eighteenth-century history, and fast-paced adventure on the sea
This book screams for a sequel! So great, I want MORE!

Star-Crossed
Linda Collison
Manufacturer: Knopf Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375833633
Release Date: 2006-11-14

Book Description

Patricia Kelley has been raised a proper British lady--but she's become a stowaway. Her father is dead, and her future in peril. To claim the estate that is rightfully hers, she must travel across the seas to Barbados, hidden in the belly of merchant ship.

It is a daring escapade, and the plan works--for a time. But before she knows it, Patricia's secret is revealed, and she is torn between two worlds. During the day, she wears petticoats, inhabits the dignified realm of ship's officers, and trains as a surgeon's mate with the gentle Aeneas MacPherson; at night she dons pants and climbs the rigging in the rough company of sailors. And it is there, alongside boson's mate John Dalton, that she feels stunningly alive.

In this mesmerizing novel of daring, adventure, tragedy, and romance, Patricia must cross the threshold between night and day, lady and surgeon, and even woman and man. She must be bold in ways beyond her wildest dreams and take risks she never imagined possible. And she must fight for her life--and her love.

Customer Reviews:

A Fascinating Voyage.......2007-10-07

The essence of a good novel is its ability to whisk you away to a place where you would not normally go. Linda Collison does such a thing wonderfully in her debut novel, Star-Crossed. Patricia Kelley sets out in 1760 from her paupered but privileged place in English society to claim her dead father's only estate asset, a sugar plantation in Barbados. Stowing away on a boat, she is first moonstruck by a bosun's mate, Brian Dalton, but then faces the dilemma of choosing Dalton's love or marriage's security with a more sensible choice to marry the ship's doctor, MacPherson. The entire story swings many times like a pendulum between this two contrary choices.

Along the cruise, readers are exposed to life on several English navy ships are Patricia travels with Dalton and/or MacPherson to various Caribbean locales in changing circumstances. As she literally rides the staterooms by day and the yardarms by night, her life takes equally polar changes that can be sensually experienced by those wishing to join her on the page. Her final destination satisfies both her heart and her head.

A thoroughly enjoyable story.

Collison - Unmemorable but well-written.......2007-08-07

I bought this book on a whim simply because the cover of the book looked so entrancing and even the title caught me. Even though the pile of books I've yet to read was getting too high, I put this at the top and read it once I could.

Patricia Kelly is ther heroine of this story and it's told in her voice as she takes readers through the troubling strife of living as a woman in a man's world. As she struggles to make it to her father's Barbados manor by smuggling herself onto a ship, she meets an endearing doctor and a young and dashing sailor. But chance is not kind to the young and once she finds out she's no true place to go she takes the doctor's proposal and marries him for protection even though her heart already belongs to the young sailor. After the surprising death of her husband she hides herself in men's clothing and becomes a sailor on the seas until she meet back up with her true love in the end.

I could not like Patricia as much as other readers doubtedly had, I found her too picky by far despite her harsh living. I also was sad for her since she didn't like the doctor as well as she should have - he deserved more than her reticence and that set me against her even in the beginning. But the book entertained even if I lost interest once the doctor's untimely death occured and the writing was well done but it's not a book I would go back to and not one of my favorites.

Three stars for a mediocre book with a mediocre heroine.

It was a good book.......2007-07-31

I really liked this book it had sailing and romance and action...But there were some points in the story where i just did not feel like finishing the book. I felt like this would have been an even better novel if the author put more depth and speech into her characters and maybe a few more twists...something that we never thought would happen..because i felt that the story was very predictable...but i still enjoyed the book very much and encourage the people to read it...if you like historical fiction or the navy..or maybe even a quick romance novel.

Gritty realism, eighteenth-century history, and fast-paced adventure on the sea.......2007-07-25

Linda Collison's first novel "for young readers" is a historical tale that never underestimates the intelligence and the worldliness of her audience; set in the eighteenth century, the author conveys the excitement of sea life as seen through the eyes of its unique heroine, but still frankly depicts the saltiness and the seediness of the era.

In the course of her trans-Atlantic and Caribbean adventure, stowaway Patricia Kelley undergoes a virtual encyclopedia of what can go wrong for seafarers on a merchant vessel, a hospital ship, and a frigate: windless days, terrifying squalls, shipwreck, amputations, a yellow fever epidemic, warfare, piracy--even childbirth in desperate conditions. Also absorbing is the book's gritty social realism: the randy exploits of sailors in port, and the trollops who ply their trade; the social position of women (Patricia marries not for love, but from necessity); the desperate condition and appalling treatment of slaves; the ready availability of alcohol and the dangers of illicitly produced liquor.

The author's research informs some of my favorite portions of the book: the state of medical knowledge three centuries ago, the siege of Havana and Morro Castle, the childhood of Alexander Hamilton and the social opprobrium faced by his parents, and the rare but real occurrence of women who, disguised as men, found employment as sailors. Collison also infuses her work with the idiom of the trade, but she never strays from the story--although there are a few pages, particularly in the first quarter of the book, that may have especially young readers furtively flipping back to the book's glossary. ("Dalton made me stay in the ship's waist by the cannon while he went aft to the quarterdeck to check the mizzen rigging.")

Although the book's age-appropriate prose never whitewashes the era's horrors and squalor and vice, the overall tone is triumphant, and Patricia becomes accustomed to the limitations of her new life and gradually begins to enjoy its perks and its freedoms. The fast-paced opening and the subsequent series of unfortunate events are themselves compelling enough, but the heart of the book belongs to Collison's protagonist who, while initially immature and haughty, overcomes the odds and ultimately wins over the affections of her shipmates--and of her readers.

This book screams for a sequel! So great, I want MORE!.......2007-07-22

Although I don't generally read historical novels, this one intrigued me because I'd had some contact with the author whose background is so interesting I just HAD to read her first novel.

And Linda Collison doesn't disappoint! Her personal knowledge of boating and sailing shine throughout, as does her detailed research ... from her vivid descriptions of the seafaring life to the authentic jargon of seafaring people of those days. These characters and settings came alive for me; I felt Patricia Kelley's pain, her fear, her yearning ... admired her bravery.

STAR-CROSSED is a fascinating story of a young, eighteenth century, proper British schoolgirl whose father dies, leaving her in dire circumstances. Her father promised her a plantation in Barbados, but how is she to get there ... with no one to help? What is a poor, helpless girl to do?

Helpless? Well, this bold, inventive young woman proves to be anything but helpless. Wise-beyond-her-years, Patricia uses her wits to get aboard a ship sailing for Barbados. It's a daring escapade as she sets sail on the greatest adventure of her life.

You'll have to read the book to see how truly inventive our heroine is ... to learn of her relationship with bosun's mate Brian Dalton and other fascinating characters. Can a proper British lady find love and happiness with a bosun's mate? With a ship's surgeon? Could this be the meaning of Star-Crossed in the book's title?

Does our heroine ever regain her rightful estate? Or is her destiny, her happiness elsewhere? Well, you'll have to RFY (read for yourself) to find out. I promise you an exciting reading adventure with many unexpected twists and turns.

Bravo, Ms. Collison. This is a brilliant debut novel, as bold and full of passion as your memorable heroine. I hope you write a sequel; I want to know more of Patricia and Brian. (My hat's off to the cover designer, also. It's not only aesthetic, it's very creative and colorful.) - Betty Dravis, August 2007

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Unique, inspiring read
There's more to this book than meets the eye.
Adolescent Ignition
Fond memories
A classic medical/science fiction story.

Star surgeon
Alan Edward Nourse
Manufacturer: D. McKay Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales

ASIN: B0007DP9GK

Customer Reviews:

Unique, inspiring read.......2005-02-11

I first encountered this book when I was six or seven. It was the first novel that I read (mostly on my own!). A few days ago, I stumbled on it again while reorganizing my mother's extensive library of sci-fi and fantasy. Though I am now a college student and a writer, the book holds the same appeal to me now as it did when I was a child. It's one of a very select few that tells a story from an alien's POV. I could see as I read where the seeds of interest in science fiction, other life forms, and medical sciences had been sewn so many years ago.
This book has something for everyone, I think, since I can still enjoy it as much at 21 as I did at 7.

There's more to this book than meets the eye........2002-11-24

First, I believe several Star Trek concepts may have been based on some part of this book (then again, I'm not well versed in Sci Fi so Nourse may have based these element on Campbell or someone else even earlier, so if I didn't get this totally right someone with more savvy set the record straight).

The hero, who is of a different race making this book about how alien we preceive aliens, also has a empathic relationship with a little creature that sits on his shoulder and is awfully much like a Tribble.

Also the concept of an intellegent parasite and sybolic relationships pre-date Star Trek Next Generation and Deep Space Nine concepts of the Trill as well as Stargate concepts of the Gu-a-uld.

This book will teach young readers that things aren't always as they appear and that you have to dig deeper and look beyond the superficial!

It also teaches them not to use a crutch!

Some very advanced concepts for even adult sci-fi, but aimed at an audience 9 - 14 years old.

Good, intellegent reading.

Adolescent Ignition.......2002-03-01

I read this book originally as an adolescent, and later began to understand that this was really a book about racism and its evils. Its theme got me thinking early in life about what happens when a person is disenfranchised solely because of the way they look. The book is well written and it got me seriously interested in the whole realm of speculative/science fiction, which remains to this day, nearly 40 years later. I sure would like to see "Star Surgeon" by Alan E. Nourse reprinted so I could have a copy for my permanent library!

Fond memories.......2001-07-20

Alan Nourse was one of my favorite sf authors as a youth, and, unlike some other authors I read at the time, his work still stands up. Being an MD, he writes good "medical sf," and this was one of my favorite works of his.

A classic medical/science fiction story........1999-08-16

Star Surgeon tells the story of Dal Timgar, the first alien ever to graduate from the universally prestigious earth medical schools. To become a full-fledged star surgeon, Dal must first fight the prejudices of his superiors, and then the rigors of an interstellar emergency. This book represents Alan Nourse at his best. Writing about a subject dear to his heart (he was a doctor himself), he created a very entertaining Sci-Fi story.

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Conway Does it Again
Consists of "Resident Physician" and "Field Hospital"
Sector General At War

Star Surgeon
James White
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0345291697
Release Date: 1980-12-12

Customer Reviews:

Conway Does it Again.......2006-11-27

White wrote several interrelated stories about the Sector General hospital, most with Dr. Conway as their star character, over a period of several years. This book is actually two of those stories married together to form a single novel, detailing the events leading up to and through the resolution of the Etlan war.

All these stories have as their starting point the concept of the Hospital itself, built and staffed to treat the medical problems of a very large number of very varied aliens. White's aliens are well realized, from tiny flying empaths to three-ton chlorine breathers and everything in-between, all categorized in a nicely worked out classification system. Although written forty years ago, this concept is still very unique and almost totally unexplored by other authors.

Dr. Conway, for this episode, is first required to find out what is ailing a new type of alien that some of the other resident doctors consider to be a god. This section is pretty good, as the puzzle Conway faces is intriguing and has a good resolution. However, when the action turns to the lead up to the Etlan war, the solid emphasis on medical problems disappears, replaced by logistics, politics, paper work, and Conway's obsession with a certain nurse. The romance between the two is unfortunately not only not believable, it has all the earmarks of an adolescent fantasy, while Conway's other exploits in managing the hospital while it is being attacked reach the level of implausibility as just too much for any one person to accomplish.

But, like most of the Sector stories, one thing this story does have is heart. Here we see the well-springs of the dedication to their job that many physicians have, and if you let it, that dedication will touch your own heart - and for this book, it becomes an important part of the plot. This may not be the best of these stories, but it's still worth reading, if only for this one item.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

Consists of "Resident Physician" and "Field Hospital".......2002-05-28

The first 4 chapters form the novella "Resident Physician". The entire book tells the story of the events that culminated in the Eltan War. The events of a later novel, _Final Diagnosis_, focus on a man who grew up on Etla after the war, so this book should be read before tackling _Final Diagnosis_, if possible.

The Monitor Corps has found a representative of a strange species alone in a drifting spacecraft, under circumstances indicating that it killed and ate its only fellow crewmember - its personal physician - apparently in a fit of paranoia as recorded in its journal, believing that the healer was sabotaging its physical health. Paradoxically, the Ians (the dragonfly-like beings discovered in the last story of _Hospital Station_, the previous volume) insist that the survivor is from their own galaxy, of an immensely long-lived race known to be invariably benevolent, noted for taking over fixer-upper planetary cultures - e.g. wracked by disease, war, and other long-term problems - and leaving them vastly improved. But if the patient didn't commit murder, what happened to its personal physician?

After that mystery is sorted out, the newly encountered VIP continues its journey to its next project: the planet Etla, a troubled outpost of a self-styled interstellar Empire previously unknown to the Galactic Federation. Etla has been wracked with plagues for generations and is subject to the rather corrupt imperial government - it appears to be an ideal candidate for Lonvellin's expert help. But in a fit of xenophobia, they lash out at the stranger in their midst, and leap to the conclusion that all their problems are the result of biological warfare. And the only coordinates invariably installed on every ship, and thus the only "enemy" target the empire can find, are the coordinates of Sector General.

"Resident Physician" is *extremely* clever. The political infighting resulting in the Etlan War is very believable. The only quibble I have is a situation leading to Sector General's translation computer going off-line without the hospital being destroyed in the process - it should be so well protected that it couldn't be so severely damaged without taking the hospital with it - but the incident leads to some very dramatic crises that make a good read.

Sector General At War.......2001-07-20

Senior Physician Conway's latest patient belongs to an unidentified species originating in a neighboring Galaxy. It is in deep coma - and apparently guilty of cannibalism! As Conway explains; the problem is basically something it ate.... Once its medical problems are solved the being, Lonvellin, joins forces with the Monitor Corps, the Galactic Federation's exploration and peacekeeping arm, to bring aid to a newly discovered planet whose humanoid inhabitants suffer from an appalling variety of endemic diseases. Conway is called in to assist but the mission blows up in all their faces and Sector General finds itself in the middle of an all out war. Casualties among the senior staff leave Conway in charge of the medical side while Fleet Commander Dermod leads the forces defending the station, but the odds against the defenders are getting worse all the time. Sector General may not survive. Perhaps my favorite of the whole series.

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Star Surgeon
Alan E. Nourse
Manufacturer: Scholastic Book Services
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IN2H14

4 Titles By James White Sector General Series (1-4) : 1. Hospital Station 2. Star Surgeon 3. The Aliens Among Us 4. Major Operation

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4 Titles By James White Sector General Series (1-4) : 1. Hospital Station 2. Star Surgeon 3. The Aliens Among Us 4. Major Operation
James White
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: B000TGL8OM

Product Description

multiple books ship as one item. save on shipping/handling charges.

Amazing Stories, December 1959 (Vol. 33, No. 12) Complete Novel *Star Surgeon*

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Amazing Stories, December 1959 (Vol. 33, No. 12) Complete Novel *Star Surgeon*
Alan E. Nourse , Paul W. Fairman , Phyllis Gotlieb , and Rosel George Brown
Manufacturer: Ziff-Davis
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UUCKGW

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Battle Surgeons (Star Wars: Medstar)
Michael Reaves , and Steve Perry
Manufacturer: Arrow Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Five Star Expressions - The Cymry Ring (Five Star Expressions)

Average customer rating:

Slow moving and dry
2.5 stars - Definitely not Dymmoch's best work
special time travel thriller

Five Star Expressions - The Cymry Ring (Five Star Expressions)
Michael Allen Dymmoch
Manufacturer: Five Star
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 159414429X

Book Description

Ian Carreg, a charming detective with a career he loves, is coming to terms with the recent death of his wife and middle age. He's sent to apprehend a convicted felon, Jemma Henderson. She is a gifted surgeon with beauty to match and the daughter of a famous physicist - and a murderer. When he pursues her to Cymry Henge, something - or someone - knocks him out cold. He regains consciousness in a strange yet oddly familiar place - second-century Roman Britain. An encounter with three armed horsemen leads to an extended stay in the horsemen's village. Then the Roman cavalry arrives, and Ian and Jemma must fight to save their lives. They become Roman prisoners, and Ian starts to doubt his sanity. When their captors send them on a journey Ian finally accepts the truth - just in time to join with Jemma in foiling a conspiracy that could alter history.

Michael Allen Dymmoch has served as president and secretary of the Midwest Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, and newsletter editor for the Chicagoland chapter of Sisters in Crime.

Customer Reviews:

Slow moving and dry.......2006-06-25

When I first read about this book, I was extremly exciited. It combined historical fiction with, what I thought would be a compelling mystery. Neither of the these components turned out to be interesting or enlightening in any way. The story started out slowly, and dully, and remained that way through most of the book. I forced myself to finish it, thinking the ending would compensate for its lack of entertaining material in the rest of it. It hardly did. For those of you who are looking for an intriguing novel that will provide new details about ancient Britian, or time travel, I would suggest you find another book.

2.5 stars - Definitely not Dymmoch's best work.......2006-06-17

CID detective Ian Carreg is a widower with grown children and a grandchild on the way. Dr. Jemma Henderson is a physician and daughter of a physicist; she is also wanted for murder in America. When Carreg follows Jemma into a shed on Cyrmy Henge, he is knocked unconscious. He wakes up, with Jemma in Roman Britten during the Iron Age.

I have always been a fan of Dymmoch's writing. I am also a fan of time travel. Unfortunately, neither work very well in this book. Not only was there no logical explanation for how the time travel happened, there really wasn't any explanation at all. There was also no logical loop connecting a talisman from the present to the past and back to the present, which could have been resolved with just a bit more thinking. The history was fascinating and I learned quite a bit about the period, but the characters were flat, as was the story. I kept expecting to feel more involved and just never did. So why did I rate it "Okay" rather than "Poor." Because I did finish the book, fairly easily, shall definitely keep reading other books by Ms. Dymmoch and, overall, recommend her as an author. Just don't judge the author by this particular novel.

special time travel thriller.......2006-04-14

Fifty-five years old English CID Detective Ian Carreg is still coming to grips over the death of his beloved wife Marjorie, who died when an out of control speeding car hit her. Though he "talks" to his Marjorie, he keeps himself busy though his two adult children Peter and Margaret worry about him.

CID sends Ian to arrest escaped felon Dr. Jemma Henderson, daughter of renowned physicist Dr. Marcus Henderson, convicted of murdering her lover. He heads to her dad's home where he enters a shed in Cymry Henge just before an explosion occurs. He soon realizes that somehow Jemma sent both of them back seventeen centuries to Roman Britannia where they confront and then befriend three Welsh. Captured by the Roman legions, the pair with their new friends struggle to survive while trying to insure future history remains the same while trying to figure out a way to tell her father and his children they live albeit over a millennium before they were born.

THE CYMRY RING starts off like a typical police procedural tale until her father's machine successfully sends them back seventeen hundred years and switches into a time travel thriller. The story line is action-packed especially in Roman times as the "settlers" from the twenty-first century fight to stay alive in a world so different than their birth time. Ian and Jemma are believable characters, easy to understand so readers empathize with their plight. This is a special tale told by a master storyteller.

Harriet Klausner

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STAR SURGEON
Alan E. Nourse
Manufacturer: David McKay 1960 5th Printing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NSFU2M

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