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Great Science Fiction About Doctors
When the medical mind takes off on a flight of fancy (or fantasy), watch out! The results, as these eighteen tales show, can be chillingly plausible or tantalizingly irrational. Represented in this anthology are a number of practicing physicians -- including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (M.D.!) -- as well as such well-known science fictioneers as Arthur C. Clarke, C.M. Kornbluth, and Murray Leinster, and such classical writers as Poe and Hawthorne. Some of the stories ("The Man Without an Appetite" and "Family Resemblance") are lighthearted. Some ("The Little Black Bag" and "A Matter of Ethics") are biting. Some ("Rappacini's Daughter" and "The Brothers") are ghoulish. All are compelling, and all project a sometimes titillating, sometimes macabre, but always incisive view of the far-out worlds of medicine. The editors prescribe this collection for the fun of it: to relax tensions and expand the imagination. But if you come across some provacative, serious ideas, don't be startled -- science fiction is full of such intriguing surprises.
CONTENTS:
The Man Without an Appetite by Miles J. Breuer
Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting by Arthur C. Clarke
The Brothers by Clifton Dance, Jr.
The Great Keinpatz Experiment by Arthur Conan Doyle
Compound B by David Harold Fink
Rappacini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Psychophonic Nurse by David H. Keller
The Little Black Bag by C.M. Kornbluth
Ribbon in the Sky by Murray Leinster
Mate in Two Moves by Winston K. Marks
Bedside Manner by William Morrison
The Shopdropper by Alan Nelson
Family Resemblance by Alan E. Nourse
Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar by Edgar Allan Poe
Emergency Operation by Arthuer Porges
A Matter of Ethics by J.R. Shango
Bolden's Pets by F.L. Wallace
Expedition Mercy by J.A. Winter
CONTENTS:
The Man Without an Appetite by Miles J. Breuer
Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting by Arthur C. Clarke
The Brothers by Clifton Dance, Jr.
The Great Keinpatz Experiment by Arthur Conan Doyle
Compound B by David Harold Fink
Rappacini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Psychophonic Nurse by David H. Keller
The Little Black Bag by C.M. Kornbluth
Ribbon in the Sky by Murray Leinster
Mate in Two Moves by Winston K. Marks
Bedside Manner by William Morrison
The Shopdropper by Alan Nelson
Family Resemblance by Alan E. Nourse
Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar by Edgar Allan Poe
Emergency Operation by Arthuer Porges
A Matter of Ethics by J.R. Shango
Bolden's Pets by F.L. Wallace
Expedition Mercy by J.A. Winter
412 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
2 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
Groff Conklin
112 books25 followersEdward Groff Conklin (September 6, 1904, Glen Ridge, New Jersey - July 19, 1968, Pawling, New York) was a leading science fiction anthologist. Conklin edited 41 anthologies of science fiction, wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects. From 1950 to 1955, he was the book critic for Galaxy Science Fiction.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 1, 2024
While medical doctors are common and important in science fiction, stories directly about them or the field of medicine are a bit rarer. It was one magazine’s speculation that it would be difficult to fill an anthology with really good stories on the topic that convinced the editors that they could actually do just that. The eighteen stories in this anthology are arranged by last name of author, with several of those writers being themselves M.D.s.
Each story comes with an introduction by the editors, some more interesting than others as they talk about the authors and the themes of the story.
“The Man Without an Appetite” by Miles J. Breuer, M.D. starts out the volume with a rarity, as it was originally published in a Czech-language magazine and this was its first known publication in English. A doctor is contacted by the wife of a scientist he knows. The scientist no longer eats anything she cooks, and won’t tell her why. Does he hate her cooking? Does he hate her? Is he dying? He has assured her it’s none of those things, but is evasive about giving any other explanation. Can the doctor check on him?
The doctor checks up on his old friend. The scientist looks healthy, but doesn’t eat anything at restaurants or dinners. He’s evasive about why he isn’t eating in public, but does mention that he’s been running some fascinating experiments in his laboratory and the doctor should totally stop by some time for a demonstration.
Busy with his own stuff, the doctor puts this off, but soon the two men find themselves on a scientific expedition to an isolated island. The scientist gets stranded alone on the island without food supplies for a few weeks due to plot shenanigans. When the doctor and the others return, the scientist looks just fine, and finally gets around to explaining what’s going on.
I was struck by the sexism/poor treatment of the wife involved in this story. The explanation is in fact simple to understand, even if the science behind it would be complicated. Presumably the scientist had a snazzy presentation planned for any intellectual equal who came by the laboratory, which is why he didn’t explain it to the doctor before. But even if the wife couldn’t follow the details of the technology involved, she could easily have grasped the outcome and wouldn’t have to have gone through months of emotional turmoil.
“Expedition Mercy” by J.A. Winters closes out the anthology. The first expedition to Minotaur perished, so a second expedition staffed primarily by expert physicians has been sent to investigate. It’s a medical procedural, as the team follows protocols and evidence to arrive at a diagnostic result. It’s very good at the technical side (though missed some technology that’s been invented since) but some of the banter is a bit much. I did like the tension-breaking final bit, where the lead doctor explains that a particular situation could never happen…and it immediately does.
In between, there’s some gems. “Rappacini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” by Edgar Allan Poe are excellent nineteenth century tales that should need no introduction, but are well worth rereading.
“The Little Black Bag” by C.M. Kornbluth is about a future doctor’s bag transported back through time and winding up in the hands of a delicensed alcoholic. For him, it represents a possibility for redemption, but for his receptionist, it represents big money and it ends in tragedy. The future is the same one presented in “The Marching Morons”, in which stupid people have severely outbred the intelligent ones–you may have seen Idiocracy, which uses a similar premise.
“Mate in Two Moves” by Winston K. Marks, about a plague of insta-love, is remarkable in being the one story in the volume that has an intelligent and capable woman as a positive portrayal and the actual hero of the story. Indeed, once the twist is revealed, we can only marvel at her iron will and professionalism. (Homosexuality is never mentioned–evidently the disease also makes you attracted to the opposite sex automatically?)
Other stories are more interesting for their innovation. “The Psychophonic Nurse” by David H. Keller, M.D. has a woman who is struggling with post-partum issues, and her husband who decides to take an engineering approach to the problem. He creates what we would now call a robot in the form of “a black Mammy” controlled by spoken numbers from a gramophone to be the baby’s nursemaid. It has good features, but there are some bumps in the road. I liked the attention paid to how this innovation would be affecting the public.
But the story is also clear that the mother is in the wrong. No matter how skilled a writer she is, and we’re given to understand that she’s crackerjack, a mother’s only career should be raising her children.
“Compound B” by David Harold Fink, M.D. has a doctor create a serum that temporarily makes people highly intelligent. It only works on people who have a high melanin count. Since the doctor turns out to be highly racist, he doesn’t want to give black people an advantage over his white compatriots. He names the serum “Compound A” and spends the rest of the story looking for a serum that will work on pale people, the titular “Compound B.”
His wife is more clever than the doctor (though neither of them is wise) and comes up with various ways to keep the research funded, including becoming missionaries despite not having religious beliefs. She eventually secretly sells the secret of Compound A, which in a roundabout way leads to World War Three.
And then there’s “Family Resemblance” by Alan E. Nourse, M.D. which I reviewed previously. It’s not exactly science fiction, everything in it could happen with the technology of 1953, but it very much fits in this anthology, and has an amusing twist.
I’d say my least favorite story was “Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting” by Arthur C. Clarke, which is about the first permanent settlement on the Moon, and shoves the medical relevance into the final paragraph.
Content note: period sexism and racism, anthropophagy, murder, ableism, lookism, some gruesome medical stuff. Bright late teens readers should be able to handle it.
Overall: A fine anthology for science fiction fans who are interested in medical matters and have a tolerance for some outdated attitudes. It’s been reprinted several times so should be easily findable in used bookstores.
Each story comes with an introduction by the editors, some more interesting than others as they talk about the authors and the themes of the story.
“The Man Without an Appetite” by Miles J. Breuer, M.D. starts out the volume with a rarity, as it was originally published in a Czech-language magazine and this was its first known publication in English. A doctor is contacted by the wife of a scientist he knows. The scientist no longer eats anything she cooks, and won’t tell her why. Does he hate her cooking? Does he hate her? Is he dying? He has assured her it’s none of those things, but is evasive about giving any other explanation. Can the doctor check on him?
The doctor checks up on his old friend. The scientist looks healthy, but doesn’t eat anything at restaurants or dinners. He’s evasive about why he isn’t eating in public, but does mention that he’s been running some fascinating experiments in his laboratory and the doctor should totally stop by some time for a demonstration.
Busy with his own stuff, the doctor puts this off, but soon the two men find themselves on a scientific expedition to an isolated island. The scientist gets stranded alone on the island without food supplies for a few weeks due to plot shenanigans. When the doctor and the others return, the scientist looks just fine, and finally gets around to explaining what’s going on.
I was struck by the sexism/poor treatment of the wife involved in this story. The explanation is in fact simple to understand, even if the science behind it would be complicated. Presumably the scientist had a snazzy presentation planned for any intellectual equal who came by the laboratory, which is why he didn’t explain it to the doctor before. But even if the wife couldn’t follow the details of the technology involved, she could easily have grasped the outcome and wouldn’t have to have gone through months of emotional turmoil.
“Expedition Mercy” by J.A. Winters closes out the anthology. The first expedition to Minotaur perished, so a second expedition staffed primarily by expert physicians has been sent to investigate. It’s a medical procedural, as the team follows protocols and evidence to arrive at a diagnostic result. It’s very good at the technical side (though missed some technology that’s been invented since) but some of the banter is a bit much. I did like the tension-breaking final bit, where the lead doctor explains that a particular situation could never happen…and it immediately does.
In between, there’s some gems. “Rappacini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” by Edgar Allan Poe are excellent nineteenth century tales that should need no introduction, but are well worth rereading.
“The Little Black Bag” by C.M. Kornbluth is about a future doctor’s bag transported back through time and winding up in the hands of a delicensed alcoholic. For him, it represents a possibility for redemption, but for his receptionist, it represents big money and it ends in tragedy. The future is the same one presented in “The Marching Morons”, in which stupid people have severely outbred the intelligent ones–you may have seen Idiocracy, which uses a similar premise.
“Mate in Two Moves” by Winston K. Marks, about a plague of insta-love, is remarkable in being the one story in the volume that has an intelligent and capable woman as a positive portrayal and the actual hero of the story. Indeed, once the twist is revealed, we can only marvel at her iron will and professionalism. (Homosexuality is never mentioned–evidently the disease also makes you attracted to the opposite sex automatically?)
Other stories are more interesting for their innovation. “The Psychophonic Nurse” by David H. Keller, M.D. has a woman who is struggling with post-partum issues, and her husband who decides to take an engineering approach to the problem. He creates what we would now call a robot in the form of “a black Mammy” controlled by spoken numbers from a gramophone to be the baby’s nursemaid. It has good features, but there are some bumps in the road. I liked the attention paid to how this innovation would be affecting the public.
But the story is also clear that the mother is in the wrong. No matter how skilled a writer she is, and we’re given to understand that she’s crackerjack, a mother’s only career should be raising her children.
“Compound B” by David Harold Fink, M.D. has a doctor create a serum that temporarily makes people highly intelligent. It only works on people who have a high melanin count. Since the doctor turns out to be highly racist, he doesn’t want to give black people an advantage over his white compatriots. He names the serum “Compound A” and spends the rest of the story looking for a serum that will work on pale people, the titular “Compound B.”
His wife is more clever than the doctor (though neither of them is wise) and comes up with various ways to keep the research funded, including becoming missionaries despite not having religious beliefs. She eventually secretly sells the secret of Compound A, which in a roundabout way leads to World War Three.
And then there’s “Family Resemblance” by Alan E. Nourse, M.D. which I reviewed previously. It’s not exactly science fiction, everything in it could happen with the technology of 1953, but it very much fits in this anthology, and has an amusing twist.
I’d say my least favorite story was “Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting” by Arthur C. Clarke, which is about the first permanent settlement on the Moon, and shoves the medical relevance into the final paragraph.
Content note: period sexism and racism, anthropophagy, murder, ableism, lookism, some gruesome medical stuff. Bright late teens readers should be able to handle it.
Overall: A fine anthology for science fiction fans who are interested in medical matters and have a tolerance for some outdated attitudes. It’s been reprinted several times so should be easily findable in used bookstores.
Displaying 1 of 1 review