Customer Reviews

The Aliens Among Us

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I've just bought the latest Sector General books that are being published by Tor and there's something you new fans of the series need to know. Although Tor does NOT list *Aliens Among Us* as a Sector General book, it does contain a Sector General story as well as (if memory serves me correctly -- I'm not home to check) the story behind the two characters who helped to found Sector General. If you love the series, as I do, you must get this one. ANN E. NICHOLS

- But most of the others are set in the same universe. 'Countercharm' concerns Dr. Conway's encounter with one of the hazards of his profession. Doctors at Sector General get their xenomedical knowledge from 'Educator Tapes' the recorded minds of ET physicians. The catch is you don't just get their medical knowledge but *everything* including their sex drive - which can lead to embarrassing and distracting consequences. In 'Kill or Cure' a Navy rescue team discovers their wreck is 'not of this world'. They do their best to help the injured, sluglike beings inside but do they dare let them contact their friends? An alien species is deliberately formenting military tensions on Earth in 'Red Alert'. Is this a preliminary to invasion? Or is something else going on? In 'Tableau' Earth's first contact with another species results in war. Then an Earth soldier and one of the alien Orligians find themselves trapped together in the wreckage of their ships and discover it's all due to a horrible misunderstanding. In 'Conspirators' the laboratory animals aboard the the first intersteller explorer plan their escape with the help of the ship's cat and a pet canary. In 'The Scavengers' a Terran taskforce is assigned to 'clean up' those aliens who survived the initial attack. And finally 'Occupation: Warrior' not only provides the missing half to the first Sector General story in 'Hospital Station' but gives the unexpected background of Fleet Commander Dermod.

Of the seven stories, only one story is of the General Sector plot though the cover of the book itself has a Sector General illustration (on my edition). Predictably, as I've said before, as this is my sixth White book, it's better to stick to the Sector General series of James White than to read his other books like Lifeboat or The Watch Below. The author takes a liking in using telepathy in all but the last of these short stories, something which I don't like to read about in science fiction as it provides an easy, almost copout, way to communicate. With the exception of The Conspirators, the stories in this collection aren't as good as I expected them to be because James White has had some seriously good ideas in his Sector General books. Perhaps it's better to stick to this collection of Sector General stories entitled `Sector General.'

Countercharm - 3/5 - A diabetic alien crustacean is submitted to an experimental surgery by none other than the famous Educator-taped Conway. 21 pages

To Kill or Cure - 4/5 - Black ooze ingesting snails are discovered in an UFO wreck and the discoverers struggle to cope with the medical situation on board. 29 pages

Red Alert - 3/5 - Artic blooded telepathic being is in charge of a mission to Earth which challenges its' species righteous morals. 29 pages

Tableau - 4/5 - Teddy bear-like aliens are at war with humans but the initial misunderstanding is due to mutual misconceptions. 26 pages

The Conspirators - 5/5 - Mice and other small mammals alike aboard a research ship gain intelligence and conspire to escape the ship at the next planet fall. 26 pages

The Scavengers - 3/5 - Technologically impaired fur-lined centipede-like aliens are being scooped up by humans and the stragglers must be saved. 23 pages

Occupation: Warrior - 2/5 - The Galactics allow a fair war on a distant planet between humans and an octopod race though no one really knows the rules of war. 57 pages