Customer Reviews

Stardoc

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

As an avid reader of Sci-Fi, one of my biggest complaints is that a lot of Sci-Fi books recycle the same plot elements over and over. Not so with this book. This is probably one of the most interesting and entertaining books I have read in some time.

The story starts out as this; Dr. Cherijo Grey Vail leaves Earth to get away from her domineering father and accepts a position on a backwater planet. But not only does she have to adapt to working in a new and alien environment, she has a secret lurking in her past which may have some disastrous consequences.

This is a very entertaining book, with plenty of entertaining and well written characters (human and plenty of aliens too), in an environment which seems like something out of a M.A.S.H. unit. And the way the medical environment is treated by the author is amazing in detail (due, I'm sure, to the author's medical experience).

The plot twists and turns in this novel also add to the enjoyment, as it keeps you guessing. Now, there are some pretty obvious plot elements (such as the big nasty plague which is killing the colonists, however, the way this is resolved is unique), and the way humankind is portrayed is rather bleak (I like to think we would be a little more receptive of alien species). Also, the amount of influence that one person appears to have over an entire "League" of planets seems unusual (maybe the reason for this will become more apparent in the sequel). These are all minor quibbles however, and did not stop me from enjoying this book for a second.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for something a little different, whether you are a regular reader of Sci-Fi or not. An excellent book!

Physician Cherijo Grey Veil needs to get off her world and fast. She hops a space freighter and flies into more trouble -- medical, political and romantical -- than you can shake a stethoscope at. The StarDoc gets herself mixed up with an assortment of weird and wonderful aliens, a plethora of medical emergencies reminiscent of a pangalactic ER, and enough problems of the heart to cause ventricular fibrillation. This fast and entertaining read has plenty of laughs(Cherijo's humor is often wry and self-deprecating which makes her a charming hero), action (requisite battles in the Clinic, on a space ship and in the bedroom) and love interests (so many aliens,so little time!) to make a series -- which is good because this StarDoc isn't finished yet. Reactions from others who have read this book have all been positive. The manager of a large chain bookseller says she doesn't usually read Science Fiction (SF) but was drawn by the Catherine Coulter endorsement on the cover (there is also a nice quote from Anne McCaffrey for fantasy fans). The manager liked the book and recommends it to her romance readers. A librarian I know, an avid SF reader, enjoyed the book immensely and has been recommending it to SF fans. If you are looking for interesting, well-drawn and engaging characters,fast and furious medical action, and all the conventions of SF -- faster than light ships, genetic tampering, aliens of every size and hue, blazing weapons and battles of the sexes -- look no farther than STARDOC. S.L. Viehl is a writer worth following into the vast reaches of black space and the inner working of the beating heart. Now I just have to wait until summer for a sequel! Quick, Healer Grey Veil, pass the tranquilizer hypospray and put me in cryosleep until July!

I am actually a bit embarrassed to give this a five star rating, but cannot deny the fact that I tore through it in an un-put-downable frenzy, quickly picking up the sequel to continue my quest with Dr. Cherijo Grey Veil.

More Sci-Fi than any other genre, this series nonetheless crosses genre borders and has something for everyone; medical thriller, murder mystery, space travel sci-fi, weird aliens, and a bit of romance and comedy for its lighter moments.

This author has brought to us bookworms a series of novels that are purely mindlessly enjoyable reads, perfect for any occasion; travel, curling up on a cold night, staying up all night, whatever you choose. A far shot from great fiction, it still deserves a five star rating for capturing my wandering mind and even diverting me from my own writing.

Dr. Cherijo Grey Veil is a feisty well trained surgeon who flees her homeworld of Terra after finding that her father has not only betrayed her but endangered her by her very existence. She takes a quick shuttle from Terra to K2 where she has accepted a position as a doctor in their free clinic, immediately immersed in treating all types of alien life forms she has never before encountered. She begins her service there under the animosity and hostility of both the clinic's administrator and one of her fellow practitioners. Things go from bad to worse.

She meets and falls in love with Kao Torin, an alien who Chooses her; and also a fellow Terran named Duncan Reever who was raised off world, who she cannot seem to get along with at all. Other friends and enemies are formed among the habitants of K2 during her residency, including a previously undiscovered cluster of sentient beings that call themselves The Core.

Shortly after her bonding with Kao, he becomes infected with an unidentified contagion and she is forced to save his life with dramatic measures, only to discover that they may not have been worth the price. In the meantime, with her newly discovered telepathic ability with Reever, she must find the cure for the contagion.

Her obsessive compulsion to perform her oath as a doctor to the fullest, combined with her previously undiscovered romantic ability, to the clash with her fellow Terran, to the climatic confrontation with those who would persecute her; plus a not inconsiderable amount of medical intrigue and murder mystery, leads to a rapid fire reading pleasure that will suck you into her frantic and outlandish world and leave you turning pages as quickly as you can.

Nothing but warm hearted good old fashioned reading pleasure here, an escape that readers so often seek out, with a cross-genre combination that actually works in that wondrously mysterious way we readers find so pleasing in a purely fictional escape from our cluttered lives. Enjoy!

This novel is for sci-fi fans who like super-fast character-driven plots with soft-science. The aliens are from Star Trek, the ships are from Star Wars and the science is pure fantasy. But if you like that kind of thing this is for you. If you want hard science fiction or James White medical sci-fi, this is NOT for you.

I bought this book after reading some glowing reviews, but I was very disappointed. It's hard to believe we're talking about the same book. It's very much like the Sector General stories of James White - which I enjoyed - but it doesn't make much sense.

A tiny snail walking across the floor of a reception area turns out to be a sentient alien coming in for his medical appointment. There's so much that's not logical about that! Cross-species romances seem to be common (apparently, humans are irresistible) and result in healthy human-alien hybrids. The heroine practices seat-of-her-pants surgery on aliens she's never even heard of before (and injects her own blood into an alien because he's dying of a disease that doesn't harm her?). Throughout the book, I kept thinking "This doesn't make sense."

Also, I never understood the motivation of any of the characters. Humans are apparently notorious bigots, except for every human we meet in the book. Aliens are just people dressed up in costume; they look but don't act alien. We read that the heroine falls in love, but we certainly don't see it. In fact, through most of the book we are TOLD, but we aren't SHOWN. It's hard to care about characters that you haven't gotten to know.

The book isn't horrible, but it's not a keeper. Some of the aliens are clever (actually, it could have been pretty funny, if it had been written as a comedy). But if you love science fiction with lots of aliens (as I do), you're much better off with David Brin or C.J. Cherryh.

Stardoc is nothing more than a good story set in a science fiction universe. No politics, no big the-world-should-work-this-way-or-we'll-all-die theme. It's just a lot of fun. Cherijo, who is a doctor on a backwater alien world, simply wanted to get away from her dominating father. With her she carries a terrible secret that could ruin not only him, but could end her own life as well.

Viehl was a medic in the USAF, and it shows. It's almost as if Viehl actually operated on alien species. The SF fan in me screaches over a number of scientific impossibilities (human/alien half-breeds, for one--we'd be lucky if aliens even used DNA for a genetic structure), but in the end it doesn't matter. SF, like all fiction, is designed to entertain, and Stardoc certainly does that.

I bought this book because I read BLADE DANCER and loved it. I only bought STARDOC because I didn't think I would like the book. Instead I loved it. This book reminds me of the old Science Fiction Classics. It depends more on characters than it does on science.

As soon as I read it I rushed out and bought the rest of them. Five in all and each one better than the last.

If you like Elizabeth Moon I think you will love these books. The characters are well rounded and you have some to love and some to hate.

Escaping Earth is a must for Dr. Cherijo Grey Veil. The drama of the clinic and the response of aliens not only to humans, but to each other is well done.

This is an older book and there are lots of reviews. After you read them, make up your own mind. As for myself I really loved the series. Each book got better and better. I hope there will be a new one soon.

The story is good and the characters are appealing. It reminded me a lot of what a "Sector General" novel (James White) would have been like if it were written by Anne McCaffrey. This novel is more complex than the typical Anne McCaffrey novel, in a good way. Viehl is very imaginative and has come up with a lot of interesting and fun ideas. My only negative comment is that the author should have let someone with more of a science background pre-read the novel and make suggestions. (I'd make the same comment about most Anne McCaffery novels.) It's the first in a series and I look forward to the next novel.

Stardoc is a novel that has the ability to get you lost in the world within. It is very well-paced after the first 100 pages or so. The first part isn't bad to be sure -- but it's an awkward "coming of age" series where the protagonist, Cherijo, wrestles with leaving her home and everything she knows to live on an alien world and treat non-human life forms in what is made to sound like a cesspit of a place. It is interesting, but perhaps it is the fact that the second half of the book is absolutely amazing that makes the first 1/4 or so look spare by comparison.

The main character, a female Terran doctor, is brilliant yet terribly naieve. Her thoughts and adventures are wonderful to read, from her first sexual experience, to dealing with self-identity problems and concerns, to the delightful interactions with her cat Jenner.

What usually swings science fiction novels for me into the "better" category as opposed to "drek" is 1) how they handle the science, and 2) how they handle minor characters. Stardoc isn't hard science fiction, but it is reasonably plausible, and in fact enjoyable so. It perhaps looks strange to see that the science must be enjoyable, but indeed, it is an integral part of the story -- especially this story in particular. As for #2, the minor characters...they were very well done. They weren't cardboard stand-ins for plot, or merely a catalyst to prod the story on with a haphazard jolt of bad writing. The minor characters help make this story. Even though the appearances of quite a few are brief, they shine without taking Cherijo's star, and are just as interesting as she; a rare feat of balance indeed.

So if you're tired of most "modern" science fiction, especially with badly written female leads, StarDoc is for you. It will probably spark your enjoyment in the genre. If you're looking for hard sci-fi or military sci-fi, this probably won't turn your crank as well. However, although I am a vested lover of hard sci-fi, I found this jaunt quite enjoyable nonetheless.

I've read several of the other reviews of STARDOC here, both pro and con, and I find myself in the curious position of being in general agreement with all of them. While some liked the book a lot, others were very critical of it, but all had reasons for their reaction that I can appreciate. This is a book that can easily be seen as either a half full glass or a half empty one. Or, like me, you can view it as just half a glass and let it go at that.

So what's good about STARDOC? Well, it's a mildly amusing space opera that's unpretentious (no deep cosmic meaning and none claimed). There are lots of weird aliens. The author has a light touch and is not above throwing in some humor. The over-the-top array of alien species, while totally unbelievable, was presented in the somewhat tongue-in-cheek manner of the original STAR WARS movie. Ms. Viehl clearly knows her way around a medical clinic and an ER, giving that aspect of the preceedings a good measure of authenticity. It was interesting enough to keep me turning the pages all the way to the end. All in all, a nice, easy, fun book that didn't try to be any more that that.

What was disappointing? While STARDOC kept me turning pages all the way to the end, I wasn't that happy with what I had when I got there. The story is a cliche from start to finish and, though it's a character-driven story, even the characters have little depth. The only exceptions are the main character, who is pretty predictable herself, and a character named Duncan Reever. Further, the aliens that played the most crucial role were really nothing more than blue-skinned humans. I've long been disenchanted with the common use of humanoid aliens in scifi, but no more so than here, where there were already so many other possibilities. Even worse, though, is the idea of sex between humans and aliens. The notion of humans finding physically and emotionally compatible individuals among totally alien species is mind-bogglingly ludicrous. Authors that resort to such nonsense always are a letdown for me.

STARDOC is a book that I found mildly enjoyable to read, but it left me less than satisfied at the end, despite the fact that I understood that it was just the first installment in an ongoing series. The series has proven popular, but even though I didn't have any trouble staying with STARDOC to the end and it's been a while since I read it, it wasn't compelling or fun enough to send me out after any of the others in the series. Not yet, anyway.