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tarana's review against another edition
5.0
This is a great book! Even though it is second of the series, it stands alone fine. This is a short book - by today's standards, it would be called a novella.
You too can read this book. It's currently available free for Kindle at Amazon. You can also get it at Guttenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18172). It's called the Med Service series and the books in order are:
1. Mutant Weapon
2. This World Is Taboo
3. Doctor to the Stars
4. SOS from 3 Worlds
The others may not be available in ebook, although there are fans of the author who have produced OCR's of these texts.
You too can read this book. It's currently available free for Kindle at Amazon. You can also get it at Guttenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18172). It's called the Med Service series and the books in order are:
1. Mutant Weapon
2. This World Is Taboo
3. Doctor to the Stars
4. SOS from 3 Worlds
The others may not be available in ebook, although there are fans of the author who have produced OCR's of these texts.
metaphorosis's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars - Metaphorosis Reviews
Calhoun is a Med Ship man, responsible for human health across a wide swathe of space. But now he's been called out to a sector where the Med Service screwed up, badly. With one world starving to death, and the other deathly afraid of plague, Calhoun and his alien pet and partner Murgatroyd will have to find a way to save both.
As with The Mutant Weapon, another in Murray Leinster's Med Ship series, This World is Taboo is surprisingly well thought out. It's a creature of its time, replete with strong men, protected women, and sexist assumptions, but Leinster takes some digs even at some of those stereotypes. There's a romantic element that we're simply supposed to assume, but most of the plot follows a fairly reliable internal logic. The science is more suggested than described, but it doesn't get in the way of the story. Calhoun is a likeable hero, and while he's thoroughly competent, the Med Service he works for isn't - a refreshing touch of gray for the era.
The firm backseat role for women is a little hard to get past in places, but aside from that, this is a novel that has held up fairly well. It's fun, solid, and undemanding.
Calhoun is a Med Ship man, responsible for human health across a wide swathe of space. But now he's been called out to a sector where the Med Service screwed up, badly. With one world starving to death, and the other deathly afraid of plague, Calhoun and his alien pet and partner Murgatroyd will have to find a way to save both.
As with The Mutant Weapon, another in Murray Leinster's Med Ship series, This World is Taboo is surprisingly well thought out. It's a creature of its time, replete with strong men, protected women, and sexist assumptions, but Leinster takes some digs even at some of those stereotypes. There's a romantic element that we're simply supposed to assume, but most of the plot follows a fairly reliable internal logic. The science is more suggested than described, but it doesn't get in the way of the story. Calhoun is a likeable hero, and while he's thoroughly competent, the Med Service he works for isn't - a refreshing touch of gray for the era.
The firm backseat role for women is a little hard to get past in places, but aside from that, this is a novel that has held up fairly well. It's fun, solid, and undemanding.
wishanem's review against another edition
3.0
Considering that it was written in 1961 this is a charming little anti-racism fable, but honestly it doesn't feature much unique material to recommend it to contemporary tastes. It is a simple, direct, and unsubtle bit of old Science Fiction.
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