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Spaceship Medic
'Space emergency! The hull of this ship has been holed. Follw space survival drill.'
'We are all dead men,' says First Engineer Holtz, when the spaceship Johannes Kepler is hit by a meteorite. But Lieutenant Donald Chase, a young doctor on his first flight, refuses to give in to despair. Soon he's in charge of the damaged ship, sailing off course without radio contact and heading for a solar storm.
Can he get to Mars safely?
'We are all dead men,' says First Engineer Holtz, when the spaceship Johannes Kepler is hit by a meteorite. But Lieutenant Donald Chase, a young doctor on his first flight, refuses to give in to despair. Soon he's in charge of the damaged ship, sailing off course without radio contact and heading for a solar storm.
Can he get to Mars safely?
141 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
4 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
About the author
Harry Harrison
1,261 books1,041 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
May 26, 2025
Rating: 3.5 stars
The author of this action-packed, science-fiction, YA novella is the same Harry Harrison best known for his character the ‘Stainless Steel Rat‘; and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), which was the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). This short book is aimed at younger teenagers. The plot is fairly simple, the writing bare-bones, but there is a lot of excitement and action going on, some of it simultaneously. Lieutenant Donald Chase is the resident doctor on his first space-flight, when a meteorite hits the Johannes Kepler, a spaceship transporting passengers between the Lunar space-station and Mars. Almost everything that could possibly go wrong, does. Harrison’s 1970’s guess at what future technology would look like is both prescience but also strangely anachronistic. They still use paper and computer print-outs, and telephones (this might not be such a bad idea if the power goes out). This ended up being a fun jaunty little space adventure with no politics or ulterior agendas. I’m glad I fished it out of the crate at the charity shop. I’m surprised this story didn’t end up as a film or short TV series.
The author of this action-packed, science-fiction, YA novella is the same Harry Harrison best known for his character the ‘Stainless Steel Rat‘; and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), which was the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). This short book is aimed at younger teenagers. The plot is fairly simple, the writing bare-bones, but there is a lot of excitement and action going on, some of it simultaneously. Lieutenant Donald Chase is the resident doctor on his first space-flight, when a meteorite hits the Johannes Kepler, a spaceship transporting passengers between the Lunar space-station and Mars. Almost everything that could possibly go wrong, does. Harrison’s 1970’s guess at what future technology would look like is both prescience but also strangely anachronistic. They still use paper and computer print-outs, and telephones (this might not be such a bad idea if the power goes out). This ended up being a fun jaunty little space adventure with no politics or ulterior agendas. I’m glad I fished it out of the crate at the charity shop. I’m surprised this story didn’t end up as a film or short TV series.
July 25, 2016
"The Martian" 40 years earlier - i.e. exciting problem solving in space.
September 21, 2024
I'm no stranger to Harry Harrison's work, not least because I loved his 'Stainless Steel Rat' books when I was a kid and went back after COVID to review that entire series. Of course, his 1966 novel 'Make Room! Make Room!' was adapted to film as 'Soylent Green', though I don't actually recall reading it. This short novel for children arrived four years later in 1970, published right after the second 'Stainless Steel Rat' book, though it first saw print in the November 1969 issue of 'Venture Science Fiction', as 'Plague Ship'.
It hasn't been adapted to film but it really should be, because it's absolutely non-stop action with so much packed into a mere hundred and thirty pages that it's easy to devour in a single sitting. It didn't last me through one bath, as I finished it up and went on to something else, but few books four times the length contain quite so much going on. In fact, there's so much happening that we can't even break it down into sections with their own cliffhanger ending leading into the next, as Harrison knows that he doesn't have enough room to do that and so overlaps his cliffhangers, so that Donald Chase often has to deal with this thing while he's wrapping up that thing and getting ready to be floored by another thing.
Chase is a doctor when the book starts—and a junior medical officer at that—on a passenger liner called the Johannes Kepler that works the regular ninety-two day shuttle run from Earth to Mars and back. However, on this particular occasion, a meteorite hits the Kepler head on, taking out an uncomfortable amount of the crew. Capt. Kardyd is dead, along with twelve other crew members, because they were on the bridge when it happened, having an officer's meeting. Chase, who's just a mere lieutenant at this point, is safe in the sick bay, but it's now him and First Engineer Holtz in a much reduced chain of command and Holtz doesn't want the captaincy.
That's chapter one. The meteorite hits on page one; Chase realises what's happened and suits up on page two; checks with the computer system as to the nature of the emergency on page three; chases up to the bridge on page four and orchestrates a way inside on page five; discovers all the corpses on page six and the scale of the problem on page seven; and finally realises that it's only him and Holtz to save the day on page eight. That means that Harrison took a mere eight pages to introduce us to the setting, the location, the primary character and the first crisis at hand. I would guess that we haven't taken a breath by that point.
Crucially, he doesn't slow down from there. Of course, the doctor has to address all the immediate problems: repairing the ship, treating the wounded, burying the dead, explaining the situation to the hundred and forty-seven passengers—at least those who are still alive—and so on. However, once he realises that he's fully in charge at the end of chapter two, he's given the first in a series of further problems to solve, namely that they're now way off course and, unless they can correct very quickly indeed, they'll miss Mars and drift away into space. However, they can't even correct their course because they're tumbling in the wake of the collision and their lateral jets are out.
And so he assembles a team to tackle the problem, through a combination of skill, expertise and the sort of ingenuity that books like this one thrive on. Chief Petty Officer Kurikka helped to build the Big Joe and has served on her ever since her launch. Dr. Ugalde, of the University of Mexico, is only a passenger but he's also a talented mathematician. And Computerman Boyd can talk to the ship, through the rather antiquated computer systems that run it, the primary reason why this is clearly a classic children's novel written over half a century ago. I don't know what year this is but they're running routine trips to Mars on liners that are run on computer print-outs and ordinary electric typewriters connected directly to the ship's computers.
Oh, and just in case you thought that was plenty for Chase to be dealing with before he even gets to chapter four, I should add that they're also facing a water shortage, after the meteorite tore a hole in the hull through some of the tanks; their communications are almost dead too, so they're unable to talk to either Earth or Mars, but they do have enough to realise that they're being sent a warning of an imminent solar storm that's likely to fry them for good. Now you see why this has every reason to be turned into a movie? With modern day special effects this would look amazing and we're rarely given a moment to breathe.
We haven't even got to the plague yet that you all knew had to arrive sooner rather than later, as that original title of 'Plague Ship' is kind of a giveaway. That's an unprecedented plague too that arrived with the meteorite rather than being brought on board by one of the passengers. Oh, and there's a mutiny too, led by a pain-in-the-ass passenger who also happens to be a retired general, whose first stubbornly resistant encounter with Chase leads to him being carried away by a couple of burly crewmen in order to save his life. Of course, that descends quickly.
This book has sat on my shelf for much of my life, as part of a small box set called 'A Puffin Science Fiction Galaxy', but I don't believe I've ever read any of the four books contained within it. This is the one that seems to have stood the test of time best, if we can go by online ratings and reviews, but the other three aren't trivial either. Arthur C. Clarke's 'Islands in the Sky' and Andre Norton's 'Catseye' are children's books written by authors who wrote many more for adults, as indeed did Harry Harrison. 'Space Hostages', however, was by an author who specialised in science fiction for children, Nicholas Fisk, who seemed to be everywhere when I was ten. I should check out his book, 'A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair', though it came out in 1982 so isn't old enough for this project.
For now, I'm very happy that I chose to tackle this one instead. I knew Harry Harrison wrote both serious and humorous science fiction books for adults, there being a striking difference between 'Make Room! Make Room!' or the 'Deathworld' trilogy and the 'Stainless Steel Rat' and 'Bill the Galactic Hero' books. This shows that he was just as adept at children's science fiction, though he didn't go there as often. 'The Man from P.I.G.' and 'The Man from R.O.B.O.T.', comedy knock-offs of 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' set in space may be the most obvious examples other than this. His output also included thrillers, alternative histories and even a ghostwritten 'Saint' novel. I ought to dig deeper.
Originally posted at the Nameless Zine in March 2024:
https://www.thenamelesszine.org/Voice...
Index of all my Nameless Zine reviews:
https://books.apocalypselaterempire.com/
It hasn't been adapted to film but it really should be, because it's absolutely non-stop action with so much packed into a mere hundred and thirty pages that it's easy to devour in a single sitting. It didn't last me through one bath, as I finished it up and went on to something else, but few books four times the length contain quite so much going on. In fact, there's so much happening that we can't even break it down into sections with their own cliffhanger ending leading into the next, as Harrison knows that he doesn't have enough room to do that and so overlaps his cliffhangers, so that Donald Chase often has to deal with this thing while he's wrapping up that thing and getting ready to be floored by another thing.
Chase is a doctor when the book starts—and a junior medical officer at that—on a passenger liner called the Johannes Kepler that works the regular ninety-two day shuttle run from Earth to Mars and back. However, on this particular occasion, a meteorite hits the Kepler head on, taking out an uncomfortable amount of the crew. Capt. Kardyd is dead, along with twelve other crew members, because they were on the bridge when it happened, having an officer's meeting. Chase, who's just a mere lieutenant at this point, is safe in the sick bay, but it's now him and First Engineer Holtz in a much reduced chain of command and Holtz doesn't want the captaincy.
That's chapter one. The meteorite hits on page one; Chase realises what's happened and suits up on page two; checks with the computer system as to the nature of the emergency on page three; chases up to the bridge on page four and orchestrates a way inside on page five; discovers all the corpses on page six and the scale of the problem on page seven; and finally realises that it's only him and Holtz to save the day on page eight. That means that Harrison took a mere eight pages to introduce us to the setting, the location, the primary character and the first crisis at hand. I would guess that we haven't taken a breath by that point.
Crucially, he doesn't slow down from there. Of course, the doctor has to address all the immediate problems: repairing the ship, treating the wounded, burying the dead, explaining the situation to the hundred and forty-seven passengers—at least those who are still alive—and so on. However, once he realises that he's fully in charge at the end of chapter two, he's given the first in a series of further problems to solve, namely that they're now way off course and, unless they can correct very quickly indeed, they'll miss Mars and drift away into space. However, they can't even correct their course because they're tumbling in the wake of the collision and their lateral jets are out.
And so he assembles a team to tackle the problem, through a combination of skill, expertise and the sort of ingenuity that books like this one thrive on. Chief Petty Officer Kurikka helped to build the Big Joe and has served on her ever since her launch. Dr. Ugalde, of the University of Mexico, is only a passenger but he's also a talented mathematician. And Computerman Boyd can talk to the ship, through the rather antiquated computer systems that run it, the primary reason why this is clearly a classic children's novel written over half a century ago. I don't know what year this is but they're running routine trips to Mars on liners that are run on computer print-outs and ordinary electric typewriters connected directly to the ship's computers.
Oh, and just in case you thought that was plenty for Chase to be dealing with before he even gets to chapter four, I should add that they're also facing a water shortage, after the meteorite tore a hole in the hull through some of the tanks; their communications are almost dead too, so they're unable to talk to either Earth or Mars, but they do have enough to realise that they're being sent a warning of an imminent solar storm that's likely to fry them for good. Now you see why this has every reason to be turned into a movie? With modern day special effects this would look amazing and we're rarely given a moment to breathe.
We haven't even got to the plague yet that you all knew had to arrive sooner rather than later, as that original title of 'Plague Ship' is kind of a giveaway. That's an unprecedented plague too that arrived with the meteorite rather than being brought on board by one of the passengers. Oh, and there's a mutiny too, led by a pain-in-the-ass passenger who also happens to be a retired general, whose first stubbornly resistant encounter with Chase leads to him being carried away by a couple of burly crewmen in order to save his life. Of course, that descends quickly.
This book has sat on my shelf for much of my life, as part of a small box set called 'A Puffin Science Fiction Galaxy', but I don't believe I've ever read any of the four books contained within it. This is the one that seems to have stood the test of time best, if we can go by online ratings and reviews, but the other three aren't trivial either. Arthur C. Clarke's 'Islands in the Sky' and Andre Norton's 'Catseye' are children's books written by authors who wrote many more for adults, as indeed did Harry Harrison. 'Space Hostages', however, was by an author who specialised in science fiction for children, Nicholas Fisk, who seemed to be everywhere when I was ten. I should check out his book, 'A Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair', though it came out in 1982 so isn't old enough for this project.
For now, I'm very happy that I chose to tackle this one instead. I knew Harry Harrison wrote both serious and humorous science fiction books for adults, there being a striking difference between 'Make Room! Make Room!' or the 'Deathworld' trilogy and the 'Stainless Steel Rat' and 'Bill the Galactic Hero' books. This shows that he was just as adept at children's science fiction, though he didn't go there as often. 'The Man from P.I.G.' and 'The Man from R.O.B.O.T.', comedy knock-offs of 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' set in space may be the most obvious examples other than this. His output also included thrillers, alternative histories and even a ghostwritten 'Saint' novel. I ought to dig deeper.
Originally posted at the Nameless Zine in March 2024:
https://www.thenamelesszine.org/Voice...
Index of all my Nameless Zine reviews:
https://books.apocalypselaterempire.com/
March 21, 2014
This was the first science fiction book I ever read. I loved it as a boy. Opened up the joys of sci if that has stayed with me all my life.
February 23, 2022
5 / 5 for 'Spaceship Medic' by Harry Harrison
What a fantastic little book this is!
It's only 142 pages long, so by today's standards it's more of a novella, but it is utterly thrilling from start to finish. There's gentle humour, a tension that begins on the very first page and increases relentlessly through the whole story, some engrossing science, lots of pathos and emotion, lots of little set-pieces and lots of sudden twists; all of which add up to make this one of the most thrilling little sci-fi adventures I've ever read.
Ships Doctor Don Chase becomes the senior officer on a huge passenger/cargo ship, en-route to Mars after it is hit by a small meteorite. Over the course of the story, he, and his remaining crew (and a particularly gutsy passenger) have to solve the numerous problems that crop up - a solar storm, lack of oxygen, a violent mutiny, the effects of the meteorite itself, a broken navigation and communication system....oh, and a space-plague!!
All in 142 pages!!
It's all completely believable, excellently written and utterly compelling. Don is an enjoyable protagonist and the wonderful supporting characters such as Kurrikka, Rama and Ugalde provide humour, a sounding board for exposition and science theories as well as emotional support. I actually found myself filling up reading the last few pages.
Books like this are the very reason Harrison is deservedly regarded as a Grandmaster of science fiction. Harry Harrison is fucking awesome and this book is fucking awesome.
5 / 5
What a fantastic little book this is!
It's only 142 pages long, so by today's standards it's more of a novella, but it is utterly thrilling from start to finish. There's gentle humour, a tension that begins on the very first page and increases relentlessly through the whole story, some engrossing science, lots of pathos and emotion, lots of little set-pieces and lots of sudden twists; all of which add up to make this one of the most thrilling little sci-fi adventures I've ever read.
Ships Doctor Don Chase becomes the senior officer on a huge passenger/cargo ship, en-route to Mars after it is hit by a small meteorite. Over the course of the story, he, and his remaining crew (and a particularly gutsy passenger) have to solve the numerous problems that crop up - a solar storm, lack of oxygen, a violent mutiny, the effects of the meteorite itself, a broken navigation and communication system....oh, and a space-plague!!
All in 142 pages!!
It's all completely believable, excellently written and utterly compelling. Don is an enjoyable protagonist and the wonderful supporting characters such as Kurrikka, Rama and Ugalde provide humour, a sounding board for exposition and science theories as well as emotional support. I actually found myself filling up reading the last few pages.
Books like this are the very reason Harrison is deservedly regarded as a Grandmaster of science fiction. Harry Harrison is fucking awesome and this book is fucking awesome.
5 / 5
June 18, 2019
Vauhdikas ja kepeä pieni avaruusseikkailu.
Kiva tietää, että parin sadan vuoden päästä Mars on asutettu ja sinne matkustaessa voi avaruusaluksessa tietysti taas vapaasti tupakoida, hakea tietoa ja viihdettä aluksen KIRJAstosta ja tylsien kosketusnäyttöjen sijaan tietokone antaa informaation miehistölle kätevästi printtinä.
Eli tarinan paras anti oli ehkä kyllä tuossa vuonna 1970 kuvitellussa tulevaisuudennäkymässä. Tylsä yksityiskohta oli, että Harry Harrison ei nähnyt vuonna 1970, että naisilla olisi ollut mitään asiaa yhteenkään edes vähäisempään ammatilliseen roolin avaruusmatkailussa parin sadan vuoden päästä tulevaisuudessa.
Kiva tietää, että parin sadan vuoden päästä Mars on asutettu ja sinne matkustaessa voi avaruusaluksessa tietysti taas vapaasti tupakoida, hakea tietoa ja viihdettä aluksen KIRJAstosta ja tylsien kosketusnäyttöjen sijaan tietokone antaa informaation miehistölle kätevästi printtinä.
Eli tarinan paras anti oli ehkä kyllä tuossa vuonna 1970 kuvitellussa tulevaisuudennäkymässä. Tylsä yksityiskohta oli, että Harry Harrison ei nähnyt vuonna 1970, että naisilla olisi ollut mitään asiaa yhteenkään edes vähäisempään ammatilliseen roolin avaruusmatkailussa parin sadan vuoden päästä tulevaisuudessa.
November 6, 2023
Так вот откуда Энди Уир черпал свои идеи для Марсианина. И оставшийся по сути один вышивальщик, и радиация, и проблема воды и воздуха, и проблема веса корабля, и проблема со связью, и удаленная поддержка всего мира. А еще вирус и бунт на корабле. Добротная фантастика для «послушать на фоне других дел».
September 29, 2021
I really loved this book, it was just what I needed after the slowness of Wizard of Earthsea.
I didn't know what to expect from the title, but BOOM you are straight into the action!
It's only a short book, but it's a great read with lots to keep you turning pages.
Harry rarely disappoints!
I didn't know what to expect from the title, but BOOM you are straight into the action!
It's only a short book, but it's a great read with lots to keep you turning pages.
Harry rarely disappoints!
October 24, 2024
***½. Presented as a young readers sci-fi but works perfectly well for adults. Interesting use of science throughout, and its 1970-vintage predictions of technology hold up pretty well. Fine prose, fast paced story that keeps the reader hooked.
Read
December 3, 2025This is yet another of the classic sci-fi novels I originally read as a child. It holds up. There are better books out there, but this story for all the simplicity is compelling. I was delighted by the way I could enjoy it just as much decades later.
May 8, 2021
An enjoyable work for the time. Would've worked well in magazine form.
December 17, 2022
Easy read, clipped along and I found it enjoyable. Great adventure story. Dated a little tech wise but doesn’t really distract
August 11, 2024
A fun little space thriller. It starts off with a disaster in progress and we get to know the doctor and his quick mind and steadfast responsibilities straight awaty. There is a lot of action, some drama and of course brilliant minds at work to save the day.
December 19, 2022
That is something like The Martian, but about a doctor in the spaceship. If you like The Martian, you can give a shot to that hard sci fi. But I do not like The Martian.
sony-or-android
January 16, 2019SF with no villains...
Not Found
Not Found
September 28, 2012
This book is great fun and very fast paced. It's non-stop action right from the start, with a whole series of perilous situations and crises that the hero (ship's doctor) has to overcome. The danger, technical difficulty and vulnerability of humans living in an alien environment (space) comes across really well and adds to the tension. Will the crew and passengers survive the journey on their damaged ship?
For a child who is old enough to read proper books, likes action and adventure and is interested in space, you couldn't do better than give them this book. It's probably one of the things that inspired my interest in astronomy and science fiction.
As a kid, every few years I would sit up half the night and read this book in one session. It's also a great read as an adult. You could probably pick holes in it if you want to, but why bother? To make it more realistic or detailed would slow the book down. It's not meant to be like Arthur C Clarke, it's all action fun from start to finish!
For a child who is old enough to read proper books, likes action and adventure and is interested in space, you couldn't do better than give them this book. It's probably one of the things that inspired my interest in astronomy and science fiction.
As a kid, every few years I would sit up half the night and read this book in one session. It's also a great read as an adult. You could probably pick holes in it if you want to, but why bother? To make it more realistic or detailed would slow the book down. It's not meant to be like Arthur C Clarke, it's all action fun from start to finish!
April 11, 2016
A meteorite rips through the hull of the Johannes Kepler, a cargo ship on its way from Lunar Station to Mars. It hits just as the captain is having a briefing with almost all of his officers, leaving just the doctor and the chief engineer as the highest ranks aboard. Lieutenant Donald Chase is the doctor and he's on his first space run.
Don has to hose down one crisis after another - solving an escalating number of perils. A solar storm off the scale and no radiation shields. A transmitter knocked out - no communication with their destination. Running out of oxygen. Mutiny by the passengers. A course that will take the ship into deep space, unless it can be corrected - and no apparent way to alter the ship's heading. And then plague - a deadly, never-before-encountered virus that is taking passengers and crew out one by one.
A rip-roaring space adventure in which pace and tension never let up.
Don has to hose down one crisis after another - solving an escalating number of perils. A solar storm off the scale and no radiation shields. A transmitter knocked out - no communication with their destination. Running out of oxygen. Mutiny by the passengers. A course that will take the ship into deep space, unless it can be corrected - and no apparent way to alter the ship's heading. And then plague - a deadly, never-before-encountered virus that is taking passengers and crew out one by one.
A rip-roaring space adventure in which pace and tension never let up.
March 12, 2012
I read this book many years ago as a paperback and had fond memories of it so thought I would give it another go.
Did it live up to expectations, well not quite.
It's quite a short story, well written but you get the feeling the solutions to all problems do occur rather easily and could probably have done with some padding out.
Not a bad read but very light
Did it live up to expectations, well not quite.
It's quite a short story, well written but you get the feeling the solutions to all problems do occur rather easily and could probably have done with some padding out.
Not a bad read but very light
February 5, 2008
Just got this one from the library because it looked like fun. It was a quick read, more like a Star Trek episode. But good fun, all the same.
Read
July 10, 2013(2013). цей тоненький пейпербек став першою художньою книжкою англійською мовою в моєму житті. двадцять років тому… треба перечитати.
January 24, 2014
Above average space opera.
February 21, 2016
A very good beginning SiFi book for young readers. A good smooth story and plot. You can try to figure out the problems as the characters do. Recommended
April 22, 2016
Gosh, I remember reading this as a little girl - brilliant at the time; but no idea if I'd enjoy this now.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews