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Med Service #4
This World Is Taboo
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120 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1961
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102 people want to read
About the author
Murray Leinster
902 books121 followerssee also:
Will F. Jenkins
William Fitzgerald Jenkins
Murray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. He wrote and published over 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.
An author whose career spanned the first six decades of the 20th Century. From mystery and adventure stories in the earliest years to science fiction in his later years, he worked steadily and at a highly professional level of craftsmanship longer than most writers of his generation. He won a Hugo Award in 1956 for his novelet “Exploration Team,” and in 1995 the Sidewise Award for Alternate History took its name from his classic story, “Sidewise in Time.” His last original work appeared in 1967.
Will F. Jenkins
William Fitzgerald Jenkins
Murray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. He wrote and published over 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.
An author whose career spanned the first six decades of the 20th Century. From mystery and adventure stories in the earliest years to science fiction in his later years, he worked steadily and at a highly professional level of craftsmanship longer than most writers of his generation. He won a Hugo Award in 1956 for his novelet “Exploration Team,” and in 1995 the Sidewise Award for Alternate History took its name from his classic story, “Sidewise in Time.” His last original work appeared in 1967.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
January 20, 2025
This installment of the Med Ship series is one of the best. Often cited as the official last of the series in anthologies, it was not the last written or published. It originally appeared under the title "Pariah Planet" in "Amazing" and then in novel form the same year of 1961. The last Med Ship story, "Quarantine World," was published in 1966.
Regardless of whatever order you read these in, this one feels the most mature and polished. While still retaining that YA adventure feel, Murray Leinster weaves an intelligent satire of long-standing feuds while fully understanding what makes his hero, Calhoun, so effective.
For the first and only time I can recall, he is paired up with a young female companion, Maril. You might expect this to generate a love interest in most other sci-fi adventures, but not with Calhoun. She is a stowaway aboard his ship and is cagey with him about her intentions, but he is always two steps ahead of her, using his empathy and deductive reasoning to essentially reveal all of her secrets.
It turns out that Maril and her people are from a planet called Dara that once had a plague generations ago. Though the danger has long since passed, the survivors have passed down a benign but telltale blue discoloration of their skin to their offspring, as harmless and vitiligo. The citizens of a neighboring planet think this means the "blueskins" are still carrying plague, and have become paranoid that the blueskin disease will spread to the point that bombing Dara to sterilization is being considered. What makes matters worse is that the people of Dara are starving, because nobody will trade with them for fear of the plague, and their own soil is too rich in heavy metals to cultivate their own food. Desperation, in turn, sends the people of Dara on an aggressive campaign to pillage the plentiful surplus bounty of their neighbors, escalating the tensions to genocidal certainty. The unflappably brilliant Calhoun offers solutions to the problem that generations of leaders from two worlds were only making worse. Maril starts to believe he is something more than human, and indeed, the reader is beginning to wonder as well.
We see shades of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this interplanetary drama, as well as pretty much any war of racist, religious, or ethnic intolerance. Contemporary audiences might even see similarities to the COVID clash between vaccinated and unvaccinated, masked vs unmasked. It is also no accident that Leinster includes an action-packed segment featuring stampeding cattle. In short, this little novel brilliantly puts its finger on a fundamental glitch in human group psychology, a tendency to herd mentality that is as senseless and destructive as a stampede.
Our hero stands above all of this and can see the bigger picture, made all the more remarkable because he is kind of a weirdo, roaming the galaxy in his tiny spaceship, content with a job well done and a nice cup of coffee with his cute little monkey-kitten alien sidekick Murgatroyd. Though he is still young, he remains aloof to companionships, even to the attractions of a woman, and thus remains an undistracted force of mind dedicated to his mission of saving lives. We don't ever know anything about his backstory. To some readers, this may seem sad and tragic, but that would be missing the point. Calhoun is the portrait of a fully realized identity, as if he were born a Med Ship Man and has been doing this forever.
For example, in the middle of a crisis, Calhoun turns on some weird music and kicks back. I can't help but imagine he's listening to something that sounds like progressive electronica and early industrial. Maril is left scratching her head. "'I think I understand now,' she said slowly, 'why you don't act like other people. Toward me, for example. The way you live gives you what other people have to get in crazy ways—making their work feed their vanity, and justify pride, and make them feel significant. But you can put your whole mind on your work.'"
I know I've said this in other reviews of this series, but Calhoun really is the prototypical ideal for what made classic Doctor Who so intriguing, before modern writers ruined the mystique of the show by having the mad-doctor-in-a-box twerking and constantly falling in love and questioning their sexuality and having emotional meltdowns. The Med Ship series is yet another example of how kids don't need to see themselves in their hero to identify, only a loftier ideal of themselves to inspire them to be the best version of themselves they can be.
In conclusion, this is everything ten-year-old Warren would have wanted in science fiction, and still remains a great adventure for me today. I honestly can't find much fault in this at all, and frankly, I think it's a modest work of genius. So this is the only story in the Med Ship series that gets my top recommendation.
SCORE: 5 tiny coffee cups out of 5
WORD OF THE DAY: "Chee-chee!!!"
Regardless of whatever order you read these in, this one feels the most mature and polished. While still retaining that YA adventure feel, Murray Leinster weaves an intelligent satire of long-standing feuds while fully understanding what makes his hero, Calhoun, so effective.
For the first and only time I can recall, he is paired up with a young female companion, Maril. You might expect this to generate a love interest in most other sci-fi adventures, but not with Calhoun. She is a stowaway aboard his ship and is cagey with him about her intentions, but he is always two steps ahead of her, using his empathy and deductive reasoning to essentially reveal all of her secrets.
It turns out that Maril and her people are from a planet called Dara that once had a plague generations ago. Though the danger has long since passed, the survivors have passed down a benign but telltale blue discoloration of their skin to their offspring, as harmless and vitiligo. The citizens of a neighboring planet think this means the "blueskins" are still carrying plague, and have become paranoid that the blueskin disease will spread to the point that bombing Dara to sterilization is being considered. What makes matters worse is that the people of Dara are starving, because nobody will trade with them for fear of the plague, and their own soil is too rich in heavy metals to cultivate their own food. Desperation, in turn, sends the people of Dara on an aggressive campaign to pillage the plentiful surplus bounty of their neighbors, escalating the tensions to genocidal certainty. The unflappably brilliant Calhoun offers solutions to the problem that generations of leaders from two worlds were only making worse. Maril starts to believe he is something more than human, and indeed, the reader is beginning to wonder as well.
We see shades of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this interplanetary drama, as well as pretty much any war of racist, religious, or ethnic intolerance. Contemporary audiences might even see similarities to the COVID clash between vaccinated and unvaccinated, masked vs unmasked. It is also no accident that Leinster includes an action-packed segment featuring stampeding cattle. In short, this little novel brilliantly puts its finger on a fundamental glitch in human group psychology, a tendency to herd mentality that is as senseless and destructive as a stampede.
Our hero stands above all of this and can see the bigger picture, made all the more remarkable because he is kind of a weirdo, roaming the galaxy in his tiny spaceship, content with a job well done and a nice cup of coffee with his cute little monkey-kitten alien sidekick Murgatroyd. Though he is still young, he remains aloof to companionships, even to the attractions of a woman, and thus remains an undistracted force of mind dedicated to his mission of saving lives. We don't ever know anything about his backstory. To some readers, this may seem sad and tragic, but that would be missing the point. Calhoun is the portrait of a fully realized identity, as if he were born a Med Ship Man and has been doing this forever.
For example, in the middle of a crisis, Calhoun turns on some weird music and kicks back. I can't help but imagine he's listening to something that sounds like progressive electronica and early industrial. Maril is left scratching her head. "'I think I understand now,' she said slowly, 'why you don't act like other people. Toward me, for example. The way you live gives you what other people have to get in crazy ways—making their work feed their vanity, and justify pride, and make them feel significant. But you can put your whole mind on your work.'"
I know I've said this in other reviews of this series, but Calhoun really is the prototypical ideal for what made classic Doctor Who so intriguing, before modern writers ruined the mystique of the show by having the mad-doctor-in-a-box twerking and constantly falling in love and questioning their sexuality and having emotional meltdowns. The Med Ship series is yet another example of how kids don't need to see themselves in their hero to identify, only a loftier ideal of themselves to inspire them to be the best version of themselves they can be.
In conclusion, this is everything ten-year-old Warren would have wanted in science fiction, and still remains a great adventure for me today. I honestly can't find much fault in this at all, and frankly, I think it's a modest work of genius. So this is the only story in the Med Ship series that gets my top recommendation.
SCORE: 5 tiny coffee cups out of 5
WORD OF THE DAY: "Chee-chee!!!"
October 21, 2025
This is how to scifi, I was immediately drawn into the story and enjoyed it all the way through. In my mind it's a good prototype for the Star Trek formula.
Now I need to head back to the start of the series and see what else Calhoun and the Med Service get up to!
Now I need to head back to the start of the series and see what else Calhoun and the Med Service get up to!
February 8, 2026
This is a wonderful story.
Calhoun works for the Interstellar Medical Services visiting planets to check their overall health. He is alone aboard the Aesclipus Twenty ship apart from Murgatroyd the tormal. This is a creature who acts as a companion on Calhoun's journeys in overdrive. A tormal is a combination of a cat and a parrot that just says versions of the word 'chee' all the time.
Calhoun visits a planet called Weald and discovers there's a grain surplus amongst other items. On his way to Dara, Calhoun discovers he has a hitchhiker called Maril. She is originally from Dara, a planet populated by blueskins, survivors of a plague that tainted their skin. There's a famine on Dara and Calhoun decides that he couldn't forgive himself if he didn't right this wrong.
He takes many men from Dara to Weald where there are ships full of grain moored in space. The men pilot these ships back to Dara to help alleviate the famine.
Calhoun works for the Interstellar Medical Services visiting planets to check their overall health. He is alone aboard the Aesclipus Twenty ship apart from Murgatroyd the tormal. This is a creature who acts as a companion on Calhoun's journeys in overdrive. A tormal is a combination of a cat and a parrot that just says versions of the word 'chee' all the time.
Calhoun visits a planet called Weald and discovers there's a grain surplus amongst other items. On his way to Dara, Calhoun discovers he has a hitchhiker called Maril. She is originally from Dara, a planet populated by blueskins, survivors of a plague that tainted their skin. There's a famine on Dara and Calhoun decides that he couldn't forgive himself if he didn't right this wrong.
He takes many men from Dara to Weald where there are ships full of grain moored in space. The men pilot these ships back to Dara to help alleviate the famine.
auf-pause
September 25, 2016Gerade gestern noch hat mich mein Sohn beschworen, ich möge nicht immer nur dieses intellektuelle Zeugs lesen; oder riet er das Gegenteil? Egal, jedenfalls musste ich heute in Sekundenschnelle ein Buch für den Strandkorb finden und dieses fiel mir als erstes in die Hände. Okay, los geht´s!
THIS WORLD IS TABOO hat Leinster, selbst Reisender im Time Tunnel, 1961 geschrieben, um die Verhältnisse der USofA im Wahljahr 2016 minimal verallegorisiert darzustellen.
Calhoun, Mitarbeiter des galaktischen Gesundheitsamtes, soll den Planeten Weald (=Amerika) inspizieren, was sich jedoch schwieriger als gedacht gestaltet, da man ihm die Einreise verweigern will. Doch er weiß die Macht der Behörde hinter sich:
"I hate to put on an official hat (...), but there are some people who demand it. The rule is, never get official, if you can help it, but when you must, out-official the official who´s officialing you."
Mit dieser deutschen Maxime gelingt die Einreise / Landung auf dem Planeten Weald, der geprägt ist von irrationaler Angst vor anderen, die diese Welt bedrohen könnten - auch wenn dieses noch nie der Fall war und nie passieren wird. Möchte wer raten, wer von dieser Angst profitiert (ein Schelm, wer an die Regierung denkt)?
Das liest sich dann so:
"(Donald Trump) followed him. As head of the government he paid some tribute to the Med Service. But then he reminded his hearers proudly of the high culture, splendid health and remarkable prosperity of the (USofA) since the (Republicans) took office. This, he said, despite the need to be perpetually on guard against the greatest and most immediate danger to which any world in all the galaxy was exposed.
He referred to the (Muslims), of course. He did not need to tell the people of (the USofA) what vigilance, what constant watchfulness was necessary against that race of deprived and melevolent deviants (...)."
Und auf Calhouns ungläubige Frage, ob die Blueskins/Muslime denn ausgerottet werden sollten:
"(Trump) said comfortably, "The idea´s been proposed. It´s good politics to urge it, but it would be foolish to carry it out. People vote against (Muslims). Wipe them out, and where´d you be?"
Daraufhin macht sich Calhoun auf den Weg zum Minenplaneten, um herauszubekommen, welche Gefahr von den Blueskins (so der Codename für alle Muslime) tatsächlich ausgeht. Damit die Reise nicht zu langweilig wird, hat sich ein blinder und natürlich im Sinne des Genres vorschriftsmäßig weiblicher Passagier in seinem Raumschiff eingeschmuggelt.
Angekommen auf dem nächsten Planeten fallen Leinster zwei Dinge ein: dass ein anderer US-Präsident in Cowboyfilmen mitgewirkt hat und dass Leinster auch Western schreiben kann. Also gibt es erst eine mordsmäßige Stampede und anschließend eine zünftige Schießerei.
Wildwest im Weltraum gehört zu den Crossovers, die ich bei SF am wenigsten leiden kann.
An dieser Stelle enden zwei Dinge: der Strandbesuch und meine Motivation, weiter zu lesen.
Give me a break!
THIS WORLD IS TABOO hat Leinster, selbst Reisender im Time Tunnel, 1961 geschrieben, um die Verhältnisse der USofA im Wahljahr 2016 minimal verallegorisiert darzustellen.
Calhoun, Mitarbeiter des galaktischen Gesundheitsamtes, soll den Planeten Weald (=Amerika) inspizieren, was sich jedoch schwieriger als gedacht gestaltet, da man ihm die Einreise verweigern will. Doch er weiß die Macht der Behörde hinter sich:
"I hate to put on an official hat (...), but there are some people who demand it. The rule is, never get official, if you can help it, but when you must, out-official the official who´s officialing you."
Mit dieser deutschen Maxime gelingt die Einreise / Landung auf dem Planeten Weald, der geprägt ist von irrationaler Angst vor anderen, die diese Welt bedrohen könnten - auch wenn dieses noch nie der Fall war und nie passieren wird. Möchte wer raten, wer von dieser Angst profitiert (ein Schelm, wer an die Regierung denkt)?
Das liest sich dann so:
"(Donald Trump) followed him. As head of the government he paid some tribute to the Med Service. But then he reminded his hearers proudly of the high culture, splendid health and remarkable prosperity of the (USofA) since the (Republicans) took office. This, he said, despite the need to be perpetually on guard against the greatest and most immediate danger to which any world in all the galaxy was exposed.
He referred to the (Muslims), of course. He did not need to tell the people of (the USofA) what vigilance, what constant watchfulness was necessary against that race of deprived and melevolent deviants (...)."
Und auf Calhouns ungläubige Frage, ob die Blueskins/Muslime denn ausgerottet werden sollten:
"(Trump) said comfortably, "The idea´s been proposed. It´s good politics to urge it, but it would be foolish to carry it out. People vote against (Muslims). Wipe them out, and where´d you be?"
Daraufhin macht sich Calhoun auf den Weg zum Minenplaneten, um herauszubekommen, welche Gefahr von den Blueskins (so der Codename für alle Muslime) tatsächlich ausgeht. Damit die Reise nicht zu langweilig wird, hat sich ein blinder und natürlich im Sinne des Genres vorschriftsmäßig weiblicher Passagier in seinem Raumschiff eingeschmuggelt.
Angekommen auf dem nächsten Planeten fallen Leinster zwei Dinge ein: dass ein anderer US-Präsident in Cowboyfilmen mitgewirkt hat und dass Leinster auch Western schreiben kann. Also gibt es erst eine mordsmäßige Stampede und anschließend eine zünftige Schießerei.
Wildwest im Weltraum gehört zu den Crossovers, die ich bei SF am wenigsten leiden kann.
An dieser Stelle enden zwei Dinge: der Strandbesuch und meine Motivation, weiter zu lesen.
Give me a break!
August 27, 2014
Leinster's Med Service stories were always particular favorites of mine, and I have enjoyed listening to Mr. Smith's Librivox reading of "This World Is Taboo" very much. The reading is smooth and on a very professional level. It's an interesting story, and worth noting that the problems are solved through sociological and political means as much as through medical application. Also, contrary to most of the popular literature of time, the doctor doesn't get the girl; they part as friends, and he sets her up to help the guy she belongs with. Calhoun's tormal, Murgatroyd, who loves coffee and being the center of attention, is one of the best continuing sidekicks/pets in early sf literature. Leinster was one of the early best. Chee! Chee!
June 22, 2013
A very good story with a extremely bright protagonist versus paranoid and scared people. The story has no real violence or sex just good tension and action. The tale has aged well. The recording is clear and the narrator is well spoken and easy to listen to.
January 12, 2019
A classic, although maybe just because Murray Leinster made is so.
Of course there is a modest hero who singlehandedly saves 3 planets. The dilemma he faces seems impossible to solve with satisfaction for both threatened civilizations. At least 1 or even both will be destroyed in the erupting conflict unless a simple medic in his small spaceship comes up with a solution. It is a race against the clock which accounts for a large part of the tension that is maintained throughout the story. Dodging bullets and waiting for the results of medical experiments contribute but are more like background noise.
Between the interactive bits with the several planets there are large stretches of isolated travel in space. Murray Leinster calls them the boring parts, but he describes them thus that the reader keeps his attention glued to the book. There is a lot of information to absorb but the author makes it fascinating reading.
Of course there is a modest hero who singlehandedly saves 3 planets. The dilemma he faces seems impossible to solve with satisfaction for both threatened civilizations. At least 1 or even both will be destroyed in the erupting conflict unless a simple medic in his small spaceship comes up with a solution. It is a race against the clock which accounts for a large part of the tension that is maintained throughout the story. Dodging bullets and waiting for the results of medical experiments contribute but are more like background noise.
Between the interactive bits with the several planets there are large stretches of isolated travel in space. Murray Leinster calls them the boring parts, but he describes them thus that the reader keeps his attention glued to the book. There is a lot of information to absorb but the author makes it fascinating reading.
April 30, 2022
1983 grade B-
2022 grade C-
My series book number MD2
Wow, this is very old and out of date, very repetitive, and very hard to finish. Leinster is one of the better SciFi authors. But this book is not good anymore. I actually stopped about half way through and read another novel before coming back to finish this one. I also speed read massively. Not recommended.
My copy is not listed in the "owned" editions but is the "read" edition listed. 127 pages, 35 cents, less than a Kindle book, if you can believe it.
2022 grade C-
My series book number MD2
Wow, this is very old and out of date, very repetitive, and very hard to finish. Leinster is one of the better SciFi authors. But this book is not good anymore. I actually stopped about half way through and read another novel before coming back to finish this one. I also speed read massively. Not recommended.
My copy is not listed in the "owned" editions but is the "read" edition listed. 127 pages, 35 cents, less than a Kindle book, if you can believe it.
August 22, 2013
It's odd to have read a story like this after a summer spent watching nearly all of Star Trek TNG, because I wasn't able to stop considering WWPD (What Would Picard Do?).
One thing I'm certain Picard would NOT have done is be such a smug, patronizing sexist. Yikes, but Calhoun annoyed me! He's a good example of a character whose intentions are good, and who wants to do the right thing, but who's just not especially likeable. He was an idealist who kind of went rogue and did his own thing--something he really believed in--and that's admirable, but as the story went on and he said things like, "Maybe, just possibly, they'll listen to me and act sensibly," I got more and more annoyed and wanted to just smack him. When he told Maril that she, "...wouldn't want to be a heroine. No normal girl does," and then went on to explain that her boyfriend wouldn't want to marry her if she were a hero, I wanted to stop reading.
Much of this should be blamed on the narrator, who says things like, "Not every woman could have faced the fact that a man did not feel impelled to make passes at her." SHUT UP, ass! The narrator said it, but it made me dislike Calhoun more and more.
Sexism and patronizing self-righteousness (and "Gary Stu-ism) aside, I liked the story. I appreciated the exploration of race and prejudice--especially considering the story's early place on the sci-fi frontier, and the way it sort of presaged the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I'm definitely glad I read it.
One thing I'm certain Picard would NOT have done is be such a smug, patronizing sexist. Yikes, but Calhoun annoyed me! He's a good example of a character whose intentions are good, and who wants to do the right thing, but who's just not especially likeable. He was an idealist who kind of went rogue and did his own thing--something he really believed in--and that's admirable, but as the story went on and he said things like, "Maybe, just possibly, they'll listen to me and act sensibly," I got more and more annoyed and wanted to just smack him. When he told Maril that she, "...wouldn't want to be a heroine. No normal girl does," and then went on to explain that her boyfriend wouldn't want to marry her if she were a hero, I wanted to stop reading.
Much of this should be blamed on the narrator, who says things like, "Not every woman could have faced the fact that a man did not feel impelled to make passes at her." SHUT UP, ass! The narrator said it, but it made me dislike Calhoun more and more.
Sexism and patronizing self-righteousness (and "Gary Stu-ism) aside, I liked the story. I appreciated the exploration of race and prejudice--especially considering the story's early place on the sci-fi frontier, and the way it sort of presaged the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I'm definitely glad I read it.
August 9, 2025
I think it important to recognize this novella was part of a series Leinster wrote featuring a hero medical man--he never calls him a doctor--named Calhoun. In this novella Calhoun is sent to a world called Weild. There he discovers that the inhabitants have a vitriolic hatred of members of another world -Dara - because they are infected with a virus that gives them blue-skinned pock marks. The people of Wield are worried about becoming infected this way themselves. Their politicians stoke up a hatred of Darans for their own political advantage.
Calhoun soon leaves this world in order to visit Dara and see what can be done about finding a solution that will avoid the oncoming genocidal war about to ignite between these two people. On the way he discovers he has a stowaway young Daran woman on board. She is a spy of some sort and at first reluctant to communicate. When she begins to learn that Calhoun doesn't have a side, she begins to learn to trust him and provides some key information.
This story would have been more interesting if it stayed on their relationship, if it explored more the qualities of the strange life form on the medical ship that served as a cross between beloved pet and comic relief. Instead, we get a lot of planetary politics that was not so interesting.
I found the material a bit dated, the points attempting to be made somewhat didactic. The portrayed relationships among all the characters lacked sophistication or depth. Nevertheless, the plot becomes interesting as Calhoun endeavors to find some way of preventing the oncoming war, The story improves in the last quarter of the novella and comes together well enough to bring it up to a three-star story for me. I won't be recommending this to anyone.
On the other hand, I did find the concept of Calhoun, medical man savior hero, intriguing. He's no Flash Gordon, more like Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. I'm curious to see what else Leinster might have done with this character. Was it more of the same, or did the stories differ greatly from each other?
Calhoun soon leaves this world in order to visit Dara and see what can be done about finding a solution that will avoid the oncoming genocidal war about to ignite between these two people. On the way he discovers he has a stowaway young Daran woman on board. She is a spy of some sort and at first reluctant to communicate. When she begins to learn that Calhoun doesn't have a side, she begins to learn to trust him and provides some key information.
This story would have been more interesting if it stayed on their relationship, if it explored more the qualities of the strange life form on the medical ship that served as a cross between beloved pet and comic relief. Instead, we get a lot of planetary politics that was not so interesting.
I found the material a bit dated, the points attempting to be made somewhat didactic. The portrayed relationships among all the characters lacked sophistication or depth. Nevertheless, the plot becomes interesting as Calhoun endeavors to find some way of preventing the oncoming war, The story improves in the last quarter of the novella and comes together well enough to bring it up to a three-star story for me. I won't be recommending this to anyone.
On the other hand, I did find the concept of Calhoun, medical man savior hero, intriguing. He's no Flash Gordon, more like Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. I'm curious to see what else Leinster might have done with this character. Was it more of the same, or did the stories differ greatly from each other?
October 9, 2019
My copy was a 1961 first printing paperback. This book is only 126 pages long and it is definitely a product of it's time. I have a few other period paperbacks in this series that I've had for years but never cracked open.
Classic space opera with wooden characters and impossible science. It's part of Leinster's Interstellar Med Service series, which frequently showed up in the Sci-Fi pulps of the day featuring Calhoun and his trusty companion Murgatroyd, a tormal with healing abilities and a one word vocabulary. They sure drank a lot of coffee in this book. About every 10 pages they were drinking coffee.
The book came across as a societal commentary on prejudice between the haves and have nots. It also was a classic example of the end justifies the means. One world has plenty of food while the other is starving...and that's sort of the basis for this adventure.
Oh yes and you don't see people get chewed out this way very often: "You have just acted with the most concentrated folly, and the most magnificent imbecility that you or anybody else could manage!".
What more can I say?
Classic space opera with wooden characters and impossible science. It's part of Leinster's Interstellar Med Service series, which frequently showed up in the Sci-Fi pulps of the day featuring Calhoun and his trusty companion Murgatroyd, a tormal with healing abilities and a one word vocabulary. They sure drank a lot of coffee in this book. About every 10 pages they were drinking coffee.
The book came across as a societal commentary on prejudice between the haves and have nots. It also was a classic example of the end justifies the means. One world has plenty of food while the other is starving...and that's sort of the basis for this adventure.
Oh yes and you don't see people get chewed out this way very often: "You have just acted with the most concentrated folly, and the most magnificent imbecility that you or anybody else could manage!".
What more can I say?
March 8, 2019
The more I read by Murray Leinster, the more I appreciate what he brought to science fiction. His Med Service series, of which this is the second, is pure Golden Age SF, yet with a much more modern feel than the usual SF of that period. No BEM (bug-eyed monsters) at all just humans struggling against humans.
This World Is Taboo, seems to be an in your face allegory against racism written in 1961. A plague has decimated 3/4th of the population of Dara, a planet with abundant heavy metals, leaving the survivors with a bluish pigmentation to their skin. Their erstwhile trading partner, Weald a planet Dara desperately needs to supply meat and grain develop a deadly fear of the "blueskins", which develops into a deep prejudice.
Calhoun, the Med Service man, is landing on Weald to repair a breakdown in the Med Service's protection in this sector of space when he is thrown into this struggle. This was a quick and satisfying read. Recommended!
This World Is Taboo, seems to be an in your face allegory against racism written in 1961. A plague has decimated 3/4th of the population of Dara, a planet with abundant heavy metals, leaving the survivors with a bluish pigmentation to their skin. Their erstwhile trading partner, Weald a planet Dara desperately needs to supply meat and grain develop a deadly fear of the "blueskins", which develops into a deep prejudice.
Calhoun, the Med Service man, is landing on Weald to repair a breakdown in the Med Service's protection in this sector of space when he is thrown into this struggle. This was a quick and satisfying read. Recommended!
January 10, 2019
Audiobook, (version well read by Mark F. Smith accessed on iPhone via Librivox app). Quite enjoying it so far (on chapter 6 of 8), although I found one rather bemusing, dated, view on women. Paraphrased as "You wouldn't really want to be a heroine, (by saving your home planet more effectively than your fiancee,) as then he'd never want to marry you!". We're all a product of our time&culture I guess, so I forgive him especially as I'm really just nit picking.
Overall it's not super clever, but it's not completely predictable either. The dialog is quite good, and the plot has an anti xenophobic cold war subtext wherein our hero quite cornily gets to figure out what's going on and apply his common sense.
Well worth listening too, most especially because of the protagonists alien sidekick with the absolutely superlative name of Murgatroyd.
Overall it's not super clever, but it's not completely predictable either. The dialog is quite good, and the plot has an anti xenophobic cold war subtext wherein our hero quite cornily gets to figure out what's going on and apply his common sense.
Well worth listening too, most especially because of the protagonists alien sidekick with the absolutely superlative name of Murgatroyd.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 23, 2025
This World Taboo by Murray Leinster Review:
This was a nice lil romp through space. Think OG Star Trek in terms of pulp. It hammed itself up pretty well too. Pretty standard story. Bigotry is bad, medicine is good. Not a lot to say about this book tbh, it’s pretty straightforward.
As far as the characters go, they’re…. ok I guess? The amount of outdated idiocy in these characters’ thought processes is something else. Some characters are willing to settle with others despite their incompetence as decent human beings. The only good character is Murgatroyd, who personifies the “cute animal sidekick” trope.
It’s a good brain turn off book, and I appreciate it for that.
Murgatroyd says "Chee!!!"
This was a nice lil romp through space. Think OG Star Trek in terms of pulp. It hammed itself up pretty well too. Pretty standard story. Bigotry is bad, medicine is good. Not a lot to say about this book tbh, it’s pretty straightforward.
As far as the characters go, they’re…. ok I guess? The amount of outdated idiocy in these characters’ thought processes is something else. Some characters are willing to settle with others despite their incompetence as decent human beings. The only good character is Murgatroyd, who personifies the “cute animal sidekick” trope.
It’s a good brain turn off book, and I appreciate it for that.
Murgatroyd says "Chee!!!"
September 23, 2024
71 years and had never read this author!
Started inhaling SF in the 1960's. Over the decades, ideas and story lines repeat. Make an effort to go back in time when the authors were fresh. It is well worth it
Started inhaling SF in the 1960's. Over the decades, ideas and story lines repeat. Make an effort to go back in time when the authors were fresh. It is well worth it
October 4, 2019
This is the same story as Prariah World.
April 11, 2025
great story and a fantastic narrator.
October 29, 2016
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.
March 2, 2014
FEAR RIDES THE ROCKETS
The Interstellar Medical Service was just about the only remaining galactic organization that every one of the hundreds of inhabited planets respected. So when their service broke down in Star Sector Twelve, it created a very dangerous situation.
When Calhoun took his Med ship out of overdrive near that sector's planet Weald, he was vaguely aware of the risks. But the crisis came home to him with a crash the moment he radioed in for landing coordinates.
"Contamination! Full mobilization! Red alert! Death to blueskins!" Such were the nature of his greetings.
And it began to look like a case of the cosmic jitters that only the most drastic of orbital surgery could cure.
Murray Leinster, called the dean of modern science-fiction, was writing amazing super-science adventures in the early twenties before there ever was such a thing. His short stories, novelettes, and serial novels have appeared in most of the major American magazines, both slick and pulp, and many have been reprinted all over the world. He has made a distinguished name for himself in the fields of adventure, historical, western, sea, and suspense stories.
February 21, 2015
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.
February 22, 2014
This was a wonderful book! Being my first book by Murray Leinster, and also my first book of the era, I was pleasantly surprised to find it an enjoyable read! At a little over 100 pages, it contains more knowledge and depth than any 300+ page contemporary book I've read. This book left me with thoughts about the times back then, with the beginning of science-fiction novels; it gave me an almost nostalgic feel, and a longing for more literature of the past. I only hope that I can find more works by Murray Leinster, in their original format, and add to my now expanding collection. Bravo, Mr. Leinster! You have created a masterpiece like no other!
July 29, 2016
I have read this Murry Leinster story many times over the last three decades and last year I had some extra Audible credits so I purchased it. The narrator for this audio story does an excellent job, and the advantage of the audio version is I can listen while doing chores around the house, something I can not do while reading.
If you like Murry Leinster's Med Ship stories I highly recommend you get this one, it is under 5 hours to listen through from start to finish. Here we find Dr. Calhoun on another medical adventure, trying to repair the damage done by lack of attention to a region of the galaxy that has been mismanaged for decades.
If you like Murry Leinster's Med Ship stories I highly recommend you get this one, it is under 5 hours to listen through from start to finish. Here we find Dr. Calhoun on another medical adventure, trying to repair the damage done by lack of attention to a region of the galaxy that has been mismanaged for decades.
Currently reading
March 10, 2013Space Doctor and his little pet dude and people are hungry and starving, but this doctor has COFFEE. Every time you turn a page the protagonist makes COFFEE drinks COFFEE, breathes COFFEE, thinks COFFEE, sweats COFFEE! There IS nothing ELSE! It's like the SPICE in DUNE! It's everywhere! What few medical supplies stored on his ship can't be near the size of the LUSITANIAN HULL of COFFEE he must be carting around! Good luck shaking it out of your under-alls!
(Btw, this is in the public domain but it came way after 1923 so the 'splanation above is a random stamp.)
(Btw, this is in the public domain but it came way after 1923 so the 'splanation above is a random stamp.)
March 31, 2021
I love everything I have read by Murry Leinster and have read his Med Ship adventure series through every few years for decades. I got this audiobook with some extra credits I needed to use up and I was not disappointed. The narration is excellent, and the story is an old favorite. Dr. Calhoun is on yet another adventure, this time trying to sort out a sector of the galaxy that has been mismanaged for decades by the Med service officials in charge. Highly recommended for your listening pleasure.
January 26, 2014
I could have done without the line about normal women not wanting to be heroines (especially in a story about racism/xenophobia), but other than that, it's an ok story; one of those old-time SFF stories that are more about the puzzle than character development and is totally unsubtle about the message. It was short enough for me to find the uber-competent flawless protagonist entertaining.
I got the version from Project Gutenberg.
I got the version from Project Gutenberg.
April 30, 2017
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.
February 3, 2015
This is an engaging story, especially as read by the Librivox reader. Che-ee!
December 25, 2016
Charmig liten sci-fi novell.
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