Do No Harm

Stargate SG-1 #12

by Karen Miller

Killing time…

Stargate Command is in crisis—too many teams wounded, too many dead. Tensions are running high and, with the pressure to deliver tangible results never greater, General Hammond is forced to call in The Pentagon strike team to plug the holes.

But help has its price. When the team’s leader, Colonel Dave Dixon, arrives at Stargate Command he brings with him loyalties that tangle dangerously with a past Colonel Jack O'Neill would prefer to forget. Assigned as an observer on SG-1, hostility between the two men escalates as the team’s vital mission to secure lucrative mining rights descends into a nightmare.

Only Dr. Janet Fraiser can hope to save the lives of SG-1—that is, if Dave Dixon and Jack O'Neill don’t kill each other first…

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Media Tie In, Ebooks

438 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 25, 2008

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. Please see this thread for more details.

Also writes as "K.E. Mills"

Lord, do you really want to know?

Oh, all right.

I was born in Vancouver, Canada, and came to Australia with my parents when I was 2. I think. Dad’s an Aussie, Mum’s English, go figure. Talk about Fate and Destiny. But three passports come in handy.

I’ve always lived in Sydney, except when I didn’t. After graduating with a BA Communications from the then Institute of Technology (now University) a few years ahead of Hugh Jackman, dammit, talk about rotten timing, I headed off to England and lived there for 3 years. It was interesting. I worked for a bunch of nutters in a community health centre and got the sack because I refused to go do EST with them (you stand in the middle of a circle and thank people for hurling verbal abuse at you for your own good, they said, and then were surprised when I said no), was a customer services officer for DHL London (would you believe at one time I knew every single airport code for every single airport in the world, off by heart?!?), got roped into an extremely dubious life insurance selling scheme (I was young and broke, need I say more?) and ended up realizing a life-long dream of working professionally with horses. After 18 grueling months I woke up, and came home.

Since then I’ve done customer service in the insurance and telecommunications industries, been a training officer, PR Officer in local government, production assistant in educational publishing, taught English and Business Communication at TAFE, been a supervisor and run my own sf/fantasy/mystery bookshop. Money for jam, there! I also managed to squeeze in a Master’s Degree in Children’s Literature from Macquarie University.

I used to have horses of my own, and spent lots of time and money showing, breeding, training and judging, but then I came off one time too many and so a large part of my life ended.

When I’m not writing I’m heavily involved in the Castle Hill Players, my local community theatre group, as an actor, director, prompt, stage manager (but not all at once!) and publicity officer.

I’m a story junkie. Books, film, tv ... you name it. Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica (the new series), Stargate, Firefly, X-Men, Buffy, Angel, Supernatural, The Professionals, Forever Knight, Due South, The West Wing, The Shield, Sandbaggers, Homicide, Wiseguy, The Shield, The Closer ... and the list goes on. And that’s just the media stuff!

I love music. While writing I listen primarily to film soundtracks, because they’ve been written primarily to evoke emotional responses in the listener. This helps access emotion during tough scenes. Plus, the music is pretty. At least the stuff I listen to is. Favourite film composers include Hans Zimmer, Alan Silvestri, James Horner and John Williams. Vocalists I enjoy are Josh Groban, Russell Watson, Sarah McLachlan, Simon and Garfunkel , Queen, The Moody Blues, Steeleye Span, Meatloaf, Mike Oldfield ... anyone who can carry a tune, basically.

In short, I’m an only child with an overactive imagination, 3 dogs, 2 cats and not enough hours in the day. I don’t drink, smoke, or do enough exercise. I make periodic stabs at eating properly. Chocolate is my besetting downfall.

So that’s me. You can wake up now ...

Reviews

[Red Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely adore this book. I think the author captured the characters so wonderfully. I love reading anything Janet based and this was certainly a wonderful one to read.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a follow-up of sorts to the episode 'A Matter of Time' and introduces us to the character of Dave Dixon, who made various appearances in later seasons. It also ties in quite nicely to the end of season 3 when Daniel had to have his appendix removed! (Thank you, Michael Shanks, for that necessity!)

This was almost 400 pages of a read I enjoyed. I had a hard time putting the book down, to be honest. It also turned out to be one of the better SG-1 novels, which surprised me because I really, really didn't like the first title the author wrote. Although the story is primarily about the relationship between O'Neill and Dixon, other characters have major roles within the plot. Hey, there's even a Cassie scene!

[Dayna · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite thing about this book is that we get to see the team through a third party's point-of-view. We get to see their dynamics from an outsider, to read how they're baffled by Jack and Daniel's "bizarre" friendship, a little in awe of Teal'c's general disposition, and the slight worry over the weight Sam carries on her shoulders as she pulls hail mary after hail mary out of her ass to save the day on a damn near daily basis. That is what I loved the most in this book.

But the main story deals with Lieutenant Colonel Dave Dixon being asked by the SGC to join the program as the SGC has been bit by catastrophe after catastrophe and they just need a win, you know? Bringing in new blood is the best way to do that, especially since Dixon is and his men were a part of the rescue effort to save the SGC from a black hole a year ago where they lost their team leader Colonel Frank Cromwell, also know as the man who left Jack behind to be captured by insurgents and held as their prisoner. It is heavy. Cromwell took Dixon in as his protege and family, and Dixon heard all about his once friendship with Jack prior to Jack's capture and imprisonment, something Cromwell promised to never let happen.

Dixon joins in hopes to learn about Cromwell's last moments but those moments were with Jack and he has no inclination to share with a total stranger, no matter his connection to Cromwell.

The team inadvertently brings death to the planet Adjo they are visiting, a planet that holds a boat load of naquada that has the asshats in Washington salivating. They arrive during spring, an innocuous event on Earth but on Adjo it means death as dangerous and deadly diseases wake up in the warm weather. SG-1 is trapped on the planet due to the very contagious viruses that the teams arrival exacerbated to a dangerous level. Sam and Jack get sick, Janet is left helpless on the other side of the gate unable to help. Things get dicey when Janet manages to convince General Hammond to allow her to travel to the planet to get more samples and more information on the viruses ravaging the planet and the team, and when she's supposed to return Janet breaks quarantine and takes off the hazmat helmet that was supposed to keep safe. She couldn't leave people behind when she could help, regardless of her personal safety.

In the end, Janet manages to find a cure and saves SG-1 and the villagers, and somehow acquire mining rights to the naquada near the village. Dixon also achieves a level of closure when he realizes what happened between Frank and Jack remains between the two.

Oh, and Daniel suffers from appendicitis and Dixon performs life saving surgery on him after Janet suffers an injury that impedes her from doing the surgery herself. Jack, of course, asks to see Daniel's scar the second he felt better. Lol!

[BlueRose99 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Janet in this.

[Linda Kaban · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book by Karen Miller right after I read her first book "Alliances." I wanted to see if Miller's connection to the characters of SG-1 was a fluke. Nope. This book was just as extraordinary in the treatment of SG-1's characters. I am devastated that she only wrote the two.

[Sacha Valero · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story takes place during season three before the season finale.

The SGC is under considerable stress as mission after mission has been resulting in failure and Hammond is having to try and continue to justify its existence. This is when the Pentagon offers the assistance of their strike team and Hammond accepts.

During season two the Pentagon sent the strike team to the SGC during the black hole incident. At the time it was headed up by Col. Frank Cromwell whom O'Neil shared some history with. Now it's headed up by Col. David Dixon who was Cromwell's best friend at the time of his death. Dixon and O'Neil have never met, but over the years Cromwell lavished praise on O'Neil even though O'Neil canceled their friendship years ago after Desert Storm.

SG-1 is given a mission to the planet of Adjo which MALPS and drones show to have a naqaudah mine as well as gold and other precious stones. Needless to say the Pentagon wants a mission and Teal'c protests saying that all Jaffa are taught that the planet was cursed. Ra and Satesh fought over the planet for years because of its riches, but Ra was killed by O'Neil in the original film and Carter killed Satesh in S.2E2 who was hiding on Earth and calling himself Seth.

Despite Teal'c's protests they are deployed and come across a young girl named Lotar who has gone to the gate to give an offering during her “passing time.” Which means she goes off alone for a couple of weeks and if she lives she can return to the village and marry.

She guides them to the village and then returns to the gate and they tell the people she simply explained how to get there. The team meets the elders and they explain that they just want to get to know them.

The next day O'Neil returns to the gate to check in and Sam leads Teal'c and Dixon to the mine and find some samples of naqaudah. On the return Sam trips and injures herself. The following day Teal'c takes the samples to the gate and Dixon leads O'Neil to the mine, attempting to question him along the way about his relationship with Cromwell, which O'Neil shuts down.

On the return Dixon notices that O'Neil is sick. When they get back to the village they find that Sam is also getting sick. Daniel questions Lotar's future husband who tells him they are entering the rebirth and shows him the way to the elders shrine.

Now, I'll stop here because of spoilers, but I will say this; from the title of the book and the cover you'd expect it to feature Janet heavily. It doesn't. She's fairly prominent in the first six chapters or so and then in the final chapters and being quite heroic. However, she's nowhere to be found in the majority of this book so it's a little misleading.

Also, the people of Adjo are of Egyptian descent and they don't speak Egyptian. Daniel speaks the language so that wouldn't have been an issue, but the people speak English. How? Otherwise this was a fun read.

[Kasey Minnis · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a slog!

Getting through this book was like hiking through knee-deep mud. Filled with so much pointless hand-wringing, virtually nothing happens in the first half of the book at all. It was a long-winded attempt to set emotional stakes, and somehow still never made me care. Perhaps because much of the character-building hangs on one character being overawed by another, or one character arguing with another. Even though the plot picks up in the second half, the emotional subplots are so overwrought, it's hard to read. And the author relies on odd devices, like constantly having O'Neill threaten to kill his friends or Frasier always knowing what people are thinking, in cheap caricatures of him being surly and her being insightful. I'm truly sorry that I can't find anything redeeming to say about this book.

[S · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I enjoyed reading this because it was a quick read and a lot of the characterisation and the characters' voices were still on point, however I did have some issues with this book. Dixon was an okay character, but his feud with Jack that isn't resolved until (more or less) at the end of the book, just felt a little "empty" and pointless. I'm not a fan of how everything gets solved at the end of the story as it is a bit of a deus ex machina.
Other than that, it was nice seeing Janet take on such a big role and I did like the overall idea of the mission to Adjo.

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had the potential to be great - it had the usual team dynamics I look for and Doc Fraiser was in her element. But it was just too long, primarily because Miller tried to squeeze everything but the kitchen sink into it. Dixon was a massive fifth wheel. Yes, they joked about him being one in the book... but he really was. His presence did nothing but add to the word count, if I'm honest.

I'm sad to give the book this rating because there were definitely some redeeming qualities. But even they weren't enough to save it.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been looking forward to reading this book for awhile because Dr. Janet Fraiser is a great character who deserves the spotlight. The book is well-written and moves at a good pace. I was never bored of the story. My only complaint is that this felt like too much story at times. Trading for naquadah and the feud between Jack and Dixon felt like one story. The plague felt like another. Squashed into one book, it didn't quite come together.

[Tagcaver · Rating 2 out of 5]

I pulled a face…

Mixed feelings about this book. I like how it gave Fraser more story, but the book didn’t have much action. Kind of like a bottle show, too. Not much in the way of location, and there wasn’t much description of the settings.

But my biggest peeve was the use of the phrase, “pulled a face” a total of 23 times! That’s just lazy writing. It was a distraction and made the book less interesting for me.

[Daniel Gaul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story begins on a good note, and the flashbacks are intriguing, but a lot of the interpersonal encounters and political maneuvering slow the story (and reading) considerably. Overall a good book, but not the best SG-1 adventure (although I was VERY pleased to see Dr. Frasier gain more of a front-and-center role in this mission!)

[Marisa Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

SGC is short of personnel and has to call in the Pentagon strike team to help out. Col. Dixon is assigned to the SG-1 team on a mission to obtain mining rights that goes wrong.

Subplot - O'Neill still dealing with Cromwell's death and Dixon, Cromwell's 2nd in command, wants answers.

Lots of action, great character development, wonderful plotline.

[Dexter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first Stargate book I've read that completely held my attention from start to finish. Karen Miller does a really fantastic job at not only creating the same vibe as the show, but at approaching deeper issues that the show doesn't deal with on a regular basis.

And now we know what happened to Daniel's appendix.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it took a long time to kick in and was worried about how much time was being focussed on the original character but once it really got going it because unputdownable! And we all know I do love a good plague :D

[Roger P · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once I realized that the insert character was there as a Mary Sue my opinion of the book dived significantly.

[Ida Leter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad plot, actually quite an interesting self-contained adventure, but an OC and excessive references to an episode that has nothing to do with the story at hand are very off-putting.

[jagle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Janet and was so pleased she was so prominent in the story, but Dixon with his immature rantings and need for closure was just annoying and unnecessary.

[Ryan Trussell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy the authors writing style and the way she conveys the thoughts and psychology of the characters.

[Frank Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent story. The characters are all really solid and at their best in this novel. I felt that I had to suspend disbelief a little because the SGC (and presidential) responses seemed to stretch my personally defined "realistic" expectations BUT when I did so it leg me follow a truly marvellous story

I love a good medical drama with a poignant ethical dilemma and this story piled the juicy dilemmas on, one after another. Janet Fraiser is definitely one of the best characters on the show and she really shines in this story, but all of the characters had great moments.

Two criticisms that didn't ruin my 5-star rating.

First, I thought it dragged a bit through a few scenes and the whole book probably could have been a little shorter and still had the same impact.

Second, I thought the new guy pressing Jack for info about Cromwell went a bit too far. I will say that I was pleased with how that storyline ended because it didn't compromise Jack's character, but boy it seemed to just grind and grind and even I was uncomfortable with it.

Anyway, this is a fantastic story and it really does read like an episode on paper.

[Imzadiforever · Rating 5 out of 5]

Invece a me è sembrato troppo corto!
E per ora è senza dubbio il romanzo più bello dell'SG1 che abbia letto.

La caratterizzazione è ottima, forse un po' eccessiva quella di Sam nei confronti della relazione tra Dixon e O'Neill (mi ha ricordato la Carter dei primi episodi), ma, da quello che ho capito, spiegata in parte durante un dialogo con Teal'c.

Il personaggio di Janet è comunque quello meglio caratterizzato, assieme a Daniel e a Hammond. L'autrice ha scritto le reazioni di Janet come me le aspettavo, esattamente "In the character". Bella, e perfettamente sensata, la scelta di Janet di mettere a rischio la sua vita per salvare l'SG1 e naturalmente Adjo. Come dice lei stessa, il suo primo dovere è non nuocere.

Bello che si sia esplorato meglio il personaggio di Cromwell, forse un po' troppo però. Alla fine, è diventato uno dei due punti cardine del libro.
I continui collegamenti alla serie, dai piccoli accenni fatti dai personaggi e il più grosso, l'appendicite di Daniel, aiutano a fare entrare il lettore nel racconto.

Che dire? Un po' triste di averlo finito così presto!!

[Miss Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Um, ok story. Nice to see so much of Janet! Love her so much. A bit heavy on the guilt trip for O'Neill over Frank and "A Matter of Time," but overall it was a quick, fun read. Can't say though that it was engaging enough that I would go back and read it again. I mean, treasure planet, literally, which just happens to be a giant trap that makes everyone, well, almost everyone, deadly ill? Nice idea, but not intriguing enough, or well written enough, to warrant a second perusal. Check out Barque of Heaven, by Suzanne Wood, instead.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was longer than most SG-1 books but it needed to be to properly tell the story. It was nice to see Janet get a large role as she raced to save the lives of the team. Interesting to see how they worked to incorporate Daniel's appendectomy into the story, since it took place in the timeline just before Michael Shanks missed a TV episode due to the same problem.

[Meesh]

This isn't one of the best Stargate tie in novels I've read. I guess I was expecting a bit more Janet in there than I got (she was on the cover after all). Though it was well written, with an engaging plot and I did enjoy the team interaction. Especially Janet's interactions with SG-1, the subtle friendships between her, Jack, Sam, Daniel and Teal'c that we know from the TV show were all present in the book but thankfully not over-done.

[Dustin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave this one a little more than my customary 100 pages to hook me. This one didn't. So far it's been a hundred pages of angst based on a the death of a character no one but the most dedicated SG-1 fan can name, completely pointless arguing and more medical checkups than I remember from the first two seasons of the show.

I recommend giving this one a pass.

[Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow start, but once the story picked up it was hard to put the book down! Thoroughly enjoyable read!
Would have liked to have seen more of Sam in the story, but did love Janet's story line.
Author clearly cared about all of the characters, which is passed on to the reader.
One of the better SG1 books I've read, and not a piece of 'fan-w*nk' like I've read in the past!

[Foggygirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent story, this would have made for a very emotional episode.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. The author captured the characters perfectly. Love how they had Fraiser as one of the main characters in this book.