Countercharm
Countercharm
7500 words
Far out on the galactic Rim, where star-systems were sparse and
the darkness almost absolute, the vast, angular structure of Sector
Twelve General Hospital hung in space.
White badly wanted to make the 100th issue of New Worlds, but :".
. . I did not have a single alien ailment in my head. In desperation
I [built] a story round an Earth-human condition that might have
an extraterrestrial equivalent, an ailment of which I had first
hand experience, diabetes" (from the 'Secret history of Sector General':
see under Non-fiction). Cue insulin injection. "But
suppose the diabetic patient was a crab-like life-form, whose limbs
and body were covered by a hard shell?" (ditto). Aldiss ('Old
Hundredth') and Wyndham ('The Emptiness of Space') were also at
their best for John Carnell's editorial centruy.
Synopsis by Graham Andrews |
| First Publication: |
- NEW WORLDS No 100, November 1960
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| Publication history: |
- THE ALIENS, Ed Robert Silverberg, Thomas Nelson,
New York, 1978
- TOP SE 1, Ed Josh Pachter, Loeb, Amsterdam, 1986
- The Aliens Among Us (see under Books)
- The White Papers. (see under books)
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