Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Tuesdays Tomes: Badge of Infamy by Lester Del Rey


Tuesday Tomes is a weekly book review of mainly vintage books.

Badge of Infamy by Lester Del Rey

Technically this 1973 book is science fiction but in reality it’s really just a good adventure story that happens to take place on Mars.

Dr. Daniel Feldman has lost his right to practice medicine and with it, his wife-all because he saved the life of a friend by performing an emergency operation outside of a recognized Medical Lobby hospital. With nothing to look forward to on Earth except a life as a homeless beggar, he hops a freighter to Mars. There he is welcomed by the colonists. They need his medical knowledge and even though he shouldn’t be practicing medicine he can’t refuse to help.

The colonists are engaged in a battle for freedom from Earth (yes, it definitely brought to my mind “No taxation without representation” parallels).

There’s also Chris (Dr. Feldman’s estranged wife and head of a Medical Lobby hospital on Mars) and a plague- which will either destroy Mars and Colonial Martian society or save it.

This is a good adventure story and unlike many science fiction tales the characters are well developed and relationships are explored. There also is not a lot of gobbly-gook pseudo science speak…definitely a good book for a newby to science fiction.

Pleasantly read by Steven Wilson, you can download this free audiobook here or the free e-book in pdf. or kindle format here.

1 comment:

Felicity Grace Terry said...

i saw you mentioned on Heather's blog and thought I'd stop by to say hello. Nice to meet you, I've enjoyed my visit.