Eternity Row

September 1, 2002
The starship "Sunlace" carries a highly diverse crew amid the galaxies. The main character here, surgeon Cherijo Torin, is, in her own words, "a fugitive genetic construct." She is also a thoroughly competent, imaginative surgeon and a powerful battler with words and life-threatening physical aggression. Among the pleasanter other characters are Cherijo's daughter, Marel, who has a knack for getting around the" Sunlace" and arriving just in time to break up dangerous situations, and Marel's "babysitter," the Chakacat, who saves everyone on a nearly disastrous visit to Taerca, where life is pretty awful, anyway, by accepting the position of the departed god, Swadda. Another landing, on souped-up Oenrall (think Vegas with drugs "and" slavers), nearly does the good guys in. Viehl puts some satirical spin in her depiction of Oenrallian "civilization" but also introduces the appalling Eternity Row there. Fans of the Stardoc series already know the quality to expect of this book, and anybody else who enjoys lively medical sf will acknowledge Viehl's skills within the first few pages. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)