Pattern for Monsters, A, and Star Surgeon

Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic science fiction double novels. The first novel, “A Pattern for Monsters” is by veteran science fiction writer, Randall Garrett. It didn’t make sense to reporter Brad Stevens. The Larchmont nursing home fire had been a big one—the biggest blaze in years. So why wasn’t he allowed past the fire lines like reporters usually were? Then after the fire when he called the nearby hospital he was told that—strangely enough—there hadn’t been a single admission from the Larchmont fire. Then it turned out there were no records of the ambulance service whose vehicles had taken the victims away. It was a perplexing mystery that Stevens and his photographer pal Parker couldn’t figure out. The police denied every ugly rumor and called their iron censorship a routine matter, explaining that the fire was nothing out of the ordinary. But the telephoto lens told a different story. And when Stevens saw Parker’s photo of a fire victim with two heads, they both realized it had been far more than a routine fire and rescue operation… The second novel is “Star Surgeon” by another sci-fi veteran, Alan E. Nourse. Back in the 1950s when the original version of “Star Surgeon” was first written (Amazing Stories, 12/59), space opera rarely varied from the usual science fiction formulas of the day. That’s why when “Star Surgeon” came out it was such a breath of fresh air to fans of the genre. Here you had a grand tale of intergalactic medicine and the men who practiced it. In fact, the tale’s main character, Dal Timgar, wasn’t even from good old Earth, but a non-human from the faraway planet of Garv II. Timgar had grown up wanting to be a doctor, but unfortunately only humans had ever been trained to serve in the Galactic Confederation of Worlds. This proved to be a challenge that pitted Timgar against both friends and enemies, and at times…even himself. Alan E. Nourse’s “Star Surgeon” is a science fiction gem that gives the reader many exciting space opera thrills, interwoven with a unique brand of medical intrigue