SOJALS rating:

Unrated (0/5)

I first read this in May 2001.

Gregory Marchey had his hands replaced with silver biometal prosthetics to allow him to become a better surgeon. However, although he as become one of the top surgeons in known space, his personal and social lives have collapsed in inverse proportion to his increasing surgical skill. Now he's an alcoholic, travelling alone to the next patient, sobering up for the procedure, then departing once more, to his next destination.

Even when he is kidnapped it really doesn't bother him. It's only when he begins to pay some attention to what has kidnapped him and to where he is being taken, that he begins to develop a sense of motivation and a reason to live.

OK, some great ideas, especially the reason why the amputation of the hands is so important. But the writing is not, well, exactly good. Sometimes it was readable, but it kept slipping into something strongly reminiscent of bad Victorian romance, and sometimes more like a Dickens-for-teenagers. Of course, given my complete lack of experience of Victorian romances, scant familiarity with Dickens and being unable to remember what it was like to be a teenager, I may be wrong.

If you're under sixteen, this may be a great, exciting read. If you're over that age, or you've just got more style, read Gene Wolfe.