January Books 5) The Secret Visitors

[nwhyte]

5) The Secret Visitors, by James White (.co.uk, .com)

This was James White's first novel, published in 1961, and like many of his others the central character is a human doctor confronted with peculiar health problems, a precursor to his best-known works, the Sector General galactic hospital series. However, it's definitely a novel of its time; the

Comments

[watervole]

I went back to James White a few months ago and was disappointed to realise that he did not live up to memory. There was some good stuff, but his main female character was distinguished mainly by her bust measurement.

[watervole]

Murchison in Star Surgeon is horrendously stereotyped. I didn't notice it when I was younger, but reading now, she's basically a bust measurement with a few token heroic qualities tacked on for good measure.

[inuitmonster]

have you seen Flying Saucer Rock And Roll, in which aliens invade 1950s Northern Ireland? It is made by the same people that made The Eliminator, in which a Northern Irish paramilitary organisation accidentally summons an army of zombies (and also Cu Chulainn, Fionn Mac Cumhail, and St. Patrick).

[nwhyte]

That sounds well worth ripping and burning to DVD getting hold of legitimately next time I set foot on the shores of the Emerald Isle!

[inuitmonster]

I don't know if they are actually available. I don't think The Eliminator ever made it to video, let alone DVD. FSR&R is a short, so may not have been released anywhere, though given that it has a budget and a famous actor in it it might just show up somewhere.

The Eliminator is the greatest Irish film ever made.

[anonymous]

Nicholas ... I read The Secret Visitors a couple of years ago, and I reviewed it at my Ace Double page. ().

I thought to mention a couple of nitpicky but interesting points ... it actually dates to 1957, at least the Ace Double edition, first under the title The Secret Visitors. And it is based on a 1956 New Worlds serial, "Tourist Planet". But the serial and the novel are quite strikingly different. I wonder if your 1961 edition is different again, or if it more resembles the serial or the novel? (To a crude approximation, I would say that the serial is more "British", with a less confrontational ending, while the novel is more "American", or perhaps more "Don Wollheimish", with a space battle ending.)

[anonymous]

Oops -- forgot to sign that post.

This is Rich Horton.

[nwhyte]

Rich, thanks. It's pretty clear that my 1963 printing of the 1961 edition is substantially the same as the 1957 Ace version, from what you say. The earlier date of writing does make sense - the fact that the central character is a WW2 veteran but still clearly of marriageable age seemed to me a bit of a stretch for 16 years after the war ended, but is less so for 12 years on (possibly even fewer depending when it was actually written).