Spriggana

Well, it should be 2 and 1/2 stars, but as usual I rounded the rating up. Has some good bits (like the entry about horses), but gets a bit repetitive after a while.

Could do without the “how the internet and cryptography works” infodumps... I'd give it 2,5 stars, but having to chose 2 or 3 I say 3.

The novel is quite often mentioned as a ‘classic medicine sf', so finding it in the Storytel catalogue I decided to give it a try. As with many classics the age shows. The story itself is a standard ‘overcoming the prejudice' motive – Earth had already eliminated wars and racism (and I had to remind myself several times that black doctor has nothing to do with said doctor's skin, and everything with his uniform), but prejudice against non-humans does occur giving the story a start.
What bothers me is a total lack of women. I know, it is quite a standard in the classic sf, but in the medicine context it is much more noticeable. But if Nourse would have included a nurse (or two! or more!) on the General Practice Patrol ship he would probably had to describe some female/male interactions... The Horror! To avoid it the 3 poor straight-out-of-the-school doctors have to fend for themselves...
I even did a quick search in the Gutenberg version of the novel: there are exactly two occurences of the pronoun ‘she', and the 'she' in question is a spaceship.

Abandoned after half an hour (out of 7:08 of audiobook). At the very start we learn about the sex he had with his fiancée, but nothing about what he felt for her, and after a scene of implied masturbation (thankfully not graphic) to a female hologram I gave up.