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Entry tags:
Prostho Plus
Piers Anthony - Prostho Plus
(Repost from Livejournal)
Dr. Dillingham is a human dentist who suddenly has to treat a denizen of a flying saucer. After the successful treatment, the grateful proto-Greys abduct him and sell him in outer space. Poor doctor gets acquainted with number of (amusingly) alien species and their various dental problems. Eventually he finds himself in the Galactic University of Dentistry and faces its internal politicking.
And at the same time his former dental assistant Judy Galland has her own problems when she has to find work after his disappearance. Maybe she could try to find him…
The aliens, in fact, are not so alien in temperament (and there is the ubiquitous universal translator technology to help matters) but they are physically very different from each other even if, in the tradition of space opera, many of them resemble various Earth species. In fact, the universal translator has to use terms like pincushion and treetrunk when it translates the aliens' communication.
And the aliens are variable. Species who communicate by biting messages onto sticks. Creatures that resemble dinosaurs but are interstellar diplomats. Amorphous floating blobs who communicate with modulated electricity whose tooth analogues are actually communication units. And a species that is apparently specialized in dentistry…
Most of the aliens' problems are - what else - cavities, including the one in a whale-sized species with manipulative appendages inside their bodies. The huge filling is made of gold. Fortunately Dillingham gets far by applying his professional ethics doing the right thing in difficult mouth analogies. Even if it does not appear to be for his own best interest when he decides to help an ancient robot that has promised to kill him…
Not hard science fiction but nice variety of James White-scale aliens.
(Repost from Livejournal)
Dr. Dillingham is a human dentist who suddenly has to treat a denizen of a flying saucer. After the successful treatment, the grateful proto-Greys abduct him and sell him in outer space. Poor doctor gets acquainted with number of (amusingly) alien species and their various dental problems. Eventually he finds himself in the Galactic University of Dentistry and faces its internal politicking.
And at the same time his former dental assistant Judy Galland has her own problems when she has to find work after his disappearance. Maybe she could try to find him…
The aliens, in fact, are not so alien in temperament (and there is the ubiquitous universal translator technology to help matters) but they are physically very different from each other even if, in the tradition of space opera, many of them resemble various Earth species. In fact, the universal translator has to use terms like pincushion and treetrunk when it translates the aliens' communication.
And the aliens are variable. Species who communicate by biting messages onto sticks. Creatures that resemble dinosaurs but are interstellar diplomats. Amorphous floating blobs who communicate with modulated electricity whose tooth analogues are actually communication units. And a species that is apparently specialized in dentistry…
Most of the aliens' problems are - what else - cavities, including the one in a whale-sized species with manipulative appendages inside their bodies. The huge filling is made of gold. Fortunately Dillingham gets far by applying his professional ethics doing the right thing in difficult mouth analogies. Even if it does not appear to be for his own best interest when he decides to help an ancient robot that has promised to kill him…
Not hard science fiction but nice variety of James White-scale aliens.