Book Review : The World is Taboo

This is a wonderful story.

Calhoun works for the Interstellar Medical Services visiting planets to check their overall health. He is alone aboard the Aesclipus Twenty ship apart from Murgatroyd the tormal. This is a creature who acts as a companion on Calhoun’s journeys in overdrive. A tormal is a combination of a cat and a parrot that just says versions of the word ‘chee’ all the time.

Calhoun visits a planet called Weald and discovers there’s a grain surplus amongst other items. On his way to Dara, Calhoun discovers he has a hitchhiker called Maril. She is originally from Dara, a planet populated by blueskins, survivors of a plague that tainted their skin. There’s a famine on Dara and Calhoun decides that he couldn’t forgive himself if he didn’t right this wrong.

He takes many men from Dara to Weald where there are ships full of grain moored in space. The men pilot these ships back to Dara to help alleviate the famine.