In a desolate future, long after the nuclear war, practicing medicine is illegal. Health care is provided by Healers who treat patients using primitive methods like chanting and bleeding. Hank is a doctor who practices medicine only for himself and his family. His fear of being sent to prison has estranged him from the Underground, the loose network of physicians that tries to help people who have lost faith in the Healers. Then late one evening a 16-year-old girl named Gina knocks on his door. She has a secret of her own and the power to destroy Hank’s life if he doesn’t come with her and make her seriously ill father well. But there is one catch—Gina’s father is the brother of a Healer.
My Thoughts:
First thing’s first. This is a short story. So if you look at the $2.99 price, be aware. Personally, I think it’s a little bit steep, but that’s just me.
This was a decent short, in of itself, and I’d probably give it three out of five stars. The premise is original and the story is captivating but as a short, there wasn’t enough time to develop much of anything. The main character, Hank is a “medicine man” or doctor in a time when practicing medicine is illegal and he’s fearful of being discovered and he’s afraid of his own children, but the story never expounds on that little tidbit. *Spoilers* Gina is a telepath. Okay. We’re post WWIII here and I get it that the medical profession has been disgraced, but where the hell do telepaths come from? Once again, it’s a short, so this is never explained.
I know. I have no room to talk. Anyone that’s read my stuff is probably saying, “Really, Cait? Pot, meet Kettle.” But still, I’m only frustrated because I feel like this is a story that I want to know more about. I want to know what happened to this world to make doctors obsolete and turn people toward mysticism instead of modern medicine to heal. I want to know about WWIII and how telepaths came to be. I want to know how a man becomes afraid of his own children. Because of this, I’m frustrated. So, on the one hand, Kubicek did a good job pulling me into a story, intriguing me, and making me want more, but then didn’t provide it. Maybe if I knew that this was a prequel of a bigger novel I’d feel better, but it isn’t as far as I know.
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Thanks for taking time to read A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY, Cait, and to give your thoughts. But I need to disagree with a few things. 1) At 11,000 words, FOF is a novelette/novella, not a short story, 2) Gina’s telepathy is a mutation, a result of the atomic war; this is stated in scene one [not explicitly, but people who read science fiction regularly should pick up on it], 3) Hank tells Gina–later in the story–why and how the switch from Doctors to Healers came about [it takes up a decent-sized paragraph]. You’re right that FOF is not as developed as a full-length novel would be, but it was never intended to be a full-length novel; what I wanted to do in this story could not have been sustained at 80,000 words. I should also point out that a shorter version of FOF was published in the science fiction/fantasy magazine SPACE AND TIME in 1987.
Great review Cait. Thanks for hosting David today.