Blood Brother (James White)

Dr Conway is sent on a mission to the planet Meatball with one of its inhabitants, a large doughnut shaped lifeform called Surreshun, the first being to ever leave the planet. Most of the surface of Meatball is a thick sea and a land mass made up of living creatures, the coastline a continual battleground between predators and prey. Also, nuclear warfare is slowly killing the planet.

Conway and his team land and make contact with other creatures. In order to learn more about the environment, Conway asks to accompany a being similar to Surreshun, called Camsaug, on an underwater sea trip, but both are soon in trouble.

Blood Brother conjures up some fantastic mental images and is full of intriguing ideas, but its slightly too long and the story itself doesn't do the premise justice. Still good, but has to go down as a near miss - more on author James White here.

Overall:- 6/10

Planet:- Meatball  Spaceship:- Descartes (from the French philosopher)

Included in:-
New Writings in SF-14 edited by John Carnell (44 pages)