5 of 5 stars

This is an amazing collection of originally short stories that was joined together into one volume. Written from 1955 through 1961, they tell of a world that is different than ours but also terrifyingly similar. It is disheartening that a series of stories written almost 60 years ago still resonates with the problems of wealth, poverty, illness, and access to health care today. The Medic story touches on antibiotic resistance, insane prices of health care, the poor being used, economically and at times physically, to rejuvenate the rich. At one point, the author Gunn talks about how health care has become increasingly specialized and used to eke out an additional year, month, day or only an hour for a dying patient. regardless of the cost or ethics. He also touches on how health care has started to become wasted on specialty causes of small or fancied ills.

The stories are fast paced, tied together nicely, and written beautifully. I really enjoyed my time with this book and author.