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Double Contact

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Double Contact
First edition cover (publ. by Tor Books
Cover art by John Harris
AuthorJames White
PublisherTor Books
Publication date
January 1, 1999
ISBN978-0-312-87041-6

Double Contact is a 1999 science fiction book by Irish writer James White, the last in the Sector General series.[1][2][3]

Clinton Lawrence described Double Contact as "in a very positive way, a throwback to an earlier era in science fiction" since it is optimistic and depicts several advanced species working harmoniously. The struggle to build trust and produce a successful first contact is, he thought, as exciting and suspenseful as one could wish for. However Lawrence also noted that the level of characterisation was the minimum required to support the plot.[4]

This book has an unusual feature in personal pronoun usage: in most Sector General stories, one human is "he" or "she" (or other grammatical case forms) and one alien is "it". But, in Double Contact, often in the text the character Prilicla is "he" and a human or a member of any other species is "it".

References

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  1. ^ Andrews, Graham. "A Bio-bibliography of James White". Archived from the original on 18 February 2009. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
  2. ^ Stableford, Brian M. (2004). "James White". Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Literature. Scarecrow Press. pp. 385–386. ISBN 0-8108-4938-0. Retrieved 18 December 2008.
  3. ^ "Double Contact". Booklist. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  4. ^ Lawrence, Clinton. "Double Contact (review)". Archived from the original on 13 October 2000. Retrieved 18 December 2008.