Customer Reviews

Sector General

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

'Sector General' is a collection of four short stories. The first, 'Accident' is set on the planet Nidia decades before the hospital is built. MacEwan of Earth and Grawlya-Ki of Orligia are *the* heroes of the first, (and hopefully last) interstellar war because they ended it. Trapped together in the wreckage of their crashed spaceships, injured and unlikely to be rescued, they become the first Orligian and Human to actually talk to each other and discover their war is all a simple, horrible misunderstanding. Fortunately they are rescued in time to share their discovery but the mortally wounded MacEwan must be put into stasis until medical science advances enough to save him and Grawlya-Ki choses to join him. The two frozen warriors, still in the remains of their ship, are put on display as one of the most effective War Memorials of all time. They awake over two centuries later to discover they have become icons of the horror of war and the need for peace. But the icons have minds of their own, they disapprove of the rigidly controlled, limited contact between the species that make up the Federation. They argue the races have to really get to know each other, feel comfortable enough with each other to banter and quarrel, or mutual fear will lead to another war. Their views do not prove popular and they are in the process of being politely shipped off Nidia when an accident traps them with a variety of other beings in the wrecked departure lounge. Old soldiers that they are MacEwan and Grawlya-Ki automatically take command of the situation organizing rescue and first aid efforts among the casualties but will help reach them in time? In the next story, 'Survivor', Dr. Conway and the crew of the Ambulance Ship Rhabwar rescue the sole survivor of a space wreck and bring it back to Sector General. Now strange psychological effects are disrupting the hospital, could the alien somehow be to blame? Next the Rhabwar's crew investigates a crashed alien ship whose survivors seem to have suffered mutilations unrelated to their crash injuries in a story aptly titled, 'Investigation'. And finally in 'Combined Operation' the alien ship and the entity inside it are both in pieces and it's going to take the combined forces of Sector General and the Monitor Corps to put them back together again.

If taken separately, each story is nearly just as good as the next. However, the entire theme of ship-crashes-must-rescue-and-treat-survivors becomes tedious after three stories. James White has written stories with more depth and originality than these four taken as a whole but the detail of the aliens is unsurpassed.

Accident - 3/5 - Differing cultures of aliens make it rather difficult in multi-species environments where anything you do will offend someone. A small group of three species must work together to other species involved in a spaceport accident, where oxygen is killing the chlorine breather and chlorine is killing the oxygen breathers. 31 pages

Survivor - 4/5 - The lone survivor of an alien space wreckage is brought to Sector General. The doctor/empathy on board begins to exhibit symptoms of illness only to those of the children and of the dying of her species. When asymptomatic incidences arise among the other patients, Conway must come to the rescue, as always. 33 pages

Investigation - 4/5 - An emergency beacon is located near a dry, wasteland planet but the ship is actually found on the planet. Outside of the wreckage there are scattered bodies of the possible crew with hints of a cannibalistic killer on the loose. Conway and Fletcher butt heads over the importance of medical assistance over the importance of the retrieval of alien technology. 43 pages

Combined Operation - 4/5 - Another ship in distress is found, whose identical pieces are scattered across space. Originally identified as an orbital due to its slight arc, the interstellar location of the disaster hints at something more profound and so later reveals a segmented species on an interstellar flight. It's Conway's job to amass the most important fleet ships and commandeer numerous sub-fleets in order to successfully understand and heal this most perplexing alien. 75 pages

This book was my first introduction to the world of intergalactic medicine as envisioned by James White, and got me hooked on the series. It is actually a collection of four short stories, the first of which sets the stage for the formation of the massive inter-species hospital known as Sector General. One of the aspects of White's stories that I enjoy most is how his characters are able to rise above their preconceptions to handle the wildy varied scenarios encountered when trying to offer emergency medical aid to previously unknown species. The pace of the stories is rapid, with just enough hinted-at subcontext to give substantial depth to the principal characters. As I tend to move every few years, I am highly selective about the books I lug around -- this is one of the select few that I won't part with.

I can remember curling up with this book at the age of 12 and enjoying every moment of it! Re-visiting the whole sector general series I found that I still enjoyed the stories.

True the earlier books - such as Sector General - are a little dated in their relegation of females to nurses rather than doctors - but I still enjoyed the concept of a huge hospital full of interesting alien doctors working together.

It never quite encouraged me to become a doctor - but I remain an avid SF/Fantasy fan!