Double Contact: A Sector General Novel (Sector General Series/James White) (Hardcover)

by James White (Author) "The late afternoon sun, its outlines shredded by ground-heat distortion and the continuous toxic gales that swept the planet, wavered in and out of visibility..." (more)
Key Phrases: emotional radiation, meteorite shield, casualty deck, Pathologist Murchison, Monitor Corps, Sector General (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews
Another of this Northern Ireland authors fine yarns about the huge, multispecies space hospital, Sector General (Mind Changer, 1998, etc). This time, a hospital rescue ship with Senior Physician Prilicla, the timid, frail, empathic insectile Cinrusskin, on board, hurtles into space in response to no fewer than three distress beacons. Oddly, as the rescuers approach the first distressed ship, its crew frantically rejects help and instead sends the ship diving suicidally toward a nearby planet, where it crashes. Among the injured aliens is what may be a nonorganic life-form, though it may be dead. A nearby ship, apparently inert, turns out to be a ship-killer that also destroys computers. In this top-notch medical/psychological puzzle, Prilicla must sift the conflicts between two previously unknown alien races and the nonorganic druuland then reach a correct diagnosis. White renders his weird aliens and their bizarre, precarious interactions with utter conviction: a splendid series, a worthy addition. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
"A splendid series, a worthy addition."--Kirkus Reviews

"Sector General fans old and new will enjoy, enjoy."--Booklist
-- Review --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312870418
• ISBN-13: 978-0312870416
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,800,200 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Last Book....., February 12, 2000

By A Customer

Another wonderful book from James White in his Sector General Series. Unfortunately,he passed away right after the book was written. The Sector General novels have been great fun to read, reminding me of the "old" sci-fi style of books. What made his book so interesting was the mix of aliens in his books and how they worked together in a medical setting to help other species. Some of his ideas were great! If you get a chance to read this book, I say start from the beginning of the series if you can get the books and enjoy yourself. This is his last book and I am sad to think another Sector General novel will not happen since he has passed away. Bless him!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid addition to the series, August 23, 2000

By	Colin Croft (Perth, Western Australia Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Double Contact (White, James, Sector General Series.) (Mass Market Paperback)

If you are a fan of the Sector General series then you will welcome the latest addition. As usual it presents a first contact situation but this time with not one but two new races at the same time. Interestingly the story this time is told from the point of view of Dr Prilicla and offers some new insights into this character which has formerly offered support without taking the central role.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 4th volume from an alien viewpoint: Prilicla, May 19, 2002

By	Michele L. Worley (Kingdom of the Mouse, United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Sadly, this is the last Sector General story, published posthumously.

After _Star Healer_, White never again used Conway as the viewpoint character. This story is from the viewpoint of his old friend Prilicla, the spider-like empath, who like Conway has been groomed for years (without his knowledge) for eventual Diagnostician status, if only he can overcome his empath's aversion to being assertive, with the subsequent risk of having unpleasant emotional radiation turned back on him. (In other stories Prilicla is referred to as a neuter "it", in keeping with polite cross-species standards, but from his own viewpoint he's referred to as "he".)

After all these years, White still finds new things to tell us about Prilicla, especially from his point of view: the only member of his species at Sector General. For instance, we always knew that he was fragile, but did you know that he uses up so much energy that every few hours he *has* to sleep? (He'll pass out on duty otherwise, but everyone knows it so it doesn't happen.) His empathic talent is exceptionally strong even for his own people; and by his own standards, he thinks he's pretty well crazy, from a culture where cowardice is considered necessary for sanity. Mind you, he doesn't *care*; life on Cinruss was boring. :)

Prilicla is still assigned to Rhabwar, having taken over when Conway was promoted, and due to the nature of interstellar travel, Rhabwar in its job of answering distress calls is the most frequent means of making first contact with newly encountered starfaring species. On the present occasion, Rhabwar will make not one, but two first contacts. The first such contact, with the Trolanni, involves a civilization from a world wherein the ecology has been damaged to the point that it no longer really supports life; the Trolanni blame another group on their planet, the druul, but that's only their side of the story. Unfortunately, to Trolanni eyes, while Prilicla isn't frightening, humans *are* - Trolanni think they look like druul.

It should be said that while White's galactic civilization has a non-interference directive of sorts, it's tempered by intelligence and good sense. On several occasions, having discovered a culture that hasn't achieved starflight but is in severe distress, a planet has been declared a disaster area and relief has been sent, rather than letting people die needlessly. Granted, this has been known to go wrong, sometimes spectacularly (see _The Genocidal Healer_), but at least they err on the side of compassion.