Sector General Series by James White
Sector General #1
Hospital Station sg-1
James White
Hospital Station is a 1962 science fiction book by author James White and is the first volume in the Sector General series. The book collects together a series of five short stories previously published in New Worlds magazine between 1957 and 1960. “Medic” — During the construction of Sector 12 General Hospital, construction worker O'Mara is suspected of negligently causing the death of two alien workers. Pending an investigation he is restricted to quarters and given the aliens' child to care for. “Sector General” — The first story of the main series' narrative. Doctor Conway has spent two months on the station and is about to be confronted with several emergencies as well as his first educator tape. “Trouble with Emily” — Conway is ordered to assist with a project involving a large dinosaur-like alien. “Visitor at Large” — A SRTT shape-changing alien runs amok in the hospital. Conway and a newly arrived Prilicla are enlisted to capture it. “Out-Patient” — Following the recovery of a badly injured alien from a wrecked ship, Conway must pursue a radical treatment.
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Sector General #2
Star Surgeon sg-2
James White
Dr. Conway must deal with an unconscious patient, classification ELPH, who may be a cannibal or a demigod, or both. It came from the “other galaxy”, and the species is well known, almost infamous, to the Ians, who are also from another galaxy. It is extremely long-lived, and regularly takes complete rejuvenation treatments, including the brain and memory, to keep itself young. By doing this, it is practically immortal. It, although unconscious, appeared to have the ability to negate the most powerful drugs and resist surgery to cure its skin condition. This later turned out to be the work of the entity’s “doctor”, who is an intelligent, organized collection of microscopic, virus-type cells. Once Doctor Conway realizes this, he uses a wooden stake to make the ELPH’s doctor focus itself in one small location, at which time it is removed from the ELPH, informed regarding the physiology-problems of its patient, and put back in. The patient, whose name is Lonvellin, quickly makes a full recovery, and it leaves to do what it does best: bona fide missions that involve taking backwards planetary cultures and pulling them up “by their bootstraps”. His particular mission, this time, is to cure a diseased planet called Etla, and he recruits Dr. Conway and the “Monitor Corps” to help him. When The Empire that controls the Planet of Etla misinterprets Lonvellin’s efforts as an Act of War, the Empire declares war on the Sector General space hospital. Conway helps organise the evacuation of most of the station’s staff and patients, and following the death or injury of more senior staff, becomes the most senior surviving physician. After a brutal series of attacks, and with the hospital on the brink of defeat, a group of Federation and Empire soldiers convince Conway to help in a mutiny against the Federation commander Dermod. The Empire soldiers had been told that the Federation had attacked Etla, rather than trying to help it, but seeing the way all casualties were treated equally on the station, and in particular witnessing Conway breaking down after failing to save the life of an alien Empire soldier, convinced them that they had been lied to.
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Sector General #3
Major Operation sg-3
James White
Major Operation is a 1971 science fiction book by author James White and is the third volume in the Sector General series. The book collects together a series of five short stories, all of which were originally published in New Worlds magazine. “Invader” — A series of clumsy accidents at the hospital lead Conway to suspect an alien presence. “Vertigo” (1968) — a spinning ship (from the planet later nicknamed 'Meatball') is 'rescued' and brought to the hospital. “Blood Brother” (1969) — Meatball's natural doctors are discovered. “Meatball” (1966) — Additional investigation reveals more about Meatball’s doctors. “Major Operation” (1971) — A gigantic patient on Meatball fights medical treatment.
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Sector General #4
Ambulance Ship sg-4
James White
Ambulance Ship is a 1979 science fiction novel by author James White and is part of the Sector General series. “Contagion” — An ancient sleeper ship is found whose last occupants died only months before. The rescue ship and ambulance crews come down with a mysterious illness. “Quarantine” — The sole survivor from a spacewreck is brought back to the hospital, and stuns everyone by downing half the surgical team. “Recovery” — A ship is found with absolutely no visible markings. A torture corridor inside beats on whatever passes, including a violent non-sentient and a telepathic sentient who communicates with the ambulance staff about the Blind Ones’ need.
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Sector General #5
Sector General sg-5
James White
Sector General is a 1983 science fiction novel by author James White and is part of the Sector General series. The book includes four stories. “Accident” — A major accident at a multi-species spaceport inspires the two heroes who ended the human-Orligian war (MacEwan and Grawlya-Ki) to found Sector General. “Survivor” — A giant snail spacewreck survivor transmits pain and fear while unconscious. “Investigation” — A spacewreck scene seems to indicate amputations from each victim, causing ambulance commander Fletcher to suspect cannibalism. “Combined Operation” — The scene of a spacewreck contains hundreds of pods, which turn out to be a colony ship carrying the last survivors of an alien race.
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Sector General #6
Star Healer sg-6
James White
Star Healer is a 1985 science fiction book by author James White and is part of the Sector General series. Conway is replaced on the ambulance ship Rhabwar by Diagnostician Prilicla. Conway visits healer Khone on the planet Goglesk, and witnesses first-hand their destructive racial mass-hysteria response to physical proximity. He inadvertently links minds with Khone and learns a great deal more. Back at Hospital Station, Conway decides to treat some Hudlar accident victims with a rear-to-front limb transplant, because stranger transplants require permanent exile. Conway also proposes staving off geriatric Hudlar problems by elective amputation. At the end, he successfully delivers a sentient telepathic Unborn (see Ambulance Ship) from its violent non-sentient Protector.
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Sector General #7
Code Blue Emergency sg-7
James White
Code Blue — Emergency is a 1987 science fiction novel written by author James White and is part of the Sector General series. White said in an interview that originally he intended to end the series with Star Healer (1985), by which time the central characters had reached the top levels in their careers. However Ballantine Books persuaded him to continue, and he extended the stories’ range by introducing new central characters beginning with Code Blue — Emergency . The protagonist of the story is Sommaradvan healer Cha Thrat. She bravely saved a human pilot who crashlanded on her planet, despite a complete lack of knowledge about his physiology. Contact with her species was established by the accident, so knowledge of their social customs is still virtually non-existent. However, she is invited to join the Sector General staff. Cha Thrat innocently wreaks havoc by following her instincts and social customs. First she befriends a hypochondriac Chalder. Next, she is invited to assist at a therapeutic surgery operation to amputate the limb of a Hudlar, which will prolong its life (see Star Healer.) When given the honor of cutting the limb, she obliges — and then deliberately cuts her own arm off as well, in accordance with the custom of her people. Next she saves the untouchable patient Khone (see Star Healer), and then finds a weird parasite species on a derelict spaceship. Due to the chaos she causes, every department in the hospital now refuses to allow her near their patients. O’Mara values her unusual approaches, and decides to add her to his staff.
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Sector General #8
The Genocidal Healer sg-8
James White
The dejected Surgeon-Captain Lioren is disappointed that his Court-martial has rejected the death penalty for him, and instead has assigned him to O’Mara at Sector General. He is plagued with guilt, because he is responsible for the genocide of an entire race. At moments during his new tasks, he ponders the individual events that led up to the alien deaths. First contact with the Cromsag planet was quickly followed by the discovery that their entire population was wasting away from some unidentified disease. They were starving, and their birth rate was absymal. Additionally, they were continually in hand-to-hand combat with each other, presumably competing for food. The Sector General ships hurriedly provided food to malnourished people everywhere, along with medical aid for combat injuries, and tried to determine the cause of the mysterious disease. Despite their best efforts, deaths from the plague continued to increase. Lioren grew frustrated with the slow process of sending samples back to Sector General and awaiting diagnostics and full tests to ensure the effectiveness of potential cures. In his arrogance, he administered a treatment to the entire population… and they rose up and slaughtered each other, wiping out their own race. Interspersed with recalling these events, he shares some of his story with people at Sector General. Lioren speaks to the terminally ill Dr. Mannen, eventually reviving Mannen’s interest in life. Lioren also offers encouragement to the isolated alien Khone (see Star Healer.) Next he is asked to speak to a gigantic Groalterri, whose race is so advanced they have until now refused all contact with the federated planets. The humans are desperate to make any sort of progress with this race, but the Groalterri patient won’t communicate with anyone. Bit by bit, Lioren shares his own guilty history and talks the suicidal alien into lowering its emotional barriers. From its story he manages to figure out the Groalterri’s hitherto unknown injury and arrange surgery that will change its life. Finally, at the end, Lioren meets with the handful of Cromsag survivors.
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Sector General #9
The Galactic Gourmet sg-9
James White
The Galactic Gourmet is a 1996 science fiction book by author James White and is part of the Sector General series. Todd Richmond wrote that the Sector General series declined after Star Healer (1985), hitting a low point with The Galactic Gourmet , and that the later books tended to stretch a short story’s worth of content to the length of a novel. However he thought that Mind Changer (1998) represented an improvement. A famous chef wangles an appointment to Sector General for the challenge of creating food for so many different species. Like the Sommaradvan healer Cha Thrat (Code Blue — Emergency), he creates chaos everywhere he goes. He first meets the swimming "crocodile-like" Chaldars, who complain that their food is unsatisfying. Realising that they are accustomed to capturing their food live, he develops motile food for them. They are delighted, but they completely destroy their hospital ward charging around chasing it. Next, he learns that the spray-on food used to nourish the Hudlar is uninteresting. His investigations show that it needs small toxins to "flavor" it, which would be found naturally on their home planet. He visits a Hudlar ship, but causes a huge cargo bay accident expelling him into space. He rescues himself by riding some sprayers back to the station, but is in everyone’s bad books. Sympathetic staffers hide him on the ambulance ship Rhabwar for an upcoming assignment. In the meantime, an epidemic at the hospital turns out to be a major nutmeg overdose caused by a sous-chef foolishly using ten times the required amount in a recipe. The Rhabwar is sent to a starving planet, whose people think their dwindling meat supply is the only desirable food and are shamed by its lack. He is able to commune with their first Cook better than the diplomats are doing. He finds ways to improve their sad vegetarian diet, and helps to set more positive attitudes toward it. The Cook’s son is wounded on a game-hunting expedition, and the medical ship takes him on board for healing. The populace grows very angry, mystifying the team. They finally recall the aliens’ cannibal tradition and produce him alive.
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Sector General #10
Final Diagnosis sg-10
James White
Final Diagnosis is a 1997 science fiction novel by author James White and is part of the Sector General series. A man suffering from multiple mysterious illnesses and allergic reactions is labelled a hypochondriac. Finally he is sent to Sector General as a last resort. He befriends his fellow alien patients, telling them his life history. Rather than dismissing his complaints, the attentive hospital doctors develop a theory, and bring him back to his home planet. At the scene of a childhood accident that seems to have started it all, explanations are found.
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Sector General #10
Final Diagnosis
James White
Sector General
It's a massive hospital space station on the Galactic Rim—384
levels, a staff of thousands—where human and alien medicine meet.
But Patient Hewlitt, new to Sector General, doesn't want to
meet alien medicine—or alien doctors, or alien nurses, or aliens of any kind.
Which is just too bad; he's an interesting case, and he'll have to get used to
it.
In the meantime, it's always been an article of faith among
Sector General's multispecies staff that infections can't pas from one alien
race to another. But in this season of anomalies, it looks like they might have
their first-ever interstellar virus on their hands, their tentacles, their
cilia ...
Combining intrigue, ingenious puzzles (and even more ingenious
solutions), action, adventure, and White's characteristic easy charm, Final
Diagnosis is a science-fictional treat.
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Sector General #11
Mind Changer (Sector General Series) by James White (1999-10-10)
James White
Sector GeneralIt's where human and alien medicine meet: a massive hospital space station on the Galactic Rim, with 384 levels and a multispecies staff of thousands.In the course of practicing deep-space medicine, that staff has seen more than its share of challenges—from plagues caused by cafeteria food, to cafeteria food that resembles alien species. But now they face a disquieting new development: the terrifying Chief Psychologist, Dr. O'Mara, has been promoted to head of the hospital.Worse, he's been given the job on a temporary basis, for just as long as it takes him to train his own replacement. After that, he is up for mandatory retirement. Nobody at Sector General can begin to imagine what they'll do without him—assuming they last long enough to find out.
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Sector General #11
Double Contact sg-11
James White
Double Contact is a 1999 science fiction book by author James White and is the last in the Sector General series. 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 characterization was the minimum required to support the plot. 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”.
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Sector General #12
Mind Changer sg-12
James White
Mind Changer is a 1998 science fiction book by author James White and is part of the Sector General series. Publishers Weekly described Mind Changer as “White’s finest performance, replete with wit, originality, medical expertise and sheer decency” and commented that the series shows no signs of aging, and Booklist described the book as an “enjoyable, witty resumé” of Chief Psychologist O’Mara’s career. Todd Richmond wrote that the Sector General series declined after Star Healer (1985), hitting a low point with the Galactic Gourmet (1996), and that the later books tended to stretch a short story’s worth of content to the length of a novel. However he thought that Mind Changer (1998) represented an improvement.
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