Star Surgeon

Star Surgeon starts off with Conway treating an alien of a sort he’s never seen or heard of before. It turns out that his newest patient’s species is seen as somewhat godlike by those aliens that know of them. They’re purported to be immortal, and they have a habit of gradually making themselves the supreme ruler of a world, solving its problems (I was left with so many questions), and then leaving. They are always accompanied by a companion of a different species.

Conway’s efforts to treat his patient, Lonvellin, impress it so much that it later insists he help it and the Monitor Corps with a problem it’s having on the planet Etla, which is part of a larger Empire made up of several planets. Etla used to have a thriving show more population before it was hit by one horrible illness after another. To make matters worse, Etla’s natives are deeply suspicious of beings that look different from them, so they refuse to accept help from anyone except the Empire’s Imperial Representative, who rarely stops by. Earth humans and Etlans just happen to look very much alike, so Conway and the Monitor Corpsmen are able to sneak in, assess the situation, and try to help. Unfortunately, the situation is much worse than anyone realizes and deteriorates to such a degree that Sector General finds itself caught up in an interstellar war.

I think this is my second full-length Sector General novel, although I’ve read a bunch of Sector General short stories. So far it looks like one of the nice things about the full-length novels is that they gave the author the time and space to show readers things that weren’t directly related to solving medical mysteries. Star Surgeon shows readers one of Sector General’s recreational areas (as Conway tries to convince Murchison to take their relationship from “friends, sort of” to “dating and maybe even having sex”), and I learned that there are apparently 218 human (or at least DBDG) women at Sector General, not that we ever learn the names of any of them besides Murchison.

Unfortunately, Star Surgeon turned out to be less focused on medical mysteries and more of a war book. Lonvellin’s medical issues were dealt with fairly quickly, and Etla’s problems were revealed to be less medical and more political (and absolutely horrifying). That left the interstellar war, with Sector General at its heart.

This book’s tone and message reminded me strongly of the story “Accident,” available in the Sector General omnibus Alien Emergencies. The specifics of how Sector General was evacuated were fascinating - in addition to concerns about moving sick or injured patients, every species’ general physical needs (gravity, atmosphere, temperature, and more) also had to be taken into account.

Unfortunately, Sector General’s evacuation and the events that happened afterward were also a bit emotionally draining. Sector General was intended to be a hospital capable of catering to any and every alien species. The evacuation and Sector General’s transformation into “what amounted to a heavily armed military base” (104) were both painful.

Once again, I can’t help but wonder about the economics of the Sector General universe. Money still seems to exist and be necessary, because it took great gobs of money to build Sector General in the first place. The damage Sector General sustained during the battle and the hospital’s evacuation and repurposing should probably have financially wrecked it. And yet it apparently recovered just fine, because there are many Sector General stories and books that come after this one.

As much as I like the idea behind the Sector General series, the books and stories have several recurring problems. One of those problems kept rearing its ugly head in Star Surgeon: sexism. Since the series is usually careful not to assign a gender to any of its aliens, except in one instance where a particular alien species cycles through genders during the course of its life, that means that most of the more blatant sexism involves Murchison, the series’ only named human woman (that I know of).

If Murchison ever appeared on-page without some mention of her appealing physical form or features, it was rare. Also, just like in Star Healer, Murchison requested to be allowed to use an educator tape, only to be shot down by O’Mara.

"'As for the girls [he means the nurses],' [O'Mara] went on, a sardonic edge in his voice, 'you have noticed by this time that the female Earth-human DBDG has a rather peculiar mind. One of its peculiarities is a deep, sex-based mental fastidiousness. No matter what they say they will not, repeat not, allow alien beings to apparently take over their pretty little brains. If such should happen, severe mental damage would result.'" (132)

And then there was this, said by Murchison to Conway:

"'I...I asked him to give me [an educator tape], earlier, to help you out. But he said no because...' She hesitated, and looked away. '...because he said girls are very choosey who they let take possession of them. Their minds, I mean...'" (141)

Am I the only one who thinks that explanation sounds uncomfortably sexual? At any rate, while I’m thankful that at least one Sector General fix fic exists, it doesn’t stop the burst of anger I feel whenever I come across things like this in the original books and stories.

Well, even though I hate the series’ sexism, I love its “doctors in space” focus. Unfortunately, this particular book was grimmer and had less in the way of medical mysteries than I preferred. It wasn’t a bad entry in the series, but it wasn’t quite what I was hoping for when I started reading.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Yet another rousing space adventure aboard a multi-race hospital floating somewhere in the galaxy. White's sense of humanity, in all its forms, is refreshing as doctors and nurses---some with six legs, some breathing chlorine, some hanging from the ceiling---band together in the middle of an interstellar war in order to care for the injured and the dying. The hospital ship itself is a marvel of engineering (those familiar with Chalker's "Well of Souls" books will see some similarities) and White's vivid descriptions of its exotic denizens, each categorized by a four-letter physiological classification system, is inventive to say the least. A great instalment to a great series.

I didn't like it quite as much as the first book. The sexism of the 1960s showed through pretty strongly and soured the book. Examples:

- All the doctors are male and all the nurses are female, even in a future that includes mind-bogglingly massive sociological, medical, and technological progress
- The nurses are called girls, even though they have clearly reached an adult age
- Nurse Murchison is continually sexually harassed by her boss, Dr. Conway, including unwanted physical touching
- Nurse Murchison's wishes to keep the relationship professional and platonic are disregarded by Dr. Conway, and he repeatedly tries to manipulate her into a sexual relationship
- Continuous references to Nurse Murchison's huge tits throughout the book

It show more may be a book about various advanced lifeforms set in the far future, but it was written by a human male in the 1960s and has some hack writing to prove it. show less

White, James. Star Surgeon. Sector General No. 2. 1963. Del Rey, 1970.
If there was ever a series to buck you up during a pandemic, it is James White’s Sector General stories that appeared off and on from the early 1960s through the 1990s and in reprints and combo editions in this millennium. It does not matter that most of the humans on far future space station hospital catering to aliens from all over two galaxies are for all purposes twentieth-century Anglo-Irish or that all the sex, even the alien sex, so tame it would not make it on Gray’s Anatomy. What makes the series such a perennial favorite is its unabashed faith in scientific ingenuity to solve the most mysterious and intractable medical and social problems. The show more multispecies hospital is the perfect answer to the question, “Can’t we all just get along?” In Star Surgeon, Dr. Conway has to keep the hospital running when an alien bombardment takes out most of the senior staff. Can he use mind tapes from six different species at once and set up a ward in the oxygen-breather’s dining hall? You betcha. The first book in the series is Hospital Station. You should read it first. show less

Dr. Conway soldiers (or doctors) on in this volume, in which a crafty 'Empire' feeds misinformation to their own people about the Federation. A mishap on a planet the Empire is ill-using ignites a war, the hospital station is attacked! Conway ends of being the senior physician and I don't think I'm giving a thing away if I say he saves the day AND gets the girl. My only objection to the novel is that nurses aren't just always female, but they uniformly have 'pretty little heads' and brains that are too single-minded to take the 'tape' that has to be taken to be doctors treating aliens and so on and so forth - although in fairness - he doesn't mean that wholly negatively, i don't think. One reason I stopped reading SF in the early 70's show more was because I suddenly woke up and realized that women were wallpaper and I freaked out. Ironically, just about at that time, the tide was about to turn.... I'll be curious to see how White, who kept on writing into .... I'll have to research that, but into at least the 80's and maybe longer.... handled the sea change. Assuming he does, of course. Meanwhile the four stars are for the scope of imagination - he thinks up the most amazing creatures, and he keeps the story moving and there is so much that is so commendable. **** show less

[Star Surgeon] is the second of the Sector General series.

Sector General is a hospital space station with an amazing variety of non-humanoid doctors treating a huge variety of non-humanoid patients.

In the first part of the book, the station, under the direction of hero protagonist Dr Conroy, must treat an alien that is so huge, long lived and powerful that it is thought of as god-like by the species that know it.

After the alien, whose name is Lonvellin, goes on its way, it contacts the station about a totally new uncontacted confederation of beings. There are a wide variety of treatable diseases on the planet Lonvellin visits. It contacts Sector General to send a crew to make contact and help the inhabitants.

What follows turns into an show more intergalactic war with a fascist empire lying about the motives of Sector General. Its citizens believe that they are doing the right thing by destroying the hospital ship and the destruction they wreak is terrible.

This one hits a bit close to the bone with a lying government and people happily falling into line to give their lives to defend it.

There is quite a bit of sexism in this novel; not uncommon for SF written in the early 1970’s. There are no women doctors or women in other leadership positions, although females of all species are wonderfully competent nurses and sexy love interests.

In many ways, it’s like stepping back in time fifty years – the good guys are impeccable, the women beautiful.

Still it’s an entertaining feel-good series and I plan to go on with it. show less

A friend recommended [author: James White] a couple months ago, so I picked up a handful of them. This is the third one I've read, but the first out of what is apparently his mostly popular series (Sector General). It's my first introduction to a rather weird genre, "doctors in space". The book largely takes place at "Sector 12 General Hospital", a gigantic space station dedicated to treating injury and illness for thousands of races, with wildly varying environmental and social requirements. Most of the action follows one doctor (Senior Physician Conway) and his usual associates. It starts with a little diagnostic mystery - new patient from an unknown race is clearly dying, and not responding to treatments in a way that makes sense. show more From there the story takes a few twists and turns, following some consequences of the patient being in a way a galactic big shot.

Although it was generally enjoyable, the book has some real problems. One difficulty is the odd pacing: it starts off with some medical drama intensity, then goes into a lull in the middle, and finally builds, builds, builds the excitement, until 2 pages from the end, when things abruptly get tied up, leaving a somewhat unsatisfied feeling.

The other problem is that it's very dated, feeling more so than other novels from the early 60s. Although some of it is easy enough to ignore (giant computers, messengers for paper documents, etc), it displays a type and level of sexism that it's hard to believe used to exist: the doctors are men, the nurses are women, everyone is straight, and "the female mind is not capable of..." a number of things. It's actually quite jarring. Somewhat weirdly, I followed this by reading [book: Sector General], a collection of four short stories in the same universe. In three of these, the shapely and universally (well, among human males) desirable nurse of this novel has morphed into a highly competent and well-respected pathologist, with no reference to her having been a nurse before.

So I don't know. I'm not unhappy I read it, but I wouldn't particularly recommend it, unless you are a big fan of medical stuff (although the second half is more about logistics and paperwork than medicine). show less