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Sector General #6
Star Healer
Sector Twelve General Hospital had a staff of thousands divided among sixty or so intelligent species. Every day it treated alien illnesses of baffling complexity...
Senior Physician Conway, the human doctor commanding the Ambulance Ship "Rhabwar," takes on a challenging and dangerous new assignment among a strange race of aliens.
Senior Physician Conway, the human doctor commanding the Ambulance Ship "Rhabwar," takes on a challenging and dangerous new assignment among a strange race of aliens.
217 pages, Paperback
First published December 12, 1984
1 person is currently reading
238 people want to read
About the author
James White
94 books135 followersLibrarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
James White was a Northern Irish author of science fiction novellas, short stories and novels. He was born in Belfast and returned there after spending some early years in Canada. He became a fan of science fiction in 1941 and co-wrote two fan magazines, from 1948 to 1953 and 1952 to 1965. Encouraged by other fans, White began publishing short stories in 1953, and his first novel was published in 1957. His best-known novels were the twelve of the Sector General series, the first published in 1962 and the last after his death. White also published nine other novels, two of which were nominated for major awards, unsuccessfully.
White abhorred violence, and medical and other emergencies were the sources of dramatic tension in his stories. The "Sector General" series is regarded as defining the genre of medical science fiction, and as introducing a memorable crew of aliens. Although missing winning the most prestigious honours four times, White gained other awards for specific works and for contributions to science fiction. He was also Guest-of-Honour of several conventions.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
James White was a Northern Irish author of science fiction novellas, short stories and novels. He was born in Belfast and returned there after spending some early years in Canada. He became a fan of science fiction in 1941 and co-wrote two fan magazines, from 1948 to 1953 and 1952 to 1965. Encouraged by other fans, White began publishing short stories in 1953, and his first novel was published in 1957. His best-known novels were the twelve of the Sector General series, the first published in 1962 and the last after his death. White also published nine other novels, two of which were nominated for major awards, unsuccessfully.
White abhorred violence, and medical and other emergencies were the sources of dramatic tension in his stories. The "Sector General" series is regarded as defining the genre of medical science fiction, and as introducing a memorable crew of aliens. Although missing winning the most prestigious honours four times, White gained other awards for specific works and for contributions to science fiction. He was also Guest-of-Honour of several conventions.
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May 31, 2018I guess that I just don't remember the others in the series well enough, and I read them randomly anyway. All I notice in the first 3 chapters in this is awkward writing, sexism, and speciesism. Which are issues that should not exist in book 6 of a series predicated on the premise that all beings merit respect and care no matter what 'classification' their physiology fits.
Another dusty mm pb that doesn't have to get hauled on yet another move....
Another dusty mm pb that doesn't have to get hauled on yet another move....
December 28, 2019
Senior Physician Conway is giving a bunch of trainees a tour of Sector General, a vast hospital in space, when he encounters his friend, the empathic and physically delicate Doctor Prilicla. Prilicla is acting oddly and encourages Conway to seek out Chief Psychologist O'Mara, who tells him the big news: Prilicla has been promoted to take over Conway's position as head of the ambulance ship Rhabwar, while Conway is being given the opportunity to try for Diagnostician. First, though, Conway is being sent away to the planet Goglesk to rest, think about his options, and observe the situation on Goglesk.
The Gogleskans are friendly but deeply afraid of physical contact, to the point where even doctors must avoid touching patients. Conway tries to figure out what's going on and what he might be able to do to help, but eventually has to go back to Sector General, where he is assigned many more cases, some of which look hopeless, than he's used to dealing with at once. He's sent to work in the Hudlar geriatric ward, and put in charge of a pregnant Protector (a mindlessly violent creature that must constantly be beaten in order to remain healthy, whose fetus is sentient and telepathic until the moment of its birth). He's also put in charge of several Hudlar patients injured in a horrific accident.
I had meant to read a new-to-me Sector General book but realized after a few pages that this was in the Alien Emergencies omnibus I read (and reviewed) several years ago. Still, I couldn't remember the details very well, so I decided to continue on.
As I said in my first review of this book, I liked that readers got to see Conway doing more than just working. Although, granted, even his rest periods tended to count as work - it's not uncommon for Sector General folks to talk shop during meals. At this point in the series, Conway and Murchison were married, so one of the things that frequently came up was the effect all those Educator tapes had on Conway's ability to interact with (and be attracted to, and have sex with) Murchison. I had forgotten how often sexual attraction was brought up in this book - I understood Conway's concern, and it made sense that his fellow Diagnosticians would want to give him advice and a sympathetic ear, but I still found the Diagnostician discussions about hot female Sector General employees to be irksome.
As much as I enjoy this series overall, its handling of female characters is terrible and very dated. Readers are told that Murchison is the second most knowledgeable pathologist at Sector General, and yet because she's a woman, she isn't allowed to take any Educator tapes, one of the most vital and helpful tools at Sector General. The argument (paraphrased) is that female minds would not be able to withstand sharing space with Educator tapes from donors that didn't share their same sexual interests. Never mind that Conway found himself attracted to a Hudlar female many times his own size and managed to adjust to that. And never mind that several of the aliens in the Sector General series don't have binary genders and therefore wouldn't be contributing Educator tapes based on male donors. Also, why not just have some of the Educator tape donors be female?
Anyway, back to the story. One of the other things I forgot about this book was that the Gogleskans would not be the primary focus. Just as I was getting involved in their story and wondering how White was going to resolve it, Conway was sent back to Sector General. He never returned to Goglesk, although there were indications that Khone, the Gogleskan doctor he encountered there, might eventually come to visit him at Sector General (and might be female? in which case, the reasoning for not allowing women to take Educator tapes becomes even weaker considering the effects of Conway and Khone's telepathic contact).
A bit of quick googling indicates that, if I continue reading the Sector General series, I should eventually encounter Khone again. I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time I'm hoping White doesn't mess it up. The way I saw it, the Gogleskan "problem" was a form of species-wide crippling anxiety, and I've found White's handling of psychological issues to be pretty terrible.
The Hudlar geriatric ward, Protector maternity case, and the aftermath of that accident were all fascinating to read about, although, again, I could see some of White's biases on display in the way he wrote about male vs. female Hudlar reactions after surgery. Also, I found it interesting that, in the Diagnostician discussion about the Hudlar geriatric ward, surgical intervention that might lead to a longer but miserable life was viewed as "doing something" and therefore better, whereas forgoing surgery and making the patient comfortable in its last days was viewed as "doing nothing."
Despite my complaints, I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. I love the premise of this series, and the various medical problems in this volume were interesting, despite my issues with some of White's biases.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
The Gogleskans are friendly but deeply afraid of physical contact, to the point where even doctors must avoid touching patients. Conway tries to figure out what's going on and what he might be able to do to help, but eventually has to go back to Sector General, where he is assigned many more cases, some of which look hopeless, than he's used to dealing with at once. He's sent to work in the Hudlar geriatric ward, and put in charge of a pregnant Protector (a mindlessly violent creature that must constantly be beaten in order to remain healthy, whose fetus is sentient and telepathic until the moment of its birth). He's also put in charge of several Hudlar patients injured in a horrific accident.
I had meant to read a new-to-me Sector General book but realized after a few pages that this was in the Alien Emergencies omnibus I read (and reviewed) several years ago. Still, I couldn't remember the details very well, so I decided to continue on.
As I said in my first review of this book, I liked that readers got to see Conway doing more than just working. Although, granted, even his rest periods tended to count as work - it's not uncommon for Sector General folks to talk shop during meals. At this point in the series, Conway and Murchison were married, so one of the things that frequently came up was the effect all those Educator tapes had on Conway's ability to interact with (and be attracted to, and have sex with) Murchison. I had forgotten how often sexual attraction was brought up in this book - I understood Conway's concern, and it made sense that his fellow Diagnosticians would want to give him advice and a sympathetic ear, but I still found the Diagnostician discussions about hot female Sector General employees to be irksome.
As much as I enjoy this series overall, its handling of female characters is terrible and very dated. Readers are told that Murchison is the second most knowledgeable pathologist at Sector General, and yet because she's a woman, she isn't allowed to take any Educator tapes, one of the most vital and helpful tools at Sector General. The argument (paraphrased) is that female minds would not be able to withstand sharing space with Educator tapes from donors that didn't share their same sexual interests. Never mind that Conway found himself attracted to a Hudlar female many times his own size and managed to adjust to that. And never mind that several of the aliens in the Sector General series don't have binary genders and therefore wouldn't be contributing Educator tapes based on male donors. Also, why not just have some of the Educator tape donors be female?
Anyway, back to the story. One of the other things I forgot about this book was that the Gogleskans would not be the primary focus. Just as I was getting involved in their story and wondering how White was going to resolve it, Conway was sent back to Sector General. He never returned to Goglesk, although there were indications that Khone, the Gogleskan doctor he encountered there, might eventually come to visit him at Sector General (and might be female? in which case, the reasoning for not allowing women to take Educator tapes becomes even weaker considering the effects of Conway and Khone's telepathic contact).
A bit of quick googling indicates that, if I continue reading the Sector General series, I should eventually encounter Khone again. I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time I'm hoping White doesn't mess it up. The way I saw it, the Gogleskan "problem" was a form of species-wide crippling anxiety, and I've found White's handling of psychological issues to be pretty terrible.
The Hudlar geriatric ward, Protector maternity case, and the aftermath of that accident were all fascinating to read about, although, again, I could see some of White's biases on display in the way he wrote about male vs. female Hudlar reactions after surgery. Also, I found it interesting that, in the Diagnostician discussion about the Hudlar geriatric ward, surgical intervention that might lead to a longer but miserable life was viewed as "doing something" and therefore better, whereas forgoing surgery and making the patient comfortable in its last days was viewed as "doing nothing."
Despite my complaints, I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. I love the premise of this series, and the various medical problems in this volume were interesting, despite my issues with some of White's biases.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
Read
November 13, 2013The rumor mill at Sector General is usually fast but not necessarily very accurate. As this story begins, it's generating rumors very disquieting to Conway, who can't understand why he's being given minor short-term chores, rather than his usual work on Rhabwar.
In the course of one such chore, he encounters the shape-changer Danalta, which insists that it is not a 'doctor', though, as Conway points out, its proposed behavior fits the job title.
Conway can't even get useful information out of Prilicla, which worries him even more, since Prilicla gets evasive (and sometimes lies outright) only when it thinks telling the truth will cause someone emotional pain.
The truth, when it comes out, is not so much painful as disturbing. Although Conway has done Diagnostician work before (in Star Surgeon, where it almost cost him his sanity), he hasn't really been keeping track of time (it's been about 12 years since he first came to Sector General), and he hasn't realized that it's about time he was given a probationary appointment to Diagnostician.
O'Mara, recognizing that Conway will need time to think things over, sends him to Goglesk--hardly the place for a restful holiday.
The Gogleskans, it turns out, have a terrible problem: whenever one of them is startled or fearful, the affrighted individual utters a 'call for joining'. Everybody within earshot joins tentacles, and through contact telepathy, forms a gestalt entity that mindlessly smashes (and/or poisons) anything that's not part of the gestalt. Ships, libraries, factories, domestic animals...just anything in sight.
The Gogleskans don't know why this is so, and neither do the Federation observers--until Conway figures it out, in circumstances that nearly cost him his life. If the Gogleskan Healer Khone hadn't already been working on the problem itself, the odds are Conway wouldn't have survived to pass on his insights. Reckless? Well, yes, but that's Conway's style, after all. The fact that he's made it this far is only partly survival of the luckiest--he also has a very good bedside manner, and a good ability to put himself in sync with some pretty alien mindsets. So he not only gets lucky--he gets help.
But the help often has some very strange aftereffects. In this case, Conway finds himself with an unerasable memory recording, similar to the Educator Tapes, but different enough to cause confusion and other mental problems (all Gogleskans are necessarily solitary, and Khone is both unusually fearful and unusually brave--and, at Sector General, is exposed to situations it finds terrifying).
I should point out that the argument that females can't use Educator Tapes has been belied from the beginning, since several of the prominent doctors who recorded the tapes have BEEN female (The Hudlar tape Conway gets is a prime example. ALL Hudlars are both female and male (the hormonal changes after gestation change the females to male form: and their lifemates are concurrently rendered female. Wonder how that's triggered?). In this case, it's evident that the rapport is mutual, and that Khone (who is either female or bisexual, given that it later gives birth) received Conway's memories, as well. This story is followed up both in Code Blue: Emergency and in The Genocidal Healer.
After his return to Sector General (and his recuperation, which involves what must be some fairly odd sex with Murchison), Conway is thrown almost at once into the complex problems of Diagnosticians. Rhabwar (now under the medical command of Prilicla, who convinces people to do as they're told for fear of hurting its feelings) is sent to a large scale disaster in a previously unoccupied star system now heavily used for metal extraction (and in desperate need of a better traffic control system). Prilicla, on triage, is reluctant to declare any casualty with any life remaining as hopeless.
Conway has been working on the separate case of Hudlar geriatrics, so it's not surprising that his portion is four nearly hopeless Hudlar cases. He's not expected to do much of the hands-on work, luckily, because o'Mara and Conway's fellow Diagnosticians understand that he won't be able to do anything that requires physical dexterity until he gets a better handle on the Educator Tapes he's carrying. His main job is to come up with surgical strategies which others will put in practice.
This book contains quite a bit more background information on Conway than any of the previous ones. This is done largely to explain how Conway's personal history affects his empathy for others. Thus, for example, the fact that, after being orphaned at a very early age, he was largely raised by his great-grandmother, who died when he was about eight, and that he became a doctor in large part so that he would never again have to stand helpless before death, becomes an important part of the reason he's so well able to empathize with the problems of aged Hudlars.
Which raises an interesting question. The argument is made that, since the Educator Tape impressions are only memories, the entities involved can't learn. But the host learns, and surely the memories are modified thereby? One wonders if a recording taken from a Diagnostician would be the same as the original tape, or if the amalgamation in the host's mind would change the recordings, perhaps in creative ways. The assumption is that it's only the host that's changing...but might it not be synchronous?
Conway keeps coming up with new resolutions to problems faced by Diagnosticians--including some he has almost certainly not have come up against before. Interviews with amputees and transplant patients, for example. I note that there doesn't seem to be any mention of growing new organs from the patient's own DNA here. I understand that in emergencies, this isn't an option--but once the patients have been stabilized, is this not a possibility? As for appealing to patients on a hormonal basis, I'm dubious about this. A Hudlar in female mode is still a Hudlar. And in the case of Hudlars, it seems likely that it'd be the males who would be most concerned with childcare after the female gives birth, since the female is becoming male, and the male becoming female. Of course, in Earth humans, nurturing behavior is the province of both males AND females...and one would think this would be true of Hudlars, as well.
The problem of the relations between Diagnosticians and their lifemates is one that would, of necessity, be idiosyncratic. It's not just that, for example, Tralthans seem to have an oestrus/musth mating season, and otherwise to be only academically interested in sex (though sometimes, as with Thornnastor, the academic interest is intense...). It's also that INDIVIDUALS have their own (often variable) levels of sexual interest, and so, often, do the taped entities. Conway's solution is a bit unusual even in such a complex situation, but not THAT far out.
The problem with the geriatric Hudlars is subject to solution that, it turns out, is tied to Conway's personal history. But it's likely that this is why he was assigned so many Hudlar cases in the first place.
The other main problem in this case is the problem of birthing an intelligent Protector of The Unborn. In this case, part of the problem is that a new sort of C-Section needs to be invented... Then there's the question of which of two nearly identical sacs produces the chemical that frees the newborn from paralysis, and which destroys its mind. And time is limited, because the maternal Protector can't be restrained for long without losing consciousness and dying.
One thing I found sardonically amusing is that the kindhearted Hudlars are emotionally traumatized by having to beat the adult Protector to keep it alive--so they try to soothe themselves by playing Hudlar music--which drives members of other species up the wall.
Another question I've just begun to wonder about is why there don't seem to be many allergies among species in the Federation. Autoimmune disorders seem oddly missing. I started wondering about this when it was stated that species other than Hudlars can receive transplants and, after a period on immunosuppressants, can return to their normal lives. I'm not sure whether this is always true wit present-day humans. But if they could receive new organs grown from their own genotype, it might be possible for even Hudlars to return to normal life. It might be worth investigating.
In the course of one such chore, he encounters the shape-changer Danalta, which insists that it is not a 'doctor', though, as Conway points out, its proposed behavior fits the job title.
Conway can't even get useful information out of Prilicla, which worries him even more, since Prilicla gets evasive (and sometimes lies outright) only when it thinks telling the truth will cause someone emotional pain.
The truth, when it comes out, is not so much painful as disturbing. Although Conway has done Diagnostician work before (in Star Surgeon, where it almost cost him his sanity), he hasn't really been keeping track of time (it's been about 12 years since he first came to Sector General), and he hasn't realized that it's about time he was given a probationary appointment to Diagnostician.
O'Mara, recognizing that Conway will need time to think things over, sends him to Goglesk--hardly the place for a restful holiday.
The Gogleskans, it turns out, have a terrible problem: whenever one of them is startled or fearful, the affrighted individual utters a 'call for joining'. Everybody within earshot joins tentacles, and through contact telepathy, forms a gestalt entity that mindlessly smashes (and/or poisons) anything that's not part of the gestalt. Ships, libraries, factories, domestic animals...just anything in sight.
The Gogleskans don't know why this is so, and neither do the Federation observers--until Conway figures it out, in circumstances that nearly cost him his life. If the Gogleskan Healer Khone hadn't already been working on the problem itself, the odds are Conway wouldn't have survived to pass on his insights. Reckless? Well, yes, but that's Conway's style, after all. The fact that he's made it this far is only partly survival of the luckiest--he also has a very good bedside manner, and a good ability to put himself in sync with some pretty alien mindsets. So he not only gets lucky--he gets help.
But the help often has some very strange aftereffects. In this case, Conway finds himself with an unerasable memory recording, similar to the Educator Tapes, but different enough to cause confusion and other mental problems (all Gogleskans are necessarily solitary, and Khone is both unusually fearful and unusually brave--and, at Sector General, is exposed to situations it finds terrifying).
I should point out that the argument that females can't use Educator Tapes has been belied from the beginning, since several of the prominent doctors who recorded the tapes have BEEN female (The Hudlar tape Conway gets is a prime example. ALL Hudlars are both female and male (the hormonal changes after gestation change the females to male form: and their lifemates are concurrently rendered female. Wonder how that's triggered?). In this case, it's evident that the rapport is mutual, and that Khone (who is either female or bisexual, given that it later gives birth) received Conway's memories, as well. This story is followed up both in Code Blue: Emergency and in The Genocidal Healer.
After his return to Sector General (and his recuperation, which involves what must be some fairly odd sex with Murchison), Conway is thrown almost at once into the complex problems of Diagnosticians. Rhabwar (now under the medical command of Prilicla, who convinces people to do as they're told for fear of hurting its feelings) is sent to a large scale disaster in a previously unoccupied star system now heavily used for metal extraction (and in desperate need of a better traffic control system). Prilicla, on triage, is reluctant to declare any casualty with any life remaining as hopeless.
Conway has been working on the separate case of Hudlar geriatrics, so it's not surprising that his portion is four nearly hopeless Hudlar cases. He's not expected to do much of the hands-on work, luckily, because o'Mara and Conway's fellow Diagnosticians understand that he won't be able to do anything that requires physical dexterity until he gets a better handle on the Educator Tapes he's carrying. His main job is to come up with surgical strategies which others will put in practice.
This book contains quite a bit more background information on Conway than any of the previous ones. This is done largely to explain how Conway's personal history affects his empathy for others. Thus, for example, the fact that, after being orphaned at a very early age, he was largely raised by his great-grandmother, who died when he was about eight, and that he became a doctor in large part so that he would never again have to stand helpless before death, becomes an important part of the reason he's so well able to empathize with the problems of aged Hudlars.
Which raises an interesting question. The argument is made that, since the Educator Tape impressions are only memories, the entities involved can't learn. But the host learns, and surely the memories are modified thereby? One wonders if a recording taken from a Diagnostician would be the same as the original tape, or if the amalgamation in the host's mind would change the recordings, perhaps in creative ways. The assumption is that it's only the host that's changing...but might it not be synchronous?
Conway keeps coming up with new resolutions to problems faced by Diagnosticians--including some he has almost certainly not have come up against before. Interviews with amputees and transplant patients, for example. I note that there doesn't seem to be any mention of growing new organs from the patient's own DNA here. I understand that in emergencies, this isn't an option--but once the patients have been stabilized, is this not a possibility? As for appealing to patients on a hormonal basis, I'm dubious about this. A Hudlar in female mode is still a Hudlar. And in the case of Hudlars, it seems likely that it'd be the males who would be most concerned with childcare after the female gives birth, since the female is becoming male, and the male becoming female. Of course, in Earth humans, nurturing behavior is the province of both males AND females...and one would think this would be true of Hudlars, as well.
The problem of the relations between Diagnosticians and their lifemates is one that would, of necessity, be idiosyncratic. It's not just that, for example, Tralthans seem to have an oestrus/musth mating season, and otherwise to be only academically interested in sex (though sometimes, as with Thornnastor, the academic interest is intense...). It's also that INDIVIDUALS have their own (often variable) levels of sexual interest, and so, often, do the taped entities. Conway's solution is a bit unusual even in such a complex situation, but not THAT far out.
The problem with the geriatric Hudlars is subject to solution that, it turns out, is tied to Conway's personal history. But it's likely that this is why he was assigned so many Hudlar cases in the first place.
The other main problem in this case is the problem of birthing an intelligent Protector of The Unborn. In this case, part of the problem is that a new sort of C-Section needs to be invented... Then there's the question of which of two nearly identical sacs produces the chemical that frees the newborn from paralysis, and which destroys its mind. And time is limited, because the maternal Protector can't be restrained for long without losing consciousness and dying.
One thing I found sardonically amusing is that the kindhearted Hudlars are emotionally traumatized by having to beat the adult Protector to keep it alive--so they try to soothe themselves by playing Hudlar music--which drives members of other species up the wall.
Another question I've just begun to wonder about is why there don't seem to be many allergies among species in the Federation. Autoimmune disorders seem oddly missing. I started wondering about this when it was stated that species other than Hudlars can receive transplants and, after a period on immunosuppressants, can return to their normal lives. I'm not sure whether this is always true wit present-day humans. But if they could receive new organs grown from their own genotype, it might be possible for even Hudlars to return to normal life. It might be worth investigating.
April 19, 2025
I read this book four months. I reviewed it three-and-a-half months ago. I lost that review three months ago. Now I'm making up for my sins and giving it a proper review. I thought that reviewing this book four months on would be pretty tricky, but now that I'm thinking about this book, I'm finding a surprising amount of it coming back to me. That speaks to how good of a book this was. In fact, while I'm a fan of all the *Sector General* books (they are my ultimate comfort-reads), *Star Healer* is probably my favorite. It tackles multiple engaging medical problems and what they mean to our main cast of characters in a way that's incredibly smooth and finely woven for a James White book. It helps personify everything I enjoy this series and I can't wait to talk more about it even though it's been four months.
As far as I remember it, *Star Healer* has four main plot threads. The first starts after Conway leads a team of interns on a tour of Sector General which includes calling out a shape-shifting intern and correctly guessing its alphabetical classification in a brilliant scene-setting move from Conway, when Prilicla says that O'Mara is looking for him. O'Mara offers Conway the role of Diagnostician, an elite medical rank which warrants to housing of several "physiological tapes" (recordings of expert alien doctors' minds) in one's head at all times. Conway is hesitant and O'Mare sends him to leave to think about it. This leave happens to involve meeting the Khone, this kind of quasi-vegetable race that has a rather puzzling social structure only explained when Conway's .
Back at the station, Conway . It's pretty good stuff!
I don't have the strong beat-by-beat analysis of this book that I did four months ago, but I think the most obvious thing to compliment is the way that White intertwines the book's three medical issues into Conway's struggle to adjust to his new rank. Each one of these problems would've been a short story in a traditional Sector General book, but having them happen concurrently really lets Conway and the rest of the cast shine. The medical issues are also, while not reaching the scale of, say, *Major Operation*, among the best in the series, and I loved the callbacks to past books with species like the Hudlar while also building up a completely new civilization in Khone.
Sometimes I have an issue with the writing in Sector General because the way White sets up the physicality of his scenes can seem blocky and opaque to me. This doesn't make White a bad writer, but it has put a bit of a barrier between his work and I before. Thankfully, I consciously remember not having those problems very much with this book, and that helps is be more like a can of Pringles than its predecessors; once you read a couple pages, you just want to read more. Honestly, I'm feeling really good things about this book in retrospect, more than I remember feeling when reading it. Is this just because there's been enough time for the negative to slide away, or is this because there's a real gem inside these pages?
I'm going to say it's because there's a real gem. I'm almost getting the hankering to give this a 9/10 and make it actually the fifth best book I read last year, but I do think that'd be unreasonable - regardless, it should've gone on my Top Ten books of 2023 with a very strong 8.5/10. Especially looking back at it, it's just a very well constructed proto-Trekkian adventure through 80s space medicine and charming optimism.
This is usually where I wrap up my reviews, but I want to take an extra paragraph to talk about the Sector General series as a whole since it seems like, according to all the reviews that I read of book seven and beyond, the series shifts drastically in perspective after this book. A lot of people say that it was necessary because the series was getting stale by the time of *Star Healer,* and while I agree with their sentiment (the series changing it up is better in the long run in terms of its freshness and allowing the series to take up the greater scale which its concept has always been partial to), I disagree that this novel was stale. Instead, I think it's the pinnacle of the first phase of Sector General, a fitting finale that's always been leading to Conway's attempt at playing Diagnostician. Conway's promotion was not the surprising part of the book; it was the fact that it was so well done and carried by awesome exo-physiological quandaries. This book is an awesome part of the science fiction canon, and I can't wait to see if White can outdo himself in this series' second phase.
As far as I remember it, *Star Healer* has four main plot threads. The first starts after Conway leads a team of interns on a tour of Sector General which includes calling out a shape-shifting intern and correctly guessing its alphabetical classification in a brilliant scene-setting move from Conway, when Prilicla says that O'Mara is looking for him. O'Mara offers Conway the role of Diagnostician, an elite medical rank which warrants to housing of several "physiological tapes" (recordings of expert alien doctors' minds) in one's head at all times. Conway is hesitant and O'Mare sends him to leave to think about it. This leave happens to involve meeting the Khone, this kind of quasi-vegetable race that has a rather puzzling social structure only explained when Conway's .
Back at the station, Conway . It's pretty good stuff!
I don't have the strong beat-by-beat analysis of this book that I did four months ago, but I think the most obvious thing to compliment is the way that White intertwines the book's three medical issues into Conway's struggle to adjust to his new rank. Each one of these problems would've been a short story in a traditional Sector General book, but having them happen concurrently really lets Conway and the rest of the cast shine. The medical issues are also, while not reaching the scale of, say, *Major Operation*, among the best in the series, and I loved the callbacks to past books with species like the Hudlar while also building up a completely new civilization in Khone.
Sometimes I have an issue with the writing in Sector General because the way White sets up the physicality of his scenes can seem blocky and opaque to me. This doesn't make White a bad writer, but it has put a bit of a barrier between his work and I before. Thankfully, I consciously remember not having those problems very much with this book, and that helps is be more like a can of Pringles than its predecessors; once you read a couple pages, you just want to read more. Honestly, I'm feeling really good things about this book in retrospect, more than I remember feeling when reading it. Is this just because there's been enough time for the negative to slide away, or is this because there's a real gem inside these pages?
I'm going to say it's because there's a real gem. I'm almost getting the hankering to give this a 9/10 and make it actually the fifth best book I read last year, but I do think that'd be unreasonable - regardless, it should've gone on my Top Ten books of 2023 with a very strong 8.5/10. Especially looking back at it, it's just a very well constructed proto-Trekkian adventure through 80s space medicine and charming optimism.
This is usually where I wrap up my reviews, but I want to take an extra paragraph to talk about the Sector General series as a whole since it seems like, according to all the reviews that I read of book seven and beyond, the series shifts drastically in perspective after this book. A lot of people say that it was necessary because the series was getting stale by the time of *Star Healer,* and while I agree with their sentiment (the series changing it up is better in the long run in terms of its freshness and allowing the series to take up the greater scale which its concept has always been partial to), I disagree that this novel was stale. Instead, I think it's the pinnacle of the first phase of Sector General, a fitting finale that's always been leading to Conway's attempt at playing Diagnostician. Conway's promotion was not the surprising part of the book; it was the fact that it was so well done and carried by awesome exo-physiological quandaries. This book is an awesome part of the science fiction canon, and I can't wait to see if White can outdo himself in this series' second phase.
December 3, 2024
As always, I'm amazed how White comes up with yet more new aliens, new ailments, and new cures for his galactic hospital. The crew is rational, cooperative, and compassionate even about the weirdest beings imaginable. Reading any book from the series is like a vacation from our increasingly irrational, narrow-minded and egocentric reality. Highly recommended, even if some aspects are a bit dated.
October 30, 2011
Senior Physician Conway is sent on sabatical, to consider whether he is mentally stable to accept a very challenging promotion. The location of his sabatical is problematic - what is the source of its inhabitants' isolationism? When Conway accidentally sets off a Gogleskan upheaval, he determines to trace the racial neurosis and heal it.
Injured in the upheaval, Conway is raced back to Sector General Hospital, and while there he is sidetracked or returned to the problem of the Protector they rescued in AMBULANCE SHIP. In spite of a satisfying birth, Conway now has both ongoing cases to continue in James White's sequel.
Injured in the upheaval, Conway is raced back to Sector General Hospital, and while there he is sidetracked or returned to the problem of the Protector they rescued in AMBULANCE SHIP. In spite of a satisfying birth, Conway now has both ongoing cases to continue in James White's sequel.
December 6, 2011
The book has it's moments -- especially the plot involving the sentient but paranoid extra terrestrial cacti species. The problem lies in the series' adherrance to a new method of classifying patients. Instead of using the taxonomy system currently in use, doctors in the future apparently have decided to use a system of letters that ends up with hard to remember and meaningless (from a reader's POV) four letter combos that distract from the flow of an otherwise interesting story.
July 16, 2019
In which Conway tackles the job of Diagnosticoan. As with the other books, occasional bouts of extreme sexism and a lack of significant female characters. Fascinating variety of alien species and medical issues. The return of the Protectors of the Unborn was especially neat.
April 4, 2025
I must have an outsized reaction to Sector General novellas, given how few reviews they have on GR. This one especially, I loved. O’Mara is chivvying Conway up in the way that he must go—towards Diagnostician if possible—which means a sojourn abroad before returning to the hospital either as a probationary Diagnostician or not. The planet he’s sent to presents catnip to the Senior Physician: a long-standing, scarcely understood problem with a devastating impact on the civilization of the Gogleskans afflicted.
Naturally, Conway gets involved. In the course of things we learn more about his childhood and why he cares so much about his patients. To me, having read the series out of order, it was also great to get the background for what happens in Code Blue and the Genocidal Healer.
This novella in particular scoffs at current (US, 2025) attempts to demonize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Conway is exceptionally good at attaining insights and solving thorny problems not just because he’s bright and cares but explicitly because he draws on shared experiences with a range of different sentient life forms. Other-species tapes uploaded into his brain, inadvertent telepathy, and simply living and working with multiple varied species—all allow Conway to see problems and solutions with new eyes and achieve remarkable successes. O'Mara even emphasizes these differences, believing that they force hospital staff to pay greater attention to patients' needs.
Conway’s role as probationary Diagnostician means that the story gets to explore the intellectual, psychological, and interpersonal effects of carrying multiple tapes. It’s thought-provoking stuff and sometimes quite funny, too, though perhaps in a polarizing way. The stuff around sexual attraction, especially, I found hilarious. Of course, this touches on throwback gender stuff, too, and many new readers are likely to feel it more keenly than I did. That is, this author’s misogyny is garden-variety for when he was writing. Milder, even, because Pathologist Murchison by this point is second only to the great (and entertaining) Thornaster. Given that the author is dead and can make no improvements in future writing, and given that I’ve seen much worse (including by modern authors), I just shrug and move on.
Where some readers might prefer that Conway stay on Goglesk, his sojourn planet, I appreciate how his swift return to Sector General allowed several themes to blend and develop. How is an individual affected by group thinking and emoting and what does this mean for civilizational development? What is the physiological impact of living in an environment of constant vigilance? Of violence? How do we prioritize extended life versus quality of living? Above all, how do we learn and grow and change while retaining a sense of self and coherent external relationships?
Or you ignore those themes and simply enjoy the incredible range of well-thought-out and wildly imaginative aliens. Either way, great and unique fun that I’m ...probably not entirely normal about.
Naturally, Conway gets involved. In the course of things we learn more about his childhood and why he cares so much about his patients. To me, having read the series out of order, it was also great to get the background for what happens in Code Blue and the Genocidal Healer.
This novella in particular scoffs at current (US, 2025) attempts to demonize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Conway is exceptionally good at attaining insights and solving thorny problems not just because he’s bright and cares but explicitly because he draws on shared experiences with a range of different sentient life forms. Other-species tapes uploaded into his brain, inadvertent telepathy, and simply living and working with multiple varied species—all allow Conway to see problems and solutions with new eyes and achieve remarkable successes. O'Mara even emphasizes these differences, believing that they force hospital staff to pay greater attention to patients' needs.
Conway’s role as probationary Diagnostician means that the story gets to explore the intellectual, psychological, and interpersonal effects of carrying multiple tapes. It’s thought-provoking stuff and sometimes quite funny, too, though perhaps in a polarizing way. The stuff around sexual attraction, especially, I found hilarious. Of course, this touches on throwback gender stuff, too, and many new readers are likely to feel it more keenly than I did. That is, this author’s misogyny is garden-variety for when he was writing. Milder, even, because Pathologist Murchison by this point is second only to the great (and entertaining) Thornaster. Given that the author is dead and can make no improvements in future writing, and given that I’ve seen much worse (including by modern authors), I just shrug and move on.
Where some readers might prefer that Conway stay on Goglesk, his sojourn planet, I appreciate how his swift return to Sector General allowed several themes to blend and develop. How is an individual affected by group thinking and emoting and what does this mean for civilizational development? What is the physiological impact of living in an environment of constant vigilance? Of violence? How do we prioritize extended life versus quality of living? Above all, how do we learn and grow and change while retaining a sense of self and coherent external relationships?
Or you ignore those themes and simply enjoy the incredible range of well-thought-out and wildly imaginative aliens. Either way, great and unique fun that I’m ...probably not entirely normal about.
September 15, 2022
Actually, read as part of the omnibus titled Alien Emergencies.
Even weirder aliens, combined with optimism and White's usual clunky characterizations. I mean, don't read this for nuanced portraits of characters, read it for the problems and the solutions and the strange variations on possible biologies. White does at least attempt to explore how individuals would react to the weirdness around them, but he tends to fall into patterns. Prilicla trembles constantly. O'Mara glares. Cowan has all the major insights and figures out everything important; he also gets angry and has a tantrum and finds that by having the tantrum he's done exactly what he should have done. At least he's off the steaks for apprently every meal, because the other physicians in his head would be repulsed by them. And Murchison isn't as objectified as usual.
Still got that ol' O'Mara misogyny, though. Murchison points that out, in a scene I think I'm supposed to find amusing, when she comments that the Educator tapes the doctors use in order to thoroughly understand other biologies aren't "for the likes of me." (The tapes are recordings of the consciousness of doctors of various species; and the doctor using them will not only have a thorough understanding of patients of that species, but will experience life as if he's of that species. And White does mean "he.") She then imitates O'Mara: "But you and the other females or extraterrestrial female equivalents on the staff will have to continue using your brains, such as they are, unaided. It is regrettable, but you females have a deep, ineradicable and sex-based aversion, a form of hyperfastidiousness, which will not allow you to share your minds with an alien personality which is unaffected by your sexual ..." Because Murchison's just been discussing with her husband the fact that males of a species don't tend to find females of another species attractive, the quote here is implying that female health practitioners would be offended to be sharing thoughts with those who can't appreciate their feminine beauties. Ugh. (Also, the fact that Murchison's voice can't imitate O'Mara's manly, manly tones for long is ... symbolic.)
White is just better at plot and world-building than he is at complex characters. The books are fun, and I'll be finishing the series sometime.
Even weirder aliens, combined with optimism and White's usual clunky characterizations. I mean, don't read this for nuanced portraits of characters, read it for the problems and the solutions and the strange variations on possible biologies. White does at least attempt to explore how individuals would react to the weirdness around them, but he tends to fall into patterns. Prilicla trembles constantly. O'Mara glares. Cowan has all the major insights and figures out everything important; he also gets angry and has a tantrum and finds that by having the tantrum he's done exactly what he should have done. At least he's off the steaks for apprently every meal, because the other physicians in his head would be repulsed by them. And Murchison isn't as objectified as usual.
Still got that ol' O'Mara misogyny, though. Murchison points that out, in a scene I think I'm supposed to find amusing, when she comments that the Educator tapes the doctors use in order to thoroughly understand other biologies aren't "for the likes of me." (The tapes are recordings of the consciousness of doctors of various species; and the doctor using them will not only have a thorough understanding of patients of that species, but will experience life as if he's of that species. And White does mean "he.") She then imitates O'Mara: "But you and the other females or extraterrestrial female equivalents on the staff will have to continue using your brains, such as they are, unaided. It is regrettable, but you females have a deep, ineradicable and sex-based aversion, a form of hyperfastidiousness, which will not allow you to share your minds with an alien personality which is unaffected by your sexual ..." Because Murchison's just been discussing with her husband the fact that males of a species don't tend to find females of another species attractive, the quote here is implying that female health practitioners would be offended to be sharing thoughts with those who can't appreciate their feminine beauties. Ugh. (Also, the fact that Murchison's voice can't imitate O'Mara's manly, manly tones for long is ... symbolic.)
White is just better at plot and world-building than he is at complex characters. The books are fun, and I'll be finishing the series sometime.
June 27, 2023
This book, and the others I have read to date really is not for everyone. Especially for those raised on traditional television medical shows.
This is not your Grey's Anatomy folks.
The series has shifted its focus towards Senior Physician Conway, a not very likeable nor very well defined character. At this point in his career at the interstellar hospital he has found a life partner, and is up for a promotion to diagnostician. And, that comes with its own set of problems. Because becoming a diagnostician means being able to handle having three or more alien memory sets imprinted on your own.
Characterization has not been White's strength but he puts work into fleshing out Conway. Conway maybe has grown up some, understanding that his rather sizeable ego can get in the way of helping his patients. He has doubts that he will be able to handle not just retaining multiple alien memory sets, but at being a good person when its cones to patient aftercare. No one enjoys being the bearer of bad news, and telling someone a loved has passed is not easy. Plus the new memoires can affect his personal life (not every alien will see Conway's mate, Murchinson, as highly attractive and desirable, ergo intimate relation issues).
White's writing is not for everyone. In can be a little dense, and arguably plodding. He does craft a good tale, and for me makes the hospital settings and procedures realistic enough (much better than Med Ship). He had to give a lot of thought tot the four letter life form classification system, and sometimes it does get annoying with its constant use (much it does make sense, the whys, and why it is used).
This is not your Grey's Anatomy folks.
The series has shifted its focus towards Senior Physician Conway, a not very likeable nor very well defined character. At this point in his career at the interstellar hospital he has found a life partner, and is up for a promotion to diagnostician. And, that comes with its own set of problems. Because becoming a diagnostician means being able to handle having three or more alien memory sets imprinted on your own.
Characterization has not been White's strength but he puts work into fleshing out Conway. Conway maybe has grown up some, understanding that his rather sizeable ego can get in the way of helping his patients. He has doubts that he will be able to handle not just retaining multiple alien memory sets, but at being a good person when its cones to patient aftercare. No one enjoys being the bearer of bad news, and telling someone a loved has passed is not easy. Plus the new memoires can affect his personal life (not every alien will see Conway's mate, Murchinson, as highly attractive and desirable, ergo intimate relation issues).
White's writing is not for everyone. In can be a little dense, and arguably plodding. He does craft a good tale, and for me makes the hospital settings and procedures realistic enough (much better than Med Ship). He had to give a lot of thought tot the four letter life form classification system, and sometimes it does get annoying with its constant use (much it does make sense, the whys, and why it is used).
February 17, 2023
Part of the Sector General series. Senior Physician Conway is up for promotion. He would a Diagnostician. This would require the copies of minds of alien surgeons to be uploaded in his head. Before that he is sent to a planet where the race cannot be healed by outsiders. After he returns, Conway agrees to accept the promotion. After the aliens minds are loaded, an emergency breaks out and his new skills are put to the test. This is an interesting series. The only thing that I thought was strange was that the facility is headed by a psychologist rather than a psychiatrist. There is good alien design. The aliens are exotic and they feel plausible. The needs of a interspecies hospital are well covered.
February 6, 2019
Getting better!
January 2, 2020
The final book in the omnibus "Alien Emergencies", this novel has Dr. Conway off the ambulance ship and back at Sector General.
December 11, 2020
A good addition. The previous books have been short stories, compiled into book form, all with the same characters and theme. What I liked about this book is that it all one long story!
January 31, 2022
great series
May 24, 2024
They get better and better.
June 7, 2014
‘THE BIG TIME
Sector Twelve General Hospital had a staff of thousands divided among sixty or so intelligent species. Every day it treated alien illnesses of baffling complexity.
Of all the hospital’s very capable staff, Senior Physician Conway, the human doctor in charge of the Ambulance Ship ‘Rhabwar’, was thought by many to be the most promising.
So when he was replaced – without notice – by the birdlike alien Prilicla, Dr Conway was surprised, to say the least. But that was nothing compared to his shock when he was offered a promotion to a challenging new position.
It was his for the taking. If he had the nerve…’
Blurb from the 1985 Del Rey paperback edition.
The belligerent and somewhat inscrutable Chief Psychologist O’Mara tells his protegee Conway that he is thinking of promoting him to Diagnostician, a prestigious and challenging post, but one which will entail downloading tapes of alien surgeon personalities into his mind, which can lead to psychological problems.
While he considers the post, O’Mara sends him to the unusual planet Goglesk where the natives are a cactuslike species who, when threatened, can not only exude a deadly poison from their spines, but fuse together into a gestalt entity which then goes on a destructive rampage. Cooperation between individuals is therefore difficult and their development as a society has stagnated.
In attempting to help them, Conway gets fused with an individual Gogleskan and, during the contact, absorbs some of his personality and transfers his to the Gogleskan.
Subsequently Conway solves the problems of having multiple alien personalities in his head, solves the problem of a species whose unborn telepathic children are intelligent but revert to animal level after birth, and finds that his Gogleskan mental imprint has surprising implications.
White’s aliens are unfailingly ingenious in their biological design and life-cycles and incredibly plausible, although White tends to take a Star Trek approach to their personalities which are all very human in the final analysis. These are very much feel-good novels in the Asimovian style of there being a problem to solve within each separate section.
That having been said, it can’t be denied that the series is extremely well-written and highly enjoyable, despite the slightly absurd central premise of a General hospital in the middle of space, catering to the medical needs of hundreds of species.
Sector Twelve General Hospital had a staff of thousands divided among sixty or so intelligent species. Every day it treated alien illnesses of baffling complexity.
Of all the hospital’s very capable staff, Senior Physician Conway, the human doctor in charge of the Ambulance Ship ‘Rhabwar’, was thought by many to be the most promising.
So when he was replaced – without notice – by the birdlike alien Prilicla, Dr Conway was surprised, to say the least. But that was nothing compared to his shock when he was offered a promotion to a challenging new position.
It was his for the taking. If he had the nerve…’
Blurb from the 1985 Del Rey paperback edition.
The belligerent and somewhat inscrutable Chief Psychologist O’Mara tells his protegee Conway that he is thinking of promoting him to Diagnostician, a prestigious and challenging post, but one which will entail downloading tapes of alien surgeon personalities into his mind, which can lead to psychological problems.
While he considers the post, O’Mara sends him to the unusual planet Goglesk where the natives are a cactuslike species who, when threatened, can not only exude a deadly poison from their spines, but fuse together into a gestalt entity which then goes on a destructive rampage. Cooperation between individuals is therefore difficult and their development as a society has stagnated.
In attempting to help them, Conway gets fused with an individual Gogleskan and, during the contact, absorbs some of his personality and transfers his to the Gogleskan.
Subsequently Conway solves the problems of having multiple alien personalities in his head, solves the problem of a species whose unborn telepathic children are intelligent but revert to animal level after birth, and finds that his Gogleskan mental imprint has surprising implications.
White’s aliens are unfailingly ingenious in their biological design and life-cycles and incredibly plausible, although White tends to take a Star Trek approach to their personalities which are all very human in the final analysis. These are very much feel-good novels in the Asimovian style of there being a problem to solve within each separate section.
That having been said, it can’t be denied that the series is extremely well-written and highly enjoyable, despite the slightly absurd central premise of a General hospital in the middle of space, catering to the medical needs of hundreds of species.
April 8, 2009
"Rarely have I seen such a discouraging clinical picture, and I shall certainly have my hands full, all eight of them, with this one.", So says aCrepellian octopod Diagnostician.
To me, the entirety of this book matched the pace, tension and drama of the first chapter of the first title, which is after all what hooked me in the first place.
'"And don’t think you can pull your Senior Physician’s rank on me to get up," she said sweetly as Conway opened his mouth to do just that. "In this instance you are the patient and not the doctor, Doctor."'
Bristling with humour, concern for the mental stability of our protagonist and the well-being of his patients, this installment sees Conway at his very best, the hospital a well-running machine all around him.
Seems to me that this is a perfect end-of-series marker - the characters are all wrapped up and left as neatly as if a season of a television drama was coming to a close. My only slight seed of doubt is that there are more books, and some say the quality declines. This happens with series, of course; but this one at least will certainly stick in my mind for its sheer excellence.
To me, the entirety of this book matched the pace, tension and drama of the first chapter of the first title, which is after all what hooked me in the first place.
'"And don’t think you can pull your Senior Physician’s rank on me to get up," she said sweetly as Conway opened his mouth to do just that. "In this instance you are the patient and not the doctor, Doctor."'
Bristling with humour, concern for the mental stability of our protagonist and the well-being of his patients, this installment sees Conway at his very best, the hospital a well-running machine all around him.
Seems to me that this is a perfect end-of-series marker - the characters are all wrapped up and left as neatly as if a season of a television drama was coming to a close. My only slight seed of doubt is that there are more books, and some say the quality declines. This happens with series, of course; but this one at least will certainly stick in my mind for its sheer excellence.
December 31, 2013
The sixth installment in the series is a true testament to how much it had evolved over the years, as the book doesn't fail at being great:
the Diagnostician board meetings are excellent and amusing, and provide more depth to an already likeable concept (the author also presents a few other Diagnosticians as secondary characters, so it doesn't feel like there are only 3,5 doctors at the Sector General any more); Conway develops in new directions; a new cool race of space weirdos is introduced, and weirdos from earlier books are followed up on — especially the FROBsies, who increasingly become my favourite race in the series, and also the Protectors/Unborn (no stupid worms!). Even Prilicla is less annoying, and its appearances are well-placed and enjoyable.
The only hiccup is the abrupt end of the Goglesk storyline about a third into the book. The author develops well the new world, and its race, and the new characters, and then —pop!— it all ends and turns into a minor device referenced in the rest of the book. There is no follow-up, which is frustrating and wasteful.
the Diagnostician board meetings are excellent and amusing, and provide more depth to an already likeable concept (the author also presents a few other Diagnosticians as secondary characters, so it doesn't feel like there are only 3,5 doctors at the Sector General any more); Conway develops in new directions; a new cool race of space weirdos is introduced, and weirdos from earlier books are followed up on — especially the FROBsies, who increasingly become my favourite race in the series, and also the Protectors/Unborn (no stupid worms!). Even Prilicla is less annoying, and its appearances are well-placed and enjoyable.
The only hiccup is the abrupt end of the Goglesk storyline about a third into the book. The author develops well the new world, and its race, and the new characters, and then —pop!— it all ends and turns into a minor device referenced in the rest of the book. There is no follow-up, which is frustrating and wasteful.
August 10, 2008
Another in White's Sector General series. Holds together as a novel better than the first one, but not completely thrilling. These are weird: they don't feel that compelling, but it's hard not to keep reading. Hmm. I'll read another soon and hopefully decide whether or not to keep on with the series.
If you pick up a copy of this, check it carefully; a block of pages in mine was offset when printed, so the first half dozen characters of each line are missing for about 20 pages. Fortunately, it's not hard to figure what's missing from context.
If you pick up a copy of this, check it carefully; a block of pages in mine was offset when printed, so the first half dozen characters of each line are missing for about 20 pages. Fortunately, it's not hard to figure what's missing from context.
April 20, 2019
Another excellent entry into the Sector General series. My only quibble is that the book ended with the possibility of the alien healer, who is pregnant and shared its mind space with Conway, is coming to Sector General and I eagerly looked at the blurbs on the backs of all the rest of the books in the series that I have on hand and none of them deal with it. I am hoping that the next book does deal with it as an adjunct to the main story. Only six books to go. These books are comfortable to read. The stories are ingenious and the aliens full fleshed out and imaginative.
August 15, 2007
This sixth book in the sector general series pulled together situations from three of the previous books and continued the advancement of conway. Probably one of the most fun books of the series to date.
August 21, 2015
Enjoyed the entire series, but I think this volume was my favorite.
Somehow it would seem the character development is a bit deeper here
it probably won't work as a standalone, but within the series this was great
Somehow it would seem the character development is a bit deeper here
it probably won't work as a standalone, but within the series this was great
Read
September 26, 201215
December 6, 2012
Further adventures of Conway & his friends. It was good to see how each character has developed.
June 5, 2015
1985 grade B+
series book SG6
series book SG6
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews