Ambulance Ship

Sector General #4

by James White

224p paperback, illustrated cover, white lettering to spine, clean pages, a fresh copy, excellent

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space Opera, Medical, Ebooks, Aliens

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 1979

About the author

Librarian 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.

Reviews

[carol. · Rating 3 out of 5]

James Conway, who feels a lot like an idealized mild-mannered physician, is the nominal head of a new ambulance ship. A training run becomes the real thing. He also has to learn how to mesh with the militaristic structure of the Monitor Corp, the group charged with the defense logistics of the Sector General hospital. White has given this structure a bit of thought, so there's more detail than I would have liked about logistics. I'm a medicine person, who cares about logistics?! That's engineering and, well, SEP!
Doctor Dr. Prilicla and Nurse Murchison are the other familiar characters. I had forgotten how much of Prilicla's lines are about feelings, and how attractive Murchison is. But it's the Playboy mudflap version (can you tell where I live?) of attractive: almost zero details, so it's tolerable.

For notes on this trilogy of the series, see the Omnibus review.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay so here is my next foray in to the world of James White's Sector General aka the Hospital Station. This time we are looking at the repurposed Monitor Corps ship designed to respond to distress signals. Unlike the previous volume this is one story centered around yes you guessed it this ship.

The idea of that not only is this ship designed for medical emergencies and so true to the Station itself able to respond to any emergency (once they have figured out what that is - and which is part of the fun) it can also act as emissary and first contact.

As always James White weaves a fascinating story that mixes the familiar (yes we have Doctor Conway here heading up the familiar faces) along with the totally alien (every pun intended) both patient and new crew member.

However for me now we have a full length story I felt I was able to connect with the characters more. I guess that is the strength of a longer piece of work you can invest more time where you want to rather than where you have to. In the end though you have another ingenious solution to a medical emergency.

One final thing to mention which I think is picked up in the original book info but is played out rather well - it is first felt (especially by Conway) that the move to the Hospital ship is a demotion of some sort - when in actual fact as the book develops it is quite the opposite. I think we have all been in situations where we have been surprised with the outcome life hands us.

[EmBe · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Gelesen in einer anderen Edition.)
Der Band versammelte Einsätze des Ambulanzschiffes des Weltraumkrankenhauses. Die führen Dr. Conway und die ebenfalls aus Außerirdischen bestehende Crew zu bis dahin unbekannten Welten und Spezies. Die Außerirdischen damals haben mich sehr fasziniert, weil sie originell waren, und dennoch plausibel als Teil einer Ökologie geschildert wurden. Im Kopf geblieben sind mir vor allem die Aliens, die nur ungeboren Intelligenz zeigen, weil nach der Geburt nur noch körperliche Eigenschaften im Überlebenskampf zählen. Die humanistische Grundhaltung und die Spannung sorgten für eine überdurchschnittliche Lektüre-Erfahrung, die auch dazu geführt hat, dass ich mehr von den "Sector-General" Büchern gelesen habe.

[SciFiOne · Rating 4 out of 5]

1983 grade B+
2017 grade B
First time in print. Title pages are uniquely folded over and bound to the cover.

series book SG4

Book 4 in the Sector General scifi series about a hospital station dedicated to multi-species, in space, and not near earth. The book has 3 contiguous stories in it. Although they are back to back in time, each is an independent story. The writing is a little stilted and I tended to have to stop reading in the third story. But overall, it is a good book and worth reading. This would be especially true for scifi fans who like medical stories.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first-contact ambulance Rhabwar of Sector General space hospital makes its first three rescue trips. In "Contagion" the rescue is staged at the location of a centuries-old human colonization ship. In "Quarantine" a youngster of an unknown race is the only survivor of a subspace disaster, resulting in a very dramatic operation room scene. "Recovery" is a fascinating look at what may be the ultimate symbiosis. All of them leave me in awe of White's imagination.

[Darnoc Leadburger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that James White postulated that an interstellar ambulance would make more frequent (and successful) first contacts than dedicated exploratory or diplomatic vessels really shows how much White believed in the power of not just pacifism, but medicine. At first these traits seem dated, even quaint, but I think that it's rather charming and his work radiates a positive spirit that, dare-I-say, may not be replicable in our contemporary world. I shouldn't prattle on about optimism for too long, though; we've got a book to talk about. Sector General is already one of my favorite series, and *Major Operation* (book three) was my favorite of the initial three books due to its serialized yet linked format to be entertaining and rewarding. I was happy to see that *Ambulance Ship* would follow suite. I don't think it was quite as good as book three, but it was still a pretty good time.

-"Starbird" is only included in some editions of this book, but thankfully, it was in mine. It shows us a group of Federation explorers who come across a giant crusted-over bird in the middle of space. They tow the bird to Sector General and our love-him-or-hate-him hero Conway takes a look at it. Is the strange gray growth covering its body natural or parasitic? That's for you to find out, but I feel I should document that the bird was an animal from a dying world with small sentient organisms that piled aboard and used the bird as a spaceship to escape their doomed planet in lieu of spaceflight technology. Clever as always; I was a bit tired and unsatisfied when I read it, but that's on me.

-"Contagion" is the true start of *Ambulance Ship*'s drama. It starts with the deployment of the *Rhabwar*, a medical first-responder ship meant to save and make first contact with aliens who display universal distress signals. Their first operation, though, is to respond to a human-crewed Federation ship that transmitted a distress signal and went dark. Conway, while verbally sparring with his and his wife's and Priscilla's new military commander, finds the bay of the distressed ship to contain expertly tied up Federation officers floating around in the throes of some kind of ailment. Conway keeps his helmet on even when they transfer the casualties back to the *Rhabwar*, which was a good call since all the other humans pick up on the bug that disabled their Federation compatriots. This sends Conway on a hunt for the one missing officer: the medical officer. He's discovered on the giant spherical vessel that the distressed crew were investigating. Conway discovers that the sphere is actually the skeleton of one of Earth's very first colonization vessels, and that that crew was killed off by the flu - the very disease that latched onto the modern day Federation members with no way to protect against it. I liked this one. It was fun with smile-inducing ideas and memorable (if not particularly artful) characterization. It introduced a Kelgian who is no a permanent member of the *Rhabwar*'s crew.

-The new crew responds to an actual alien distress call in "Quarantine." The crew only manages to bring back one survivor from the alien wreck. The problem with this alien which kind of looks like a giant teddy bear? Once it's brought to the appropriate oxygen-breathing ward, a few of the attending medical professionals drop into severe unconsciousness. Did it bring some sort of disease that can be transferred between species? After a good deal of panic and responsible medical procedures, it turns out that the species' young just have a kind of paralyzing spray that they use for self-defense, and that everyone who contacts it will end up just fine. Just like that, the *Rhabwar* has its first fruitful first contact.

-The finale, "Recovery," has to be my favorite. The ship's torn away from the success of their last story to respond to another alien distress call. They arrive at a ship which seems to be decked out with a bunch of torture devices - that doesn't seem like a civilized race! However, upon a great deal of Sherlockian sleuthing, we learn of a telepathic connection with a sentient alien race that gave a race of dirt-bound little aliens the sense of sight and true sensory experience. The problem? That sentient creature is in the womb of a terrifying monster ironically called The Protector, and when that unborn child is birthed, it too will become a mindless, raging beast with a precious mind inside. This story really shows of White's imagination and just has this entrancing and soul-crushing linchpin that's very well drawn, telegraphed, and revealed. I can forgive the slightly confusing prose at the beginning of the book that occasionally dampens White's writing because of the sheer joy I had at this race's eternal suffering.

Now, as with all the other Sector General books, I do have a couple problems with *Ambulance Ship*, first and foremost being that inexplicable yet unescapable sense of confusion from some of the physical descriptions and action and such. Just... it doesn't always makes sense to me. It can feel fuzzy. That was still here, especially in "Starbird."

On the flip side, though, *Ambulance Ship* shared a lot of the best parts of the other book in the series: it's colorful, it's clever, it's original, it makes me happy. This book also proved that Sector General can do all of that while being separated from its titular location and that the optimistic allure of White's world doesn't just hinge on internal tropes like the Educator tapes and lifeform denomination and the different floors of the hospital. Sure, all of those things make their appearances, but the cruxes of the stories are aboard this ambulance ship, and yet it feels just as quirky and hopeful. I guess in some ways this makes *Ambulance Ship* the best of the books so far.

I also realized just how good of an introduction to science fiction that these books would be for a mystery reader; I read Christie's *Murder on the Orient Express* not long after this one and felt a kindred spirit between the two books. Both can be boiled down to clever puzzles that are intelligent yet accessible. Sure, Sector General is much more outlandish than a classical mystery novel, but I think that it may serve as a fast-track into the frequently weird and mostly wonderful world of SF.

In conclusion, I think this book gets an 8/10 just like its predecessor *Major Operation*. I might not have like it quite as much (mostly because of *Spacebird*) but I'm confident in saying that "Recovery" is my favorite Sector General story yet. It's also cool that White is referencing past stories now, like the telepathic dinosaur-like aliens from book one or the infinitely-spinning creatures of book three. All in all another engaging part of the Sector General series and I can't wait to read more ambulance adventures in book five in the not-so-distant-future.

[Stephan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ambulance Ship is a fixup-novel consisting of 3 to 4 short stories or novellas (depending on edition - my ancient Futura/Orbit paperback misses the first one, Star Bird, the Corgi edition and my modern eBook has it). The stories are united by the common theme of doctors from the Galactic Federation and the Sector General hospital going out of their way to rescue aliens spaceships in distress. Star Bird starts with a more-or-less random encounter, and has some very interesting idea SF. The success of that operation leads to the commissioning of the eponymous ambulance ship, with the usual crew of Dr. Conway (whose "center of gravity begins to drop below his waistline"), Pathologist Murchison (who is still "delightfully top-heavy"), and alien empath Dr. Prilicla, together with the technical personal from the Monitor Corps. We are then presented with three episodes of the ship answering distress beacons and rescuing aliens - and as usual with White, the aliens are really alien, at least in shape, metabolism, abilities and life cycle. But "any species that had evolved to the point of social and technological cooperation necessary for them to travel between the stars had to be civilized" - and they are, even if they are the unborn telepathic embryos of a non-stop killing machine species living in symbiosis with blind burrowing worms from another planet.

The book is an example of a positive utopia - not of boring perfection, but of caring peoplebeings doing their best. As usual for the series, this is idea science fiction of the best kind. For the highest level of enjoyment the reader needs to accept the technology, which feels more like 1960s on steroids than even 2020s, with a certain conscious naïveté. Also, some of the bantering between Drs. Conway and Murchison (by then happily married, though we are not given details) feels dated. But overall this is a delightful read. Recommended to everyone.

[Valerie]

Some of these books are not dedicated, but this one is. The dedication reads: "To Jack Cohen/Who is a stickler for xenobiological accuracy/in appreciation."

If, in some series, settings become one of the most important characters in the story, this book introduces another important character/setting.

The titular ambulance ship is the Rhabwar, one of the largest Monitor Corps ships capable of landing on a planet, repurposed as an adaptable ambulance to rescue survivors from catastrophic accidents to ships unknown to the Federation, to stabilize the survivors, and to get them to Sector General alive.

This is important to the Federation, it's explained, because Sector General has made about three times more successful First Contacts than the Monitor Corps in comparable periods, by successfully treating the survivors of situations that result in the release of distress signals.

But, it's pointed out, too often those responding to unknown distress signals find only interesting specimens for the pathologists, because they don't arrive on the scene with adequate resources.

Rhabwar is an attempt to remedy this problem. Where distress signals from known ships will still be answered by same-species ambulances (where possible), Rhabwar will stay on call to answer unexpected alarms.

The Monitor and medical crews of this special ship may at first feel disappointed at what seems like a demotion, but they quickly learn how important their new roles are.

I don't know why I can never remember the name of the Captain (it's Fletcher...but I keep having to look it up). He's an interesting character, because he's an old lecturer; an expert in et technology. And he can't seem to break himself of the habit of lecturing. I personally think it's a nervous tic--a way of thinking out problems out loud. But it must have been irritating to his students, as it is to his present crewmates.

The other technical crew (Haslam, Dodds, and Chen) are not as well differentiated. Too often, they appear to be interchangeable spear-carriers--except that what they're carrying is more likely to be welding torches, portable airlocks, etc.

The medical crew are, in this first book, not any of them newcomers--they're people we know: not only Conway and his (by then) wife Murchison (now a Pathologist, and Thornnastor's primary assistant. It's explained in Spacebird that she didn't change her name when she married because neither the patients, the other staff, or the personnel computer can understand why she SHOULD change her name, married or single), but also, of course, the beloved Prilicla and the Kelgian Charge Nurse Naydrad (which uses most of its free time in its cabin 'thinking beautiful thoughts'). This crew begins the process of inaugurating the Rhabwar in this volume by getting to know each other, and learning how to allow for each others' quirks and irritating habits and mannerisms.

One thing I found lacking was an explanation of who the original Rhabwar (after whom the ship was named) was. In a throwaway line, it's stated that Rhabwar was an important historical Tralthan medical figure. So what KIND of figure? The equivalent of Hippocrates? Of Galen? Of Avicenna? I like to imagine that Rhabwar might have been a medical librarian--White never did seem to have enough respect for librarians, archivists, etc. The Educator Tapes and Translators can't be enough in themselves. My father used to point out that if he did nothing else but read the literature in his field (no original research, no teaching, no nothing but reading), it would take him two years to read one year's articles. And an old joke says that Physics Review A is expanding to fill library shelves at faster than the speed of light--but there is no violation of relativity, because no actual information being exchanged. By the time in which the book is set, the odds are that new research may be a little slower in some areas, but that there will be a lot more information already known. Even the Diagnosticians (who often subject themselves to such information overload that they're repeatedly described as 'multiply absentminded'), still need archives, and the ability to access them.

The library computer at Sector General has been a perennial grievance to me. Users are expected to be able to navigate it themselves. And though one HOPES that people had been given training in that sort of thing, I doubt if they could do so without at least one staff member (per shift) to help them navigate. And the ambulance ship is probably even less-well endowed in this, as in, for example, translation equipment.

CONTENTS:

I THE SECRET HISTORY OF SECTOR GENERAL--I wish I'd remembered where this was earlier. It's not up to date (the whole volume is copyrighted 1979), but it's very useful to put the earlier works in order. It's not how I'd have reconstructed it, but he should know.

II PART I CONTAGION--The ship Rhabwar ends up getting caught up with is the craft pictured on the cover. It looks like the Death Star in later Star Wars movies, but it's a generation ship, which only just failed to be recovered in time. The question of the danger of cross-infection is one that is not quite complacently accepted as (so far) never having happened, and almost certain never TO happen. But what if the 'others' are US--only separated from the rest of us for hundreds of years?

III PART II QUARANTINE--Quarantine is a largely meaningless term at Sector General. People who have been treating conspecifics may need to stay away from other members of their species for a while, but generally there's little to no risk. In this case, however, Rhabwar is off limits to Earth-human DBDGs for a while (unless they wear a protective suit), and even non Earth-humans have to go through extreme decontamination measures before they can come to or get off the ship. But come they do. There are many frustrated amateur historians on the Sector General staff, who are disappointed that Rhabwar didn't bring back more artifacts. It's also a pity that there don't seem to have been any scanners on the Tenelphi. But the crew of Rhabwar can't refuse the visitors, because many of them are Diagnosticians (including the redoubtable Thornnastor). Plus, of course, it's necessary to test the Earth-humans, in order to develop a vaccine...

Not that they really want to keep the visitors out. If it weren't for the visitors, the whole time Rhabwar is in quarantine would have to be spent in often boring lectures. The loss of the ship Tenelphi (only the ship itself. I'm not sure where the crew were quarantined, but they evidently got another ship later, because they feature in at least one other story) has revealed a critical achilles heel in the training of small ship's crews (especially in Survey). Crews are too specialized, and can't take over for each other in the event of accident, illness, etc. This is a problem for all ships, but especially for rescue ships.

But the crew's school-time is short, because another unknown emergency beacon sounds the alarm...

The question of what the qualifications are for developing intelligence is often misrepresented by White. I don't know if he just personally didn't know, or if he fell in with a misled crowd, but it's just plain implausible that the dominant life forms are the ones that develop intelligence. The abhorrent phrase 'batter their way to the top of the evolutionary tree' is used FAR too often.

The evolutionary quirk used by members of the species being rescued in this mission (later identified as Dwerlan) is (or was) effective enough, in fact, that the species might very well not have NEEDED to develop intelligence. And it affects all oxygen breathers, if they're close enough, and not holding their breaths at the time. Readers interested in first aid for Tralthans, Melfans, and Kelgians will find this story instructive. Others will find the contamination issue more important.

IV PART III: RECOVERY--People who have read other works by White will be familiar with the Blind Ones. They also appear in Federation World. The question 'What would make a blind 'race' reach for the stars?' is one that's left hanging. If the Federation establish contact with the Blind Ones (and it's mentioned offhand that they do), none of the Blind Ones come to Sector General.

The Protectors of The Unborn, on the other hand, feature in quite a few of the later books. I might as well say that I don't believe in any such creatures, or the environment that is said to have spawned them. Leaving other issues aside, the reproductive system would result in creatures that were far too inbred. If there's no means of crossfertilization, copying errors and other mutations would eventually become fatal. But maybe such means are NOT missing--maybe Protectors can fertilize each other, and the sperm and eggs can be exchanged, and moved in even as far as the womb of the Unborn. It's even possible that the Unborn would have both a different mother AND father than the Protector.

But that's not the most cogent problem. The basic concept of an implacably hostile environment is simply not in accord with any Earthly experience. And true, Earth is an n of 1. But it's extremely varied, nonetheless. White's comment that he kept trying to develop creatures so extreme that biologists would say 'That's not possible', but that the biologists would instead say 'Oh, that's like the...' is pertinent. But that's about individual creatures.

An implacably hostile ENVIRONMENT that nevertheless contains an abundance of living things is the incredible part. The Hudlar planet's environment is more plausible. If food is readily available (mostly in planktonic or smaller sizes), what is the evolutionary benefit of becoming unstoppably active? Especially, what is the point of becoming violent, to such a degree that even a temporary lull in the violence results in strangulation? This is ultimately, and possibly primally, unsustainable.

The existential consequences of this improbable survival adaptation becomes more prominent in later volumes. But the basic implausibility is evident from the start.

Condition note: this is another of those 'loved til it's tattered' books. Still quite usable; though. The 'condition' categories don't really address this.

[R.C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solidly interesting extraterrestrial medical drama...for its time. The thing I love about these books is that despite the semi-permanent 1960-70s views on the human species, the author comes up with continually interesting alien physiologies that the main characters have to untangle. The book is a collection of linked novellas about the characters' episodic adventures attending to interstellar emergencies, and they're comfortable in that you know exactly what you're going to get: disaster/distress call strikes, medical ship rushes to the scene and needs to figure out what the aliens involved need in order to help them. The fun, like a murder mystery, is in figuring out before the main character what the explanation for the aliens' strange behavior or physiology means. Usually it's something bizarre, and that's kind of fun to unravel. The author even makes side mentions that try to break out of human constructs like the gender binary (a character mentions a pregnant individual of a new species, and then corrects the doctor when he refers to them as the "female": "I never said they were female") and disabilities (there's a story about a blind race, though it does focus on them trying to find a seeing race to help them understand the universe, so...eh.)

As with previous books in this series, though, you have to be able to overlook the now-anachronistic way that the far-future hospital and medical corps doesn't have any female doctors or officers (Murchison has now been promoted to pathologist, though I assume her poor female brainmeats still can't handle the species "tapes" that are required for doctors, though...) or hardly anyone without an Anglo-Saxon last name (this one did have a member of the ship crew named Chen, though, so...progress?) Also the way that the men in charge get kind of casually, vocally, irrationally angry every now and then just because they are frustrated or someone proves them wrong. That doesn't age well, but Conway at least notices he does it and apologizes, mostly.

[Sherrez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty decent , loved the first story where they saved people from a generational ship and somehow almost caused a potential federation wide extinction event from the flu !!

Fourth story was really awesome after they brought back a species that knocked out everyone with naseous gas and had the whole hospital going crazy with skempton and omara , thornsmaster being knocked out . Loved this story

third story about a sort of symbiotic relationship between and embryo of an unintelligent species with is highly intelligent and a sightless entity was amazing , the reveal at the end and throwback to conway and arptec was awesome.

The dynamic of conway and fletcher one upping each other was awesome too.

i think what's great about these books are the character dynamics which each newly created character and omara

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like the other books you'll like this one. Still slightly repetitive if you've read the earlier books but those parts are easy enough to skip over. The different stories have a decent mystery and the new characters are okay. Not great though as the fact that Conway doesn't like them clearly colors our view of them which is quite annoying. Though personally Conway always seemed like a prick to me so maybe that's just me.

In this book Murchinson is a doctor which is cool. However, he still focuses on her looks too much. I get that she's hot but every new human Male doesn't have to bring it up. Also that topheavy comment in the last story was stupid. Still glad to see her develop.

Not much to say, if you like the other ones you'll like this one.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty lousy attempt at a fix-up, although the individual novelettes are decent on their own. There's just too much padding and faffing about between the interesting bits to recommend. White's imagination takes full flight here (especially in the third novelette), but it's a lot of work to get there. If you do read this, read the novelettes separately, and read something else in between; there is no sustained narrative across all three, and there is no overall catharsis or climax. It's just more of the 'Conway solves things at the last minute, smash cut to end credits' formula you are probably tiring of by this point in the series. And yet it's still so pleasant and imaginative it's hard to pan. So 2.5/5.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Actually, read as part of the omnibus titled "Alien Encounters.")

Interesting situations, and carefully thought out species. But, did White ever actually meet another human being? The characters are flat and give speeches instead of speak, and while the sexism isn't as bad here as in the earliest books, Murchison's physical attributes do not have to be commented on whenever a new male character meets her. It's clear that White is really, really interested in the complex situations he's built, and they are interesting. Also, I appreciate the optimistic tone of the books.

[Philip · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave this author another go, even though I didn't much care for the last book of his I read. I heard this was his big franchise so I thought it might be better. It had some good ideas in the first part, but the second part really bored me and I gave up.

There's no B story to any of it. The first part was about this space hospital getting some unknown space lifeform admitted and them trying to figure out what's wrong with it. It was decent and the resolution was cool, but there's nothing about the doctors' personal lives or anything else going on. It all just seems a bit thin.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 4th book in the Sector General series (first in the omnibus "Alien Emergencies") has Dr. Conway, his wife Murchison, his friend Dr. Prilicla and others staffing the first ambulance ship specifically designed to respond to emergencies that probably involve aliens of previously unknown species. This idea was a great way to involve Conway and the Sector General hospital with exciting adventures and challenges!

[Leif · Rating 3 out of 5]

White's decision to relocate his fascinations with medical science fiction to a mobile space is freeing for his formula, which had grown stale with the previous entry in his Sector General series. There's more female agency but it is still framed entirely through male sexualization - come on! If you can get past that patronizing aura, the drama is pleasant enough. White's particular take on science fiction is still unique enough to make its stamp on the genre.

[Michael Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sector General, the hospital for aliens decides it needs an "ambulance" to rescue injured aliens so they can be brought back to base while still alive, so a top crew is assembled who will learn the job, with on the spot training.
This book however is too much "nuts and bolts", like an alien whodunit. For example in RECOVERY, the fourth and last story in this book, there seems to be endless pages of explanations and so little of actual storyline, so just about three stars.

[Terry and dog · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one made me smile. The crew on the ship consisted of humans and some creatures from other worlds. I loved the descriptions and attributes that they were given, so creative. Creatures that I’d like to see. The Ambulance ship is sent on various missions, to extricate, search, rescue and heal, space travellers that have sent request for help. I’m floored by some of the circumstances the author has come up with. Very clever and a much better story than I expected.

[Daggry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the strongest of the Sector General novellas, this one nevertheless still hit the spot, largely because I’m so happy returning to an institution where the first requirement is to welcome difference. Some of the breakthroughs in these vignettes are less satisfying than usual—more deus ex machina. But the stakes are still compelling without being dire doom, and the aliens are still wildly imaginative without being mere window-dressing.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories, about Sector General, are a lot of fun. It's surprising how little known these are known or referenced in modern Science Fiction circles. There are themes that were called innovative in the Star Trek or Star Wars universes but came out of this series.

This book is the 4th in the series and just goes on to show the breadth of the world / universe building that was done.

[Jeff Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leaving behind Sector General for an adventure on a rescue and paramedical ship hellbent on rescuing strange unknown beings who sent out a distress signal. Fascinating concepts and a great exploration of the core themes of the series. Possibly my favorite of the series so far.

[Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

very classic mid/late 70s era pulp SF. it's very.... pulpy.... but it's kinda cool. Xenomedicine is also interesting, I guess, but I struggle to say it's very well written or anything of that sort. but the pulpyness is endearing

[Guido]

Why you might like it: Medical competence across alien biologies. Rubric match: not yet scored. Uses your engineering/rigor/first-contact/world-building rubric. Tags: first-contact, medicine, competence

[martbhell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Teamwork

[Tell Tale Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

-Gregory Kerkman

[Wayne's · Rating 5 out of 5]

great series, not recognised for how good it is

[Kieran Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

Refreshing dose of hopeful science fiction after reading two Philip K Dick books in a row

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ambulance Ship is perhaps the most tense, and technical, of the Sector General series that I've read. Our characters are thrust into a new setting, a state of the art space vessel for both medical response and first contact. Here, as with earlier books, White shines the best when playing with xeno-biology. The middle of the three stories starts out with the same formula as the first, yet takes a dramatic, jaw dropping turn that is the best the series has offered. Some sections, mostly technical data about ship design, were a struggle to get through. And 'Spacebird' did not need to be included with Ambulance Ship in the omnibus. Yet, every time I think there's nothing else White can do, he proves me wrong.

[Emperador Spock · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is considerably weaker than the previous entry in the series. Although the whole premise — Conway gets to play ambulance — is intriguing, the author fails to exploit it full potential in all of the stories.

1) Spacebird: 3.5. This story actually is set in the hospital, but it paves the road for the rest of the book. The patient is great, and it (they) do hide a couple of twists, but the ending is bland and rushed.

2) Contagion: 4. Probably the best story in the book (which is a bit odd considering the fact that the patients are humans), it deals with an ancient lost generation ship, and the dangers that hide inside. A slap goes to the author for alternately calling flu a virus and a bacterium.

3) Quarantine: 4. This one was pretty good, too, with lots of time inside the hospital. The poison gland above the tail is a good idea. The story is a bit too slow though, with doctors taking their time when looking for obvious things.

4) Recovery: 3. The Protector/Unborn idea is a great one, worthy of a much better story. The Blind Ones are kind of boring, the explanations for their development as a civilisation are huge stretches, and their 'disability' is way too anthropocentric.

In general, I rather disliked the Monitor crew of the ambulance ship (in the 'I don't give a crap about them' way). The author fails to make them interesting, even with Fletcher. Prilicla has well established itself as the series' cleavageless Deianna Troi, and is becoming more and more annoying, especially since in this book it's used as a ship scanner all the time. I hope the trembling bastard gets squashed.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Sector General series, and I liked Ambulance Ship, but I didn't care for the third chapter of the book, Recovery. It was about a blind species who traveled from planet to planet until it settled down on a violent planet to develop over time a strange and convoluted symbiotic relationship with the dominant species on the planet. The relationship was so strange that I had to read portions again and again to try to understand why a blind species would reach for the stars. It was explained, but it seemed Mr. White was struggling to come up with plausible explanations, causing me to struggle to understand. Still, it takes an imaginative author to explain bizarre alien species, and James White is the expert. I was glad to see all the familiar characters of Conway, Fletcher, Murchison, O'Mara, Naydrad and the frail, empathic Prilicla. So sad there will be no more Sector General books. Guess I will read them again.