Review: Sector General, by James White

Russ Allbery eagle at eyrie.org
Sun May 21 10:22:30 PDT 2017


Sector General
by James White

Series:    Sector General #5
Publisher: Orb
Copyright: 1983
Printing:  2002
ISBN:      0-312-87770-6
Format:    Trade paperback
Pages:     187

Sector General is the fifth book (or, probably more accurately,
collection) in the Sector General series. I blame the original
publishers for the confusion. The publication information is for the
Alien Emergencies omnibus, which includes the fourth through the sixth
books in the series.

Looking back on my previous reviews of this series (wow, it's been
eight years since I read the last one?), I see I was reviewing them as
novels rather than as short story collections. In retrospect, that was
a mistake, since they're composed of clearly stand-alone stories with a
very loose arc. I'm not going to go back and re-read the earlier
collections to give them proper per-story reviews, but may as well do
this properly here.

Overall, this collection is more of the same, so if that's what you
want, there won't be any negative surprises. It's another four
engineer-with-a-wrench stories about biological and medical puzzles,
with only a tiny bit of characterization and little hint to any
personal life for any of the characters outside of the job. Some
stories are forgettable, but White does create some memorable aliens.
Sadly, the stories don't take us to the point of real communication, so
those aliens stop at biological puzzles and guesswork. "Combined
Operation" is probably the best, although "Accident" is the most
philosophical and an interesting look at the founding principle of
Sector General.

"Accident": MacEwan and Grawlya-Ki are human and alien brought together
by a tragic war, and forever linked by a rather bizarre war monument.
(It's a very neat SF concept, although the implications and undiscussed
consequences don't bear thinking about too deeply.) The result of that
war was a general recognition that such things should not be allowed to
happen again, and it brought about a new, deep commitment to
inter-species tolerance and politeness. Which is, in a rather
fascinating philosophical twist, exactly what MacEwan and Grawlya-Ki
are fighting against: not the lack of aggression, which they completely
agree with, but with the layers of politeness that result in every
species treating all others as if they were eggshells. Their conviction
is that this cannot create a lasting peace.

This insight is one of the most profound bits I've read in the Sector
General novels and supports quite a lot of philosophical debate.
(Sadly, there isn't a lot of that in the story itself.) The backdrop
against which it plays out is an accidental crash in a spaceport
facility, creating a dangerous and potentially deadly environment for a
variety of aliens. Given the collection in which this is included and
the philosophical bent described above, you can probably guess where
this goes, although I'll leave it unspoiled if you can't. It's an idea
that could have been presented with more subtlety, but it's a really
great piece of setting background that makes the whole series snap into
focus. A much better story in context than its surface plot. (7)

"Survivor": The hospital ship Rhabwar rescues a sole survivor from the
wreck of an alien ship caused by incomplete safeguards on hyperdrive
generators. The alien is very badly injured and unconscious and needs
the full attention of Sector General, but on the way back, the empath
Prilicla also begins suffering from empathic hypersensitivity. Conway,
the protagonist of most of this series, devotes most of his attention
to that problem, having delivered the rescued alien to competent
surgical hands. But it will surprise no regular reader that the
problems turn out to be linked (making it a bit improbable that it
takes the doctors so long to figure that out). A very typical entry in
the series. (6)

"Investigation": Another very typical entry, although this time the
crashed spaceship is on a planet. The scattered, unconscious bodies of
the survivors, plus signs of starvation and recent amputation on all of
them, convinces the military (well, police is probably more accurate)
escort that this is may be a crime scene. The doctors are unconvinced,
but cautious, and local sand storms and mobile vegetation add to the
threat. I thought this alien design was a bit less interesting (and a
lot creepier). (6)

"Combined Operation": The best (and longest) story of this collection.
Another crashed alien spacecraft, but this time it's huge, large enough
(and, as they quickly realize, of a design) to indicate a space station
rather than a ship, except that it's in the middle of nowhere and each
segment contains a giant alien worm creature. Here, piecing together
the biology and the nature of the vehicle is only the beginning; the
conclusion points to an even larger problem, one that requires drawing
on rather significant resources to solve. (On a deadline, of course, to
add some drama.) This story requires the doctors to go unusually deep
into the biology and extrapolated culture of the alien they're
attempting to rescue, which made it more intellectually satisfying for
me. (7)

Followed by Star Healer.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Reviewed: 2017-05-21

-- 
Russ Allbery (eagle at eyrie.org)              <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>


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