Star Surgeon

by James White

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345607090
• ISBN13: 9780345607096
• Release Date: January 1963
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Weight: 0.26 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Consists of "Resident Physician" and "Field Hospital"

The first 4 chapters form the novella "Resident Physician". The entire book tells the story of the events that culminated in the Eltan War. The events of a later novel, _Final Diagnosis_, focus on a man who grew up on Etla after the war, so this book should be read before tackling _Final Diagnosis_, if possible.The Monitor Corps has found a representative of a strange species alone in a drifting spacecraft, under circumstances indicating that it killed and ate its only fellow crewmember - its personal physician - apparently in a fit of paranoia as recorded in its journal, believing that the healer was sabotaging its physical health. Paradoxically, the Ians (the dragonfly-like beings discovered in the last story of _Hospital Station_, the previous volume) insist that the survivor is from their own galaxy, of an immensely long-lived race known to be invariably benevolent, noted for taking over fixer-upper planetary cultures - e.g. wracked by disease, war, and other long-term problems - and leaving them vastly improved. But if the patient didn't commit murder, what happened to its personal physician?After that mystery is sorted out, the newly encountered VIP continues its journey to its next project: the planet Etla, a troubled outpost of a self-styled interstellar Empire previously unknown to the Galactic Federation. Etla has been wracked with plagues for generations and is subject to the rather corrupt imperial government - it appears to be an ideal candidate for Lonvellin's expert help. But in a fit of xenophobia, they lash out at the stranger in their midst, and leap to the conclusion that all their problems are the result of biological warfare. And the only coordinates invariably installed on every ship, and thus the only "enemy" target the empire can find, are the coordinates of Sector General."Resident Physician" is *extremely* clever. The political infighting resulting in the Etlan War is very believable. The only quibble I have is a situation leading to Sector General's translation computer going off-line without the hospital being destroyed in the process - it should be so well protected that it couldn't be so severely damaged without taking the hospital with it - but the incident leads to some very dramatic crises that make a good read.

Sector General At War

Senior Physician Conway's latest patient belongs to an unidentified species originating in a neighboring Galaxy. It is in deep coma - and apparently guilty of cannibalism! As Conway explains; the problem is basically something it ate.... Once its medical problems are solved the being, Lonvellin, joins forces with the Monitor Corps, the Galactic Federation's exploration and peacekeeping arm, to bring aid to a newly discovered planet whose humanoid inhabitants suffer from an appalling variety of endemic diseases. Conway is called in to assist but the mission blows up in all their faces and Sector General finds itself in the middle of an all out war. Casualties among the senior staff leave Conway in charge of the medical side while Fleet Commander Dermod leads the forces defending the station, but the odds against the defenders are getting worse all the time. Sector General may not survive. Perhaps my favorite of the whole series.