The novel “Star Surgeon” by James White was published for the first time in 1963. It’s a fix-up of two stories published in the previous years. It’s the second book in the Sector General series and follows “Hospital Station“.
Dr. Conway must try to treat a patient with very little information about its species, who’s suffering from what appears to be a skin disease. Concerns arise because it appears resistant to any treatment and is unconscious, so it’s impossible to ask it any questions. Tests conducted by the people who found it suggest it was traveling with another member of its species but devoured it.
Dr. Conway finds a solution to the medical problem by going against what appears to be confusing and even contradictory information, obtained in part from other beings who know his patient’s species. What seems like a happy conclusion turns out to be just the beginning of a mission quite different from what Conway is used to, one that brings him into the midst of a situation that could lead to an interstellar war with an empire willing to attack the Hospital Station.
“Star Surgeon” continues the Sector General series in a different way from the first book. Initially, James White wrote some short stories that developed the concept of a colossal hospital housed in a space station built to accommodate the needs of patients of extremely diverse species. Later, the author wrote another short story but continued to develop the same story to create a single plot, creating something more akin to a standard novel.
The consequence of James White’s choice is that “Star Surgeon” also begins with a short story centered on a medical mystery and then continues in a completely new way. The continuation is developed with a crisis that leads to an interstellar war, in which Dr. Conway and the rest of the staff come under attack, and their patients are maily those wounded in the battles fought to defend the hospital.
The medical problems are no longer due to the difficulty of understanding how to treat a patient belonging to a certain species, but rather to treating the wounded in difficult conditions, where even the hospital staff are at risk when an enemy missile hits.
Despite these warlike developments, James White continues to develop his pacifist-oriented themes. He does so first of all by showing the reasons why the war broke out and then by showing how he ends it. During the crisis, the hospital staff treats the wounded without even considering which side they belong to. Communication between sentient beings is an important element, also because it’s essential for achieving mutual understanding between different species and sometimes even between people of the same species.
Dr. Conway is at the center of important events and does everything he can during the war, working himself to the bone. James White had already introduced the ability to upload tapes into one’s mind containing much more than just information about a certain species. The technological element in the Sector General series is partly very futuristic and partly shows limitations that have made it age poorly.
The element connected to the tapes also highlights another problem that often affects works of that period: even in the most difficult moments, nurses aren’t allowed to use the tapes due to what is described as the profound sex-based mental fastidiousness of female Earth-humans. The consequence is that, according to Major O’Mara, they would never allow alien beings to apparently take over their pretty little brains (that’s the specific expression he uses!) and that if that should happen, serious mental damage would result.
This sexist element is a flaw in a story that shows James White’s pacifist views. Severely tested, Dr. Conway puts his medical ethics ahead of any military rule, even when it concerns his own safety. It’s part of the reason why the Sector General series has become a classic, and its content seems more relevant than ever. The sexist element is limited, and if it doesn’t bother you too much, I recommend reading “Star Surgeon” along with the first book in the series. You can find it on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
