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estelessa's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
3.75
tome15's review
4.0
White, James. Major Operation. Sector General No. 3. Del Ray, 1971.
James White’s Sector General stories were perfectly adapted to the long short story format, just long enough to make them the feature story of whatever magazine first published them. Readers quickly became familiar with the main characters of the multispecies hospital out on the galactic rim and to the crew of its starship ambulance. Major Operation is a group of five such short stories. All the stories feature medical sleuthing and MacGyvering among diverse alien species--from odd alien presences to continent-sized critters in need of surgery that threaten the medical team with its involuntary responses. White’s charming inventiveness always engages. If you like one book in this series, you will like them all, dated though they are ins some respects.
James White’s Sector General stories were perfectly adapted to the long short story format, just long enough to make them the feature story of whatever magazine first published them. Readers quickly became familiar with the main characters of the multispecies hospital out on the galactic rim and to the crew of its starship ambulance. Major Operation is a group of five such short stories. All the stories feature medical sleuthing and MacGyvering among diverse alien species--from odd alien presences to continent-sized critters in need of surgery that threaten the medical team with its involuntary responses. White’s charming inventiveness always engages. If you like one book in this series, you will like them all, dated though they are ins some respects.
wandering_not_lost's review
4.0
A really inventive sorta-trio of medical mysteries this time, and overall I'm finding White's brand of medical scifi really my bag. The main character is also becoming less annoying over time, as he seems to settle into his duties and open himself up to the rest of the universe. He still has his moments of "why is this patient defying me! I'm trying to help by doing this thing, and it's fighting m--oh, it's because doing that thing would kill it. Ok.", and the occasional bouts of 70s-era sexist comedy about his well-endowed nurse wife are eye-rolling, but neither of those things take over the narrative this time. Murchison even is brought along and gives her professional opinion at a critical juncture, and the comment about "professional women" and the arch reply about how someone could be an "amateur woman" was pretty amusing.
lordofthemoon's review
3.0
This is a series of linked novellas/short stories in the Sector General universe about staff at the hospital space station Sector 12 General Hospital (Sector General for short) and the weird and wonderful cases they deal with, from all the different life forms that make up members of the Galactic Federation, and beyond. I always enjoy the Sector General books which are that rarest of things: pacifist space opera. No matter what the shape or physiological classification of the creature that comes through the airlock, the first instinct of the doctors (of all shapes and sizes) is to treat it. This makes for a refreshing change, and a very starting point for dealing with a situation.
The focus of this book involves first contact with a particularly odd planet -- christened "Meatball" due to the fact that its surface seems to be entirely covered with living material of some kind -- and the various patients that come from there, leading up to the biggest, and very possibly strangest, patient that Sector General has ever had to deal with.
The various alien races that populate the book (and others of the series) are quite fascinating, and White has obviously put in effort to make his aliens truly alien, and not just humanoids with lumpy foreheads. While perhaps not quite up to the standards of its predecessor, [b:Star Surgeon|1695601|Star Surgeon|Alan E. Nourse|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1187031306s/1695601.jpg|1692546], this is still a very entertaining read.
The focus of this book involves first contact with a particularly odd planet -- christened "Meatball" due to the fact that its surface seems to be entirely covered with living material of some kind -- and the various patients that come from there, leading up to the biggest, and very possibly strangest, patient that Sector General has ever had to deal with.
The various alien races that populate the book (and others of the series) are quite fascinating, and White has obviously put in effort to make his aliens truly alien, and not just humanoids with lumpy foreheads. While perhaps not quite up to the standards of its predecessor, [b:Star Surgeon|1695601|Star Surgeon|Alan E. Nourse|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1187031306s/1695601.jpg|1692546], this is still a very entertaining read.
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