MAJOR OPERATION

Rating:
Summary: Linked short stories concerning the planet Drambo
Review: At this stage of his career, Conway has gotten over the shyness that once drove him to socialize almost exclusively with ETs, to the extent that he and pathologist Murchison are now married, but he retains his old friendships. The common theme among these stories is that they are connected with the establishment of first contact with the various inhabitants of the planet Drambo (a.k.a. Meatball). In a reversal of the usual pattern, the water-breathing members of Sector General's staff, even the Hudlars, are quite comfortable with the assignment, while the Earth-humans need special gear.

"Invader" - Senior Physician Mannon (a.k.a. Mannen, depending on which edition of which volume you have), Conway's old mentor, has had at least 5 distinct accidents during surgery, when some weird incident has nearly resulted in serious damage to a patient. O'Mara has assigned Conway to find out what's going on - not to look for psych problems O'Mara is assured don't exist, but for any outside agency affecting Mannon's performance. Mannon himself thinks they're wasting their time. (If "Trouble with Emily" from _Hospital Station_ left you wondering how a pet dog would cope with a Diagnostician as a master, wonder no more, by the way.) O'Mara nearly has hysterics at the results of Conway's questioning of the junior staff - they almost think the place is haunted afterwards - which turns up an unusual number of weird and silly mistakes. :)

"Vertigo" - Introducing one of the intelligent species of Drambo, originally a gift from White's friend Bob Shaw. The Monitor Corps has rescued a very sick alien from Drambo's first attempt at launching a spacecraft.

"Blood Brother" - Conway, now assigned to help the survey team establishing contact with Drambo, participates in the first encounter with the Drambon equivalent of a medic. Let's face it, White has a sick sense of humor. :)

"Meatball" - That's what the survey people named Drambo, before discovering that it held intelligent life. This picks up where "Blood Brother" left off, as the staff at Sector General itself attempts to communicate with the healer encountered in the previous story.

"Major Operation" - The operation in question is the massive one planned in the preceding stories: coping with the treatment of the members of Drambo's second intelligent species, who may not be numerous but may still entail *very* large logistical and diplomatic problems.

Rating:
Summary: Another Good Sector General Novel
Review: General: James White wrote a series of novellas and novels about a huge, inter-species hospital space station called Sector General. Sector General is staffed by a variety of different intelligent species, including humans, and treats the hardest cases from all over the galaxy. White seems to delight in generating as varied a population as possible for this ship, and gives great detail about the different physical forms seen in the staff, along with their eating habits, social habits, mating habits (in a very PG, if not G-rated way), and cultural beliefs.

Specific: In "Major Operation", several staff members start making small and inexplicable errors, sometimes with grave consequences. Eventually, the problem is traced to the presence of a shape-shifting, mindless, alien tool, that takes whatever form its user wants, but without necessarily functioning correctly. Once its nature is understood, it becomes extremely valuable. But, where did it come from? That leads everyone back to a recently-discovered planet, nicknamed "Meatball" because of its appearance, that is occupied by a race of creatures that must be in constant motion to avoid suffocation ("rollers"). Much of Meatball is covered by a thick, mobile, vegetable rug, upon which the Rollers feed. Senior Physician Conway discovers that one of these "rugs" is alive and is the creator of the shape-shifting tool, but is dying of cancer caused by the Rollers' misuse of nuclear weaponry (yes, that's an anti-nuclear message). The rug also has no means of communicating. Or, does it? How do you treat a continent-sized intelligent lawn that interprets your treatment as more attacks? How do you treat a patient that size even if you can get it to understand your intentions? These are the questions that Conway must answer.

Technical: James Whites writes with great pace, simple dialogue, good character development, and frequent light humor, while tackling fairly complex plots and issues. While "Major Operation" is not the best in the series (I would give that honorific to "The Genocidal Healer"), it is an amusing story that is actually the first novella of the Sector General series that was not initially serialized short stories. The ending also seems a bit rapid, although it remains logical and true.

Rating:
Summary: Another Good Sector General Novel
Review: General: James White wrote a series of novellas and novels about a huge, inter-species hospital space station called Sector General. Sector General is staffed by a variety of different intelligent species, including humans, and treats the hardest cases from all over the galaxy. White seems to delight in generating as varied a population as possible for this ship, and gives great detail about the different physical forms seen in the staff, along with their eating habits, social habits, mating habits (in a very PG, if not G-rated way), and cultural beliefs.

Specific: In "Major Operation", several staff members start making small and inexplicable errors, sometimes with grave consequences. Eventually, the problem is traced to the presence of a shape-shifting, mindless, alien tool, that takes whatever form its user wants, but without necessarily functioning correctly. Once its nature is understood, it becomes extremely valuable. But, where did it come from? That leads everyone back to a recently-discovered planet, nicknamed "Meatball" because of its appearance, that is occupied by a race of creatures that must be in constant motion to avoid suffocation ("rollers"). Much of Meatball is covered by a thick, mobile, vegetable rug, upon which the Rollers feed. Senior Physician Conway discovers that one of these "rugs" is alive and is the creator of the shape-shifting tool, but is dying of cancer caused by the Rollers' misuse of nuclear weaponry (yes, that's an anti-nuclear message). The rug also has no means of communicating. Or, does it? How do you treat a continent-sized intelligent lawn that interprets your treatment as more attacks? How do you treat a patient that size even if you can get it to understand your intentions? These are the questions that Conway must answer.

Technical: James Whites writes with great pace, simple dialogue, good character development, and frequent light humor, while tackling fairly complex plots and issues. While "Major Operation" is not the best in the series (I would give that honorific to "The Genocidal Healer"), it is an amusing story that is actually the first novella of the Sector General series that was not initially serialized short stories. The ending also seems a bit rapid, although it remains logical and true.

Rating:
Summary: Another Entry to the Sector General Series
Review: Sector Twelve General Hospital is a mulit-leveled, multi-species facility hanging like a misshapen christmas tree in space near the galactic rim. But all is not well. *Something* is causing the staff of Sector General, including a respected Senior Physician, to make small ridiculous errors - very dangerous in the delicately balanced multi-enviroment of the the Station. And it's up to Dr. Conway to find out who, or what, is behind it. No sooner is this problem solved then the Monitor Corp rescues the occupant of a malfunctioning experimental space capsule and bring it to Sector General but the patient keeps getting worse dispite the best efforts of the staff. And finally Conway joins a Monitor mission to a world called Meatball. He's had some odd patients in his time but he's never been called upon to treat an entire planet before!