While I prefer Fantasy to Science fiction, a long-forgotten series about a space surgeon by James White has recently been republished which remind me how good stories set in the future can be.  The novels he wrote epitomise everything I love about science fiction. They are based on original quirky ideas, they are thought-provoking and linger in the mind long after you finish reading them. Things that are sadly lacking in most SF today. 

You can read my thoughts on it as written below or VIEW THE VIDEO HERE   

As regular listeners to this podcast will know, I am a fan of both fantasy and science fiction but lean more towards fantasy. The main reason for this is that while there is some great writing in contemporary science fiction, as far as I am concerned there are very few new ideas. There will never be anything to match the originality of Asimov’s Laws of Robotics for example. And the heydays of SF magazines in the 1960s and 70s, when a new concept or idea would occur in almost every issue, are long gone.  

So it was with great pleasure that I discovered that SF Masterworks has republished the excellent Sector General series written by James White. Sector General is colossal hospital in space where any species in the galaxy can receive treatment. It contains wards designed for  every species from air-breathing humanoids to methane-breathers to shapeshifting amoeba to beings that are clouds of gas or sentient viruses. 

The series  follows Peter Conway, a human doctor and his fellow physicians, both alien and human as they treat  a vast array of species. To do so they have to "download" medical knowledge directly into their brains using educator tapes which contain the memories and personalities of alien medics to help them diagnose the thousands of species with wildly different physiologies, they are expected to treat. 

In one of my favourite stories, the doctors must cure an entity that is essentially a cloud of gas. The puzzle isn't just "what is wrong with it," but "where does the patient begin and end?" The doctors have to figure out how to administer medicine to a gaseous being without it dissipating into the hospital’s ventilation system. 

Another of the many stories I enjoyed was The Patient that Eats Everything, a species with a digestive system so corrosive that it eats through the surgical theater and the instruments the surgeons are using to operating on it. The medical puzzle involves maintaining a sterile environment and performing surgery on a creature that is melting the table it’s lying on. 

I first came across these Space Surgeon stories in one of the SF magazines I read during the 60s and 70s.  They are different from your normal space operas. The writer, James White, focuses on medical mysteries rather than space battles and epics where alien races threaten humanity.  

The stories are all the more remarkable because James White was not a doctor. He had no medical training although he made no secret of the fact that his wife was an intensive care  nurse and gave him invaluable advice  on medical details. 

White is on record as saying that the Troubles in Northern Ireland, where he grew up, gave him an intense dislike of conflict. His hatred of war and xenophobia is a constant theme of his work. 

There are 12 novels and numerous short stories all published between 1957 and 1999. I have to say my favourites are the early stories which are written, mainly from Doctor Peter Conway's viewpoint. The first three books in the series, comprising Hospital Station, Star Surgeon and Major Operation are available in an omnibus edition,by SF Masterworks called Beginning Operations. If you are getting a little bored with space opera, however well written, you might want to have a look at the work of James White.