The thing is, unlike seemingly everyone else on the planet, I’ve never been into medical dramas. Sector General is essentially a TV medical drama in space. White’s stated intention was to create a world in which war and violence were not driving the plot. The tone of the book is a bit of a weird one for me. You need all three to get the full story. There are natural breaks in the story, and each one leads naturally into the next. I’m unsure of the exact history, but I’d wager they were published individually in magazines before being gathered here, as was often the trend back in the day. Ambulance Ship is one hundred and eighty four pages long, consisting of three parts that essentially serve as linked novelettes, each taking up an even third of the book. The thing about books of this length is that, even when they’re not very good, they rarely leave a bad taste in my mouth. Even better, it’s a standalone tale in a larger universe. Yes, it’s not the first in a series, but that’s never stopped me before. Last year I read a collection of James White’s unrelated fiction, Medics & Monsters, and was sufficiently entertained to be enthusiastic about reading this one.

It’s the fourth book in the Sector General series, a series of which I have been dimly aware for a while, but never really got round to reading. So it’s only natural that she be the one to put a copy of Ambulance Ship in my hands. Ī short while ago, my significant other and I were bemoaning the lack of doctor-driven science fiction. Even when that danger is rooted in the mistakes of the past. Humans and aliens work alongside in each in great hospitals, facing every emergency with an open mind. In the far future, it’s a new frontier for medicine.

Ambulance Ship by James White