Ambulance Ship

I enjoyed reading science fiction many years ago, and I've been sampling sci-fi recently. Many writers I find sort of clunky and awkward -- or frankly childish. But some I like. I like the Enders series, for example, and pretty much read my way through them. On the basis of Ambulance Ship, I will read through the books of James White. The universe he creates is one of overwhelming variety -- of species and their worlds. In this universe, the creatures, as they discover one another, learn to get along. One of their greatest challenges is a sort of comparative medicine. How do you provide emergency medical care to so many different creatures? This novel, and I suppose the series, follows the exploits of a sort of Mod Squad of emergency care docs as they cope with various accidents and disasters. And, while your knowledge of earth medicine won't help you much, as you try to think your way through the dilemmas that Dr. Connor and his crew confront, you are given enough information to follow their logic and to be satisfied with their solutions. Is it artful prose? No, it's awkward, but manageable. You adapt pretty quickly. A great break from the gruesome and repetitive bestsellers of today!

AMBULANCE SHIP begins with "The Secret History of Sector General" - White's introduction discussing the series to date - then proceeds to the 3 linked short stories of this volume, introducing Sector General's special ambulance ship Rhabwar (named for a famous figure in Tralthan medicine, being Tralthan-built). Some misconceptions might arise for new readers (or even fans of the series who haven't previously encountered this book). Rhabwar isn't special just because it's an ambulance ship; those are actually common in White's universe already. What's special is that somebody in the Galactic Federation government has applied some lessons learned from Sector General's previous adventures. (Points to the author for giving an interstellar civilization credit for some common sense.) Someone has noticed that over the last 20 years, the Monitor Corps has found 3 new civilizations while Sector General has found 7 - since distress calls are much easier to find than any other communication signal. Once contact has been made, the hospital's track record for establishing friendly relations is also much more impressive than the Corps' - since saving lives makes a MUCH stronger impression than ordinary diplomacy. Until the opening of this story, the Federation hasn't had a set policy for dealing with mysterious distress calls - on the face of it, why would they, until it became obvious that they needed one? Calls that DIDN'T happen to fall within Sector General's area have usually resulted in the death of any unknown aliens involved, since regular ambulance ships are specialized for various known species (usually only one or two). Rhabwar, therefore, has been specially built to handle all kinds of atmospheres, shapes, and sizes on its casualty deck, and is kept in reserve for distress calls that don't correspond to any known flight plan. (As a bonus, of course, it can fill in for just about any known species' ambulance craft, if needed.) Senior Physician Conway, his wife pathologist Murchison, and the fragile Cinrusskin empath Prilicla (with their considerable experience of ship rescue operations and first contacts) have been assigned to Rhabwar. White also introduces Naydrad, the caterpillar-like Kelgian heavy rescue specialist, as part of the new Rhabwar team. "Contagion" - As a shakedown assignment for Rhabwar, the team has been assigned to an ordinary search-and-rescue job: responding to a distress call from the Earth-human-crewed scoutship Tenelphi. This job begins as an opportunity for White to introduce the ship and Captain Fletcher as he and the medical team begin feeling out their relationship (which continues throughout the book). After all, what could go wrong with a simple chore like rescuing the Tenelphi? "Quarantine" - After the Tenelphi job, Rhabwar's first proper assignment - answering an unknown distress signal - cropped up soon afterward: responding to a distress signal from a ship torn apart by hyperdrive failure. One survivor was found

Senior Physician Conway is not exactly thrilled with his new assignment to the Ambulance Ship Rhabwar but soon finds out it is more important than he thought. The Rhabwar's mission is to answer distress calls from previously uncontacted alien ships thus proving in the most direct way possible the benign intentions of the Galactic Federation. However Rhabwar's first mission is to rescue a Monitor scout ship in distress. It seems like a very simple assignment - until they find out why the ship is in trouble. Rhabwar's next casualty is a bona-fide alien - and may finally disprove the comfortable theory that cross species infection is impossible. In the final section the Rhabwar finds a disabled ship with two species aboard, one apparently imprisoned and being tortured by the other!

Although it is part of a series, this book stands alone as the main character of the series, Conway, is given a new job as ambulance crew and leaves the station.Initially he is not happy with the role and does not get on with the abrasive captain of the ship. However, as usual, there are plenty of new and wierd beasties and problems for him to face. This time, instead of patients arriving at the station, he is going out to find them.The problems faced are ingenious. All the answers are there in the story but it is often not until the very end that the solution is revealed; very much a mystery story.The only criticism I would have is that Conway and the captain spend too much time telling each other what is going on, technically - it is a bit like having technical footnotes to the story rather than letting the action speak for itself.Good story lines, good problems, not as good at the characterisation as some of his other stories; but still an enjoyable read.