Another journal

I find a lot of my favourite new reads from recommendations in newsletters (hey, btw, I always have 2-3 book recs and at least one short story in every one of my newsletters!). If I like what someone is sending weekly or monthly, the odds are that their couple-line summary of a book they’ve read that they like will sell me on trying it.

In June, the 70’s Sci Fi Art newsletter mentioned James White’s Sector General series as part of the greater survey of space hospital illustrations. Curious about the description, “a hospital space station that promotes peace through interstellar emergency services” I opened up Libby and saw that my local library had the first omnibus, Beginning Operations, available.

Like any big ol’ omnibus, this had a loving long intro that set the stage and sold me on what I’d be reading. And boy, it was exactly sounding like my jam. The Sector General stories were written from 1957–1999, which is a WILD span of time. It’s all the fun of an adventure story, with problems to be solved and just the right guy (doctor) to do it, etc etc. Only instead of war (and I love my future tank war Hammers Slammers series, mind you) it’s medicine. And it’s about giving medicine and health to everyone, even if they are a creature of your nightmares, or super irritating as a person. Because even if someone sucks they deserve basic care!

The ongoing themes are that we can’t know everything, that we can’t expect people to act or think like we do, and that it’s part of the job of living in the world to meet folks where they’re at. It’s refreshing as hell! I grew up reading Alan Dean Foster books, Nor Crystal Tears being my first, and that’s fully from the perspective of basically a giant mantid. The big draw of the Humanx-Commonwealth books was that there was buyable biology behind things. They made enough sense with how animals and plants worked. And “people” could be a million different shapes and thought types.

But even then? The reptile species kind of sucks and is always mean, but not in a “your aunt is just like that” kind of way. I’m of an age where there was a lot of alternate rodent universe stuff–your Fievels and Great Mouse Detectives, etc–and in most of those the rats are Bad. There are Bad Species (shout out to NIMH for keeping it chill). Boring! I got so easily annoyed by seeing that sort of thing, and as an adult with Scientist Friends who study things like bugs I became even more tired of “this animal is cute so it is good and more interesting.”

In Sector General, however, literally who cares. This is a blob, they love playing pranks. This is, I guess a dragonfly? He’s so sweet and gentle and also an amazing liar. Armoured elephant thing? Nerd. Crab? A bitch but we love him. There’s a whole book about a species that basically exists to kill and fight and they’re given grace (and no I don’t mean the book where war does come to Sector General, but yeah the real monster is man, lol). It’s just very nice!

Also, as a human of today, how gender is handled across species is kind of elegantly done, I think. If you’re talking about your own species, sure, use pronouns. For other species though? Unless you are specifically talking about situations or organs where it is relevant, then you use “it,” because gender isn’t relevant there and also asking people to keep track of everyone’s shit, in a world where folks could have six genders and also they live in steam bath chlorine environments so you only see them in protective gear is a big ask. I got so used to one doctor being “it” that when we got a book from that doctor’s POV, so the pronouns were used I kept getting jumpscared by “he/him” (note: all the humans in the non-human POVs are referred to with “it” so the whole thing is very even, tbh).

That’s not to say it’s all a dream. There’s some weird, of the time standard, stuff about what women can and can’t do in the early books (1950s!) and it’s startling, like it always is. The focus on meat being the only “good” thing to eat and salads being gross and “for rabbits” is so of it’s time and place its like comedy. There is growth though, over the course of the stories the hot nurse becomes a head pathologist and by 1998 there’s a cross-species ace happily ever after so!

I have: so many books. I try not to buy books unless I know I will be returning to them, both for re-reads and reference. Unfortunately it looks like I’m going to have to hunt down four big fat omnibus to add to my shelves. They’re kind of hard to find in libraries, but if you are looking for what a friend called “old school good times” they’re a delight. And there’s a gentleness there that is kind of the right medicine.