Final Diagnosis: A Sector General Novel (Sector General Series) - Hardcover

White, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312861486 ISBN 13: 9780312861483

Publisher: Tor Books, 1997

Synopsis

It's a massive hospital space station on the Galactic rim--384 levels, a staff of thousands--where human and alien medicine meet.

But Patient Hewlitt, new to Sector General, doesn't want to meet alien medicine--or alien doctors, or alien nurses, or aliens of any kind. Which is just too bad; he's an interesting case, and he'll have to get used to it.

In the meantime, it's always been an article of faith among Sector General's multispecies staff that infections can't pass from one alien race to another. But in this season of anomalies, it looks like they might have their first-ever interstellar virus on their hands, their tentacles, their cilla....

Combining intrigue, ingenious puzzles (and even more ingenious solutions), action, adventure and White's characteristic easy charm, Final Diagnosis is a science-fiction treat.

About this title

Reviews

More about Sector General, Northern Ireland resident White's colossal, multi-species space hospital (The Galactic Gourmet, 1996, etc.). This time, patient Hewlitt (human) arrives at Sector General with chronic, ill-defined symptoms that have baffled and annoyed human doctors for years: He's impotent, hypersensitive to medication of any sort, xenophobic, but otherwise in perfect health. But did he imagine an incident when, as a child, he ate a poisonous fruit and then fell out of a tall tree? His new alien doctors--and his fellow-patients--listen to his case history with fascination and varying degrees of disbelief. The key is planet Etla, where Hewlitt lived as a young boy, so a hospital ship with Hewlitt and his doctors aboard goes to investigate. Hewlitt, it turns out, did indeed fall out of a tree as a child, and in doing so struck and broke a mysterious cylinder that contained biological materials. He was thereupon infected with an intelligent virus that previously served another alien as its physician: Hewlitt is the galaxy's first patient to be infected with his doctor! Reaching Sector General, the virus moved on to new hosts, leaving each in perfect health but provoking fears of an interspecies plague. A first-class medical puzzle and its absorbing solution, with always a twinkle in the author's eye: thoroughly enjoyable. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Despite the ominous title, all ends well in this imaginatively conceived story spiced by witty satire. Hewlitt, an Earthling, should have died three times in accidents on planet Etla the Sick, so everybody at Sector General--the deep-space hospital White introduced as long ago as 1962--presumes the transfer patient made up his accident tales. A variety of other-species professionals and trainees who at first upset the xenophobic Hewlitt examine and treat him. Slowly, Hewlitt begins to socialize with Kelgians, Tralthans, and Duthans. (The basic trick to socializing is keeping your eyes on your plate at mealtimes so you won't become nauseated.) Hewlitt learns that Kelgians don't have a bedside manner and that he can cheat at scremmen just as well as his new companions. When pathologist Murchison realizes that Hewlitt's cat has lived twice as long as usual for its species, the pieces of the Hewlitt puzzle start falling into place. Old fans of Sector General will be delighted by this new episode. So will series newcomers. William Beatty

The latest Sector General novel in White's deep-space medical series featuring a mammoth space hospital (e.g., The Galactic Gourmet, LJ 7/96), Final Diagnosis revolves around the possibility of a cross-species interstellar virus. Referred to Sector General, Patient Hewlitt overcomes his extreme xenophobia to help the doctors and nurses uncover the cause of the inexplicable illnesses that have plagued him throughtout his life. A fascinating character study whose on-target delineation of the "us" vs. "them" mentality is particularly relevant to out diverse world today; highly recommended.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312861486
• ISBN 13: 9780312861483
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288