The Galactic Gourmet: A Sector General Novel (Sector General Series) - Hardcover

White, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312861672 ISBN 13: 9780312861674

Publisher: Tor Books, 1996

Synopsis

Sector General. It's the massive hospital space station - 384 levels, with a staff of thousands - on the Galactic Rim, where human and alien medicine meet. It's also the setting for some of the most entertaining novels of modern SF, James White's Sector General series, which began three decades ago with Hospital Station.
Now White returns to Sector General to tell the tale of the great Gurronsevas, a massive, six-legged alien of considerable dignity, who is the most renowned chef in all the galactic federation.
Chef? Just so. But now, at the peak of his career, Gurronsevas finds that fame, honor, and a large staff of scurrying minions aren't enough anymore. He wants to take on the greatest challenge of his professional life: making hospital food palatable.
And not just any hospital, either. Gurronsevas has come to Sector General. And interspecies understanding may never recover....

About this title

Reviews

On the 384 levels of the far-future Sector General Twelve Hospital, a staff drawn from dozens of races treats the ailments of hundreds more, and also devises treatments to help newly discovered intelligent species. In this first hardcover entry in the Sector General series, popular since 1962, a gourmet chef celebrated throughout the galaxy is appointed Chief Dietitian of Sector General. Gurronsevas is a Tralthan (imagine a smallish, six-legged elephant), talented enough to substantially improve the hospital's food but somewhat accident-prone. Exiled to the medical team of a First Contact expedition, he saves the kangaroo-like Wem by concocting ways of cooking vegetables that overcome their cultural taboos, which had condemned them to starvation on a planet whose ruined environment no longer produces meat. White, a retired British physician, tells the story entirely from Gurronsevas's viewpoint, with realism, a delightful dry wit, compassion and an intimate knowledge of the technology, philosophy and politics of the medical profession. Fans can look forward to an above-average installment in a series that, perhaps more than any other of comparable longevity, has survived with grace the changes in both the SF readership and the larger society.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

White's Sector General yarns--about a colossal space hospital designed to cater to the needs of humans as well as to the most numerous and staggeringly diverse bunch of aliens in science fiction--have been appearing intermittently since Hospital Station (1962). This time, Gurronsevas, the most accomplished chef in the galaxy--he happens to be a massive, six-legged, four-eyed alien from the planet Traltha--having taken over as Sector General's Chief Dietitian, faces the greatest challenge of his career: turning hospital food--amorphous, tasteless sludge familiar to humans and aliens alike--into tasty, eye-filling, mouthwatering real food, thereby promoting not only swifter recoveries among patients but better tempers among the staff. Gurronsevas's innovations are a success, but he also causes some disastrous accidents and runs afoul of the hospital's bigwig administrators. So, instead of being rewarded, he's shipped off with a hospital expedition that's heading into space in search of alien cultures in need of their services. And soon he's enjoying a whole new set of adventures. Humorous, lighthearted, inventive: a treat for series faithful and newcomers alike. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

White's Sector General novels have been genre favorites since Hospital Station in 1962, which introduced a mammoth, spacebound hospital with enough medical resources to treat every ill and alien species in the galaxy. The latest series installment features Gurronsevas, a six-legged Tralthan who is the Federation's most notorious master chef and who faces his greatest challenge in trying to make Sector General's bland hospital food palatable to patients and staff. Some of his more complicated tests include providing tastier comestibles to a collection of large-toothed water-breathers and modifying the spray-painted sustenance of a creature that feeds through its skin. The last experiment results in a disastrous accident in the cargo hold that could send Gurronsevas packing on the next outbound shuttle unless he can salvage his reputation by satisfying the taste buds of the entire staff. As entertaining as ever, White spices his yam with a colorful menagerie of aliens, ingenious scientific puzzles, and, as always, plenty of amusement. Carl Hays

Sector General, a 384-level space station on the galactic rim, can handle the medical problems of all known species. In the latest installment in the 35-year-old series, self-assured master chef Gurronsevas, a six-legged Tralthan, is hired on to make hospital food palatable. Soon finding himself in trouble and banished from the ship, he travels covertly with a special emergency medical team to convince a starving, decimated population to accept help. Told from the chef's point of view, this story serves up dry wit and a glimpse into alien psychology. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312861672
• ISBN 13: 9780312861674
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288