I can remember curling up with this book at the age of 12 and enjoying every moment of it! Re-visiting the whole sector general series I found that I still enjoyed the stories.

True the earlier books - such as Sector General - are a little dated in their relegation of females to nurses rather than doctors - but I still enjoyed the concept of a huge hospital full of interesting alien doctors working together.

It never quite encouraged me to become a doctor - but I remain an avid SF/Fantasy fan!

This book was my first introduction to the world of intergalactic medicine as envisioned by James White, and got me hooked on the series. It is actually a collection of four short stories, the first of which sets the stage for the formation of the massive inter-species hospital known as Sector General. One of the aspects of White's stories that I enjoy most is how his characters are able to rise above their preconceptions to handle the wildy varied scenarios encountered when trying to offer emergency medical aid to previously unknown species. The pace of the stories is rapid, with just enough hinted-at subcontext to give substantial depth to the principal characters. As I tend to move every few years, I am highly selective about the books I lug around -- this is one of the select few that I won't part with.

'Sector General' is a collection of four short stories. The first, 'Accident' is set on the planet Nidia decades before the hospital is built. MacEwan of Earth and Grawlya-Ki of Orligia are *the* heroes of the first, (and hopefully last) interstellar war because they ended it. Trapped together in the wreckage of their crashed spaceships, injured and unlikely to be rescued, they become the first Orligian and Human to actually talk to each other and discover their war is all a simple, horrible misunderstanding. Fortunately they are rescued in time to share their discovery but the mortally wounded MacEwan must be put into stasis until medical science advances enough to save him and Grawlya-Ki choses to join him. The two frozen warriors, still in the remains of their ship, are put on display as one of the most effective War Memorials of all time. They awake over two centuries later to discover they have become icons of the horror of war and the need for peace. But the icons have minds of their own, they disapprove of the rigidly controlled, limited contact between the species that make up the Federation. They argue the races have to really get to know each other, feel comfortable enough with each other to banter and quarrel, or mutual fear will lead to another war. Their views do not prove popular and they are in the process of being politely shipped off Nidia when an accident traps them with a variety of other beings in the wrecked departure lounge. Old soldiers that they are MacEwan and Grawlya-Ki automatically take command of the situation organizing rescue and first aid efforts among the casualties but will help reach them in time? In the next story, 'Survivor', Dr. Conway and the crew of the Ambulance Ship Rhabwar rescue the sole survivor of a space wreck and bring it back to Sector General. Now strange psychological effects are disrupting the hospital, could the alien somehow be to blame? Next the Rhabwar's crew investigates a crashed alien ship whose survivors seem to have suffered mutilations unrelated to their crash injuries in a story aptly titled, 'Investigation'. And finally in 'Combined Operation' the alien ship and the entity inside it are both in pieces and it's going to take the combined forces of Sector General and the Monitor Corps to put them back together again.

I bought this book because I read the reviews saying he was part Carl Hiaasen, part Tony Hillerman -- well, I find Mr. Doss a LOT closer to Hillerman than to Hiaasen. I laugh my way through Hiaasen's books, and that didn't happen here, although there were a few moments when I laughed out loud.

The first 100 pages were slow going, and I almost gave up, until the book started to get into stride. The second hundred pages have been pretty quick and the third hundred pages are racing by. So, the book is worth it if you can make it past the first 100 pages.

Daisy Perika, the Ute elder shamaness who is Charlie Moon's aunt (Charlie Moon is the central character in this series of books) is the best character in the book and worth the read altogether. I'd like to read more about her, so I'm probably going to buy more of this series.

Doss has an annoying habit of using half sentences that should be employed rarely for effect rather than all the time. Things like "Which was the idea." or "And that was the idea."

So, he's not Carl Hiaasen by any stretch of the imagination, but he's good and I'm glad I picked up the book. Entertaining, even if you have to go on the web and look up some Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico geographic locations. Doss assumes we know where or what the Columbine is (other than a flower or a high school).

The dust jacket quotes the Denver Post: "Doss does for the Utes what Tony Hillerman has done for the Navajo [sic]." Well, not quite. I enjoyed reading "White Shell Woman," and look forward to reading other Charlie Moon Mysteries, but not quite as eagerly as I look forward to the next Tony Hillerman book. But who knows? Maybe some day Doss will equal or even surpass Hillerman. I hope he does. After all, there are never too many excellent writers, and James Doss shows promise of better things to come.

Charlie Moon is retired from the Reservation Police but when murder strikes a beautiful Ute woman, he can't help being interested--especially when the tribal leaders ask him to return to work part time as a private investigator. Without the politics of the local police, he has an ideal situation--at least as far as work goes. As far as his ranch, his psychic aunt, and his love life go, things are not so great.

Legends of an ancient Anasazi treasure have haunted the Utes for years. Now someone is digging, disturbing the remains of buried Indians and the work of the archeologists trying to uncover the history of this region. Simply disturbing archeological sites is bad enough, but when one of the students is murdered, rumors start to spread about the ghosts of the Anasasi protecting their treasures and of a shape-shifter walking the ruins. Moon doesn't believe in shape-shifters--although his aunt certainly does. But when the uncle of the victim disappears leaving nothing but his clothes, his dentures, and a pile of ashes and bone chips, Moon is certain that the mystic forces his aunt can't leave alone are somehow involved.

Author James D. Doss (click here to see booksforabuck.com reviews of other novels by this author) combines a fine touch for characters (especially Moon's aunt), respect for the Native American heritage that makes up so critical an element in his stories, and pure adventure to deliver a fine light read. Charlie Moon is a sympathetic character now blessed with a ranch that can't make a nickle, a dog that steals anything he tries to eat, an aunt who can't help being cranky, and a girlfriend who seems to show up only at the worst possible moment.

Fans of the Charlie Moon series will definitely want to read this one. Tony Hillerman fans who haven't discovered Doss will be overjoyed by this addition to the short list of excellent authors writing Native American mystery.

I have read the later James White books and was pleasantly surprised to be able to pick up and read his early writing. You will find that the characters were the same back in the 60's as they are now, but it is wonderful to see how he came up with the "Hospital to Aliens" in space. If you have never read any of his books pick this up for an introduction, but I have to say his later books are still my favorites. He reminds me of the old style of writing in the 50's and 60's and it is wonderful that they have reprinted these older titles.

This omnibus collects the first three Sector General books--Hospital Station, Star Surgeon, and Major Operation. White's Sector General books exemplify the medical subgenre of the SF puzzle story--what weird E.T. thing is going on and how do we solve the problems it presents?

This series is part of my personal "Golden Age" of science fiction and I'm delighted to see it back in print.

For many of us knowledge of our Christian heritage goes back no further than the beginning of our own local church or particular denomination. This is a sad state of affair because it leaves people unappreciative of, even feels disconnected from, their own rich history and heritage. In this book, Professor James F. White does a very fine job of providing his readers with a comprehensive view of how and why Christians worship God throughout Church history. Aside from the fact that the book is teeming with reliable materials on the history and development of Christian worship, White also has some good insights about Christian worship in every chapter. His survey on the definitions of Christian worship by famous theologians from the main branches of Christianity is truly helpful for someone who tries to work on a definitive explanation of Christian worship. Those definitions are good places to start with in understanding the concept at hand. The author's discussion on the various Biblical and non-Biblical words that relate to and express worship is also enriching. Every word opens up an aspect of worship that deepens one's knowledge and understanding what it means to worship God in Christ. One can find also some real gems in this book in terms of quotes and concepts that describe and explain the nature and purpose of Christian worship from the works of the Church Fathers, some Medieval scholars, Reformers and Post-Reformation writers. Likewise, the author is quite keen in pointing out the historical turning points and existing variations of these particular acts of worship among Christians in a pastoral and sensitive way.
I think, this book's major feature, which is the presentation of many facts and ideas, is its one unavoidable weakness. Any author who decides to survey such a large amount of material must necessarily limit his discussion of each topic. While the book offers excellent introductory surveys of the history and development of Christian worship within the main branches of Christianity, it cannot go into great detail to include all the varieties of practices of almost all groups, especially within the Protestant tradition where thousands of denominations exist. For example, a Southern Baptist minister or an Evangelical Free layman may not be able to appreciate thoroughly the author's discussion for the fact that his denomination is not well represented throughout the book.
Another feature of the book that may also become its liability is the author's view of and tendency toward ecumenism. There are instances that leave the impression that the ultimate norm which Professor White follows in the practice of Christian worship is not the Holy Scripture but the consensus of the community of believers in a given denomination or tradition. Rather than passionately calling his readers to seek to reform their services to continually conform them to the rule of Scripture, for several occasions in his pastoral challenges he summons his readers to make decisions according to what is acceptable in their traditions. I understand that sensitivity in issuing challenges in the area of liturgy to people with diverse traditions is a virtue, yet I feel that he should have issued an equally strong challenge to his readers to evaluate and restructure their worship practices not only according to the cultural and denominational approval but more so in a Biblical manner.
For the most part, I like the way Professor White has written this book. I admire his desire to provoke some sense of pride and appreciation among Christians of different backgrounds through his comprehensive introduction of the history and development of Christian worship. I would suggest though that readers should examine his books with critical mind because of his bent toward ecumenism. Ecumenism has a place among Christians but it should be one that seeks to promote the truth of the Scripture and upholds its authority in matters of doctrine and practice. Christians, especially ministers, who read carefully this book must be enlightened of the richness of the history of Christian worship. Since this book opens up streams of information, I would not be surprised if they would start to reflect and evaluate their own worship practices. Hopefully, they would learn to appreciate and understand the liturgy of Christians outside their tradition. Best of all, through this process they would be able to synthesize the historical and conceptual data presented, come up with brilliant conclusions that are Biblically informed in order to make one's acts of worship more meaningful to the congregation and glorifying to God.

White has written a book which, every new worship leader needs to read, and the experienced leader should keep on their shelf as a refercence. Each chapter objectively looks at the history and practice of worship and liturgy. White carefully outlines each Christian tradition and seeks his reader to understand, the practice of today's church.

This book is helpful for those who may be from church traditions which have a unwritten liturgies especially.

This is a good book for programmers new to J2ME development. It is assumed that you have experience in Java programming. The authors illustrate the J2ME history and how the Micro Edition fits in the Java family. After explaining the common J2ME architecture, they show how the profiles support the different devices that run J2ME. The common architecture with different profiles allows programs to be easily ported to different devices. Subsequent chapters concentrates on the MIDP/CLDC (small device, cell phone/PDA) profiles and other profiles are not discussed much after the first couple of chapters.

The book is very well organized. The book goes through example of how to built a MIDP application for cellular phones. The tutorial chapters go through everything from setting up the development environment, to coding, and running the application. The explanations are complete and do not leave anything out. The example gives a solid foundation of how to write J2ME applications. After reading these chapters, you should have a through understanding of J2ME.

This book is not a reference, but a tutorial by example and it's extremely useful for its extensive explanation, as well as a source for all kinds of examples. I would recommend the book to any beginner J2ME programmer, but because of the rapid changes in J2ME the book would not be comprehensive for future J2ME API's.

J2ME refers to a diverse number of technologies based on the java platform.

Many "J2ME" books focus solely on MIDP/CLDC, which is currently the only widely available profile/configuration of J2ME. Thus, you get books that tend to get repetitive in terms of their content, especially those books that focus on the "basics".

Fortunately, this book does NOT confine itself to the basics. It not only explores the history of J2ME (a MUST for any serious developer), but it also deals exhaustively with issues regarding real world design and implementation of enterprise systems (a NECESSITY for developers wanting to do more than just games for MIDP). The book also delves into using J2ME in PDAs using kjava (the new PDA Profile, or PDAP, was not finalized yet at the time this book was published), and gives a good summary of other java technologies and how they relate to J2ME.

This is a good book for both beginners and upper mid-level J2ME developers.

This is an excellent book for young and old readers alike. I enjoyed it because it showed what people lived like in this century, but left out any inappropriate material. It read like a fiction book, but in reality was a non-fiction written about the authors experiences while living in this remote area. It includes a gun fight, general hardships endured, and facts about everyday life.

This book is a good example of how people really lived in this century. I enjoyed this book because it doesn't contain anything offensive to young readers but does include the excitement of a gun battle, true hardships these people endured, and information on their everyday life. It is told as a non- fiction work, but does carry you along like a fiction book. Excellent for anyone interested in pioneer life or as a compasison to how our life could be. ***I read the original book published in the 1940's not this updated one.

AMBULANCE SHIP, SECTOR GENERAL, AND STAR HEALER are the three stories in this volume. These are medical s/f stories. I had been trying to track down the Sector General stories that are out of print, when this was published. Unfortunately, quite a few of the stories are out of print. Even the libraries have only a few of the stories. These are books about people/aliens/things and how we may interact on a medical level. Mr. White offers viewpoints and ideas on inter-species relationships and the stories are always nicely done. The only drawback (?) is that you shouldn't read all the stories all at once. I found that if I read something different in between reading each book, the stories read better and had a little more tenseness.

Black Man Emerging: Facing the Past and Seizing a Future in America is a seminal text on the issues facing black men today.

Recommended reading.

James White's "Dream Millennium" was first serialized in "Galaxy" in 1973 and reworked for a book edition in 1974. It has not dated at all in the nearly 25 years since its first publication.

The situation is an Earth that is technologically advanced but disintegrating socially. The absence of gun control and a custom of forceful civilian retaliation against violent crime has engendered a society divided into unarmed, peaceful "sheep" and gun-toting vigilantes who seek any excuse for an "affair" -- a duel or gunfight.

A kind of feudal code of honor and etiquette has arisen reminiscent of that in Robert Heinlein's "Beyond This Horizon," but contrary to Heinlein's optimism, White foresees the prevalence of guns as only abetting violence. The consequence is urban life blighted by what amounts to ceaseless gang warfare with high-powered weapons.

A group of visionaries represented by a religious figure, Brother Howard, and a psychiatrist, Dr. Martin, prepare a "cold-sleep" starship with 200 colonists and a "crew" of two: a doctor, John Devlin, and his love interest, Patricia Morley. Their 1000-year mission is to fly a 250 light-year course to as many as ten star systems in search of an inhabitable planet.

The problem is that "cold sleep" enhances vivid dreams in the hibernating passengers. The dreams are so realistic and terrifying that one colonist is driven to suicide in one of the periodic awakenings. Devlin fears for his and everyone's sanity. Nor is that the crew's only worry: in the fifth system, hostile aliens launch nuclear missiles from a hopelessly polluted world eerily reminiscent of Earth.

The resolution involves a fascinating mystical interpretation of the cold-sleep dreams and a final encounter with alien colonists from the fifth system.

White's style is definitely that of the 1970's. Its economy is reminiscent of Joe Haldeman's and is a welcome relief from the baroque contrivances found in many novels of the '90s.

Who would guess that E.B. White of Charlotte's Web fame would team up with James Thurber to write a spoof of the sex guides that were published during the "sexual revolution." The satire is excellent -- reminiscent of Twain. Though this book is hard to find, it's worth searching out for a quick read. They just don't write books like this anymore. Thurber's drawings are very funny, as is the writing all the way through.