A review by therewithal
Beginning Operations by Brian Stableford, James White

3.0

I had vague memories of liking the Sector General books as a kid and wanted to revisit them. I still think the entire concept of stories where the conflict is figuring out how to heal strange alien life forms instead of fighting them is great, and he did come up with a lot of very weird and interesting aliens. But looking at the books now, they're also terribly dated and awful about women and Conway is kind of an asshole, and the formula of him pulling the answers out of nowhere at the last minute every time got a little old. (Also, it cracked me up that he consumes nothing but steak, like a true 1950s manly man of the future.)