James White - Mind Changer
Read by Jack Fox
8:38 hrs  unabridged
8 Mp3s  64/44 mono
 

The latest novel in White's long-running and justly popular Sector General series (Final Diagnosis, etc.) About a far future, multispecies, interstellar hospital features an unlikely protagonist. He is Dr. O'Mara, the formidable and ferocious Chief Psychologist of Sector General, newly appointed head of the hospital until he can choose and train his successor. As O'Mara embarks on that quest, his 30-year career at Sector General unfolds through a series of flashbacks, which also reveal a great deal about the early careers of some of the other ongoing characters in the series. Also depicted is the early progress with the Educator tapes that have allowed interspecies surgery through mental imprintingAone of White's more original, durable and admirable concepts. Through O'Mara's entire career runs his bond with Marrasarah, the Kelgian female surgeon whose Educator tape O'Mara used first, and for whom he developed therapies that helped her and other Kelgians severely disfigured by damage to their fur to lead sane and productive lives. The proliferation of flashbacks may occasionally confuse readers, butt otherwise this is White's finest performance, replete with wit, originality, medical expertise and sheer decency. The Sector General saga is now in its 10th novel and 36th year, but it shows few signs of aging. 

Readers of the 10 previous Sector General novels know what they're getting into here, and sf fans unfamiliar with the series should find out a.s.a.p. The Galactic Federation's huge hospital takes care of patients not only from the big five space bodies (Melf, Earth, Traltha, Kelgia, and Nidia) but also from some 60 other species. O'Mara, chief psychologist and once a construction worker in the hospital's early days, is, at this story's beginning, named chief administrator. White proceeds, with plenty of flashbacks, to then provide a vivid, at times suspenseful, account of O'Mara's long career. "Educator Tapes" form the main thread in the ensuing enjoyable, witty re sume that shows O'Mara skillfully working his way through several situations in which the tapes threaten to overwhelm an imprinted colleague and himself or in which they are misinterpreted. A word of advice: read Mind Changer where others won't be bothered by your appreciative chuckles. 
"Sector General is one of the few places in SF that one would really, really like to exist." --David Langford, Critical Mass


In the course of practicing deep-space medicine, that staff has seen more than its share of challenges--from plagues caused by cafeteria food, to cafeteria food that resembles alien species. But now they are facing a disquieting new development: the terrifying Chief Psychologist, Dr. O'Mara, has been promoted to head of the hospital.

Worse, he's been given the job on a temporary basis, for just as long as it takes to train his own replacement. After that, he is up for mandatory retirement. Nobody at Sector General can begin to imagine what they'll do without him--assuming they last long enough to find out.

About the Author
James White lived in Northern Ireland. He was a popular writer of science fiction for over forty years. He died in 1999.
