If White can keep omnibus editions in print for 20 years, why do I say he’s not well remembered? Because while Sector General remains popular among older fans, White’s star has otherwise dimmed significantly. How little demand is there for his work? Five years ago when I won a nearly complete set of James White - 24 vintage paperbacks - on eBay, I was the only bidder. Believe it or not, all three of the Orb volumes are still in print, nearly two long decades later. A total of four omnibus collections were published, one by the Science Fiction Book Club ( Tales of Sector General, 1999), and three by Orb, Beginning Operations (2001), Alien Emergencies (2002), and General Practice (2003). Most of the stories were fairly light fare, low-stakes galactic hospital drama, but their enduring popularity earned White a solid rep. It was the setting for a long-running series - a dozen novels and collections - published between 1957-1999. White’s most popular creation was Sector General, a deep space medical installation that treats all the races of the galaxy. His last novel Double Contact appeared in 1999, the year he died. He began writing professionally in 1953, and published some 20 novels and five collections in a career than spanned nearly five decades. White was an Irish SF writer who’s not very well remembered today, but he was a big deal in SF circles in the 80 and 90s. I’ve read very little by James White, and that’s a serious oversight.
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