If you are looking for classic SF that still reads (reasonably) well today then check out the author James White. White was best known for a series of stories set in the far future on a multi-species hospital. The stories follow Doctor Conway. We meet Doctor Conway at the start of his career and follow him as he meets weird and wonderful sick aliens and manages to cure what ails them. White has a deft hand with aliens and the books are full of every possible kind of creature you can imagine from plant based intelligence, through water based forms, to continent sized creatures, (there’s even a levitating brontosaurus type). Beginning Operations collects the first 3 novels into one book.
Because the novels are set so far in the future among characters that are more often alien then human, they stand up better to the test of time then some older SF does. I would recommend the books to anyone with a taste for medical problem solving set among the stars.
