The Telzey Amberdon series |
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Commented-List of Stories, |
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The Telzey Amberdon series begins in Schmitz's Hub benchmark year of 3500 A.D., and spans only a couple of years of elapsed time. These stories comprise a subset of Schmitz's larger Federation of the Hub series. The Telzey stories should be read in chronological order, particularly the first half-dozen; the chronology of the later stories is not clear. [ The essay Demigoddess of the Mind: James H. Schmitz's heroine Telzey Amberdon discusses and analyzes "Novice", "Undercurrents", & "Resident Witch". Before reading that analysis, it's critical to read those truly excellent stories — in this sequence. There are major plot spoilers in that essay. ] |
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"Novice" Begin here. We meet Telzey. An introduction to Telzey and her awakening powers of mind, starting here with rudimentary xenotelepathy: direct communication with alien minds. She is an extremely resilient teenage girl, giving us hints of the formidable girl she soon will become."Undercurrents" Novella, a two-part serial in Analog; the second-longest Telzey Amberdon story. A potential-murder thriller. Chomir the arena hound is an awesome dog."Poltergeist" One of the lesser stories. This deals with telekinesis — physical action at a distance via mental force."Goblin Night"
"Sleep No More" A teleporting alien beast. Dark and suspenseful, a lead-in to "The Lion Game"."The Lion Game"
"Company Planet" The Company Planet of the title is Fermilaur, a subtly dangerous place, offering beauty to the beautiful and other things as well. An excellent, suspenseful story."Resident Witch"Fermilaur was famous both as the leading body remodeling center of the Hub and as a luxurious resort world which offered relaxation and scenery along with entertainment to fit every taste, from the loftiest to the most depraved. It was only three hours from Orado, and most of Telzey's friends had been there. But she'd never happened to get around to it until one day she received a distress call from Fermilaur. "Compulsion" "Glory Day" Telzey and Trigger are captured by a group trying to take over the government of the planet Askanam (whence the dog Chomir). Good adventure: mental, physical, power politics — as they try to stay out of the deadly arena games."Child of the Gods" Telzey is coerced into helping a crooked psi discover what has gone wrong in his mining operation on a sparsely-populated planet. A rather horrific alien monster here."The Telzey Toy" (sometimes reprinted as "Ti's Toys" "The Symbiotes"
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Another way to read the series is in the complete sequenced set from Baen Books (unfortunately marred by some abridgement and editorial meddling), collected in the following two omnibus Schmitz volumes (with some other Hub stories); read them in order:
Another omnibus collection from Baen:
A very good representative assortment of Schmitz stories:
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© 2002, 2024 Robert Wilfred Franson |
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Demigoddess of the Mind James H. Schmitz's heroine Telzey Amberdon |
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The Federation of the Hub |
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