Telzey Amberdon

I read this so long ago I don't remember much about it. But I did love it back then. ( )

I read this so long ago I don't remember much about it. But I did love it back then. ( )

Telzey Amberdon is 15 years old and starting to feel the minds of others — both humans and non-humans. As her telepathic power grows, it throws her into increasingly dangerous situations.

This is a collection of loosely-linked short stories published between 1962 and 1971 and edited by Eric Flint in 2000. They are entertaining, intelligently written and well-crafted, and for that I am prepared to forgive a thing or two. Telzey herself is slightly annoying as a character, because she isn't much of a person. She is described as a genius-level intelligence, a brilliant law student, an extremely powerful telepath already months after her power first manifested itself, the only daughter of influential parents, and "not at all bad-looking", and I just want to shake her and shout "Crissakes, girl, do you have any weaknesses? Doesn't this gift ever frighten you? Do you ever feel the lure of power over others? Do you even think about boys once in a while?"

What I like about characters like Buffy Summers, Cordelia Vorkosigan or Susan Ivanova, just to take a few examples, is that they are people — some of them are extraordinary people, to be sure, but still human and trying to work their way through extraordinary situations. By contrast Telzey is nearly a superheroine, and in the hands of a less competent storyteller than Schmitz she would have been a completely unbearable Mary Sue, but because he knows how to spin a good yarn she becomes tolerable and even a bit sympathetic. If I were a teenage girl I might like her more, though. ( )

http://www.webscription.net/10.1125/Baen/0671578510/0671578510.htm

To start with the end of the book, there is an Afterword, where Flint talks about having the idea for the Schmitz project, the most excellent Mr Baen saying give it a shot, and then Flint coming across Guy Gordon's very impressive James H. Schmitz website encyclopedia. Hence evolving into a co-editing credit because of his vast knowledge. Very nifty.

There's a second end piece, with a general overview of the Hub society, so interested parties can check that out too, as well as the rest, given this is part of the Baen Free Library (speaking of brilliant Jim Baen stuff).

Here's a quote "James H. Schmitz knew one of the cardinal rules of writing science fiction adventure: don't inflict the reader with irrelevant background material—get on with the story! And so Schmitz seldom comes right out and tells us any facts about the Hub. (After all, when was the last time world geography came up in your casual conversation?) Part of the fun of reading Schmitz is piecing together the clues dropped here and there, because the Hub is an amazing place to visit."

Sometimes these days when I hear or read the evil words 'worldbuilding' you can feel like taking an editor and a writer linging them up, getting a suitably weightt tome, like say, the Geographica atlas, sticking their nose on a whole globe map, then closing book forcefully, one side to each ear. Maybe that would cut down on a bit of tedious excess tree-slaughtering verbiage.

Anyway, again, Schmitz has written a bunch of fun stories that are compiled here.

Telzey Amberdon is utterly precocious, brilliant, and only 15. You'd might think she was an annoying brat at a fancy school, but she is really quite charming, and not self-centred at all. She is also happy to take down the bad guys with anything from legal references to psi-bolts, to guns. The one thing people might find odd about her, as her powers grow, is her tendency to be of the Doc Savage/early Xavier school of rehab, as far as other brains go.

A pleasure to read this sort of entertainment.

Hub : Telzey Amberdon 1 Novice - James H. Schmitz
Hub : Telzey Amberdon 2 Undercurrents - James H. Schmitz
Hub : Telzey Amberdon 3 Poltergeist - James H. Schmitz
Hub : Telzey Amberdon 4 Goblin Night - James H. Schmitz
Hub : Telzey Amberdon 5 Sleep No More - James H. Schmitz
Hub : Telzey Amberdon 6 The Lion Game [Trigger Argee] - James H. Schmitz
Hub : Telzey Amberdon 7 Blood of Nalakia [The Vampirate] - James H. Schmitz
Hub : Telzey Amberdon 8 The Star Hyacinths - James H. Schmitz

"These, she told herself defiintely, were powers one should treat with respect! Better rattle through law school first; then, with that out of the way, she could start hunting around to see who in the Federation was qualified to instruct a genius-level novice in the proper handling of psionics . . ."

Of course, this is after she makes a deal with the bureacracy to stop the hunting and study of the local intelligent telepathic crest cat population, and at 15, no less.

4 out of 5

One of Telzey's friends happens to be wealthy and involved in corporate plans involved it getting at her stockholdings - removing the opposition from the state of being living is part of corporate work where she is from.

Some psionic work from Miss Amberdon is required, and a bit of blackmail, when he discovers the levels of psionic snooping the government actually does get up to.

3.5 out of 5

Telzey comes across a man with a very powerful psi split personality, and has to try and help.

3.5 out of 5

Telzey is camping with some classmates when someone makes contact with her, psi fashion. She soon finds out that this man is not what he seems. It is a good thing that she is looking after a friend's large, powerful and very capable pooch when the 'Goblin' appears.

3.5 out of 5

A few weeks after the events of Goblin Night, Telzey is doing some investigating of the area, and finds that another monsters with powers are still out there.

3.5 out of 5

Telzey is tapped to investigate a series of murders, alien teleport portal networks, a conspiracy, so plenty of psionics, gunplay, and a scrambling wilderness duel to be had, all before her birthday.

4 out of 5

Early Lion Game. In Telzey's past, the aliens she encounters in the aforementioned story feature here.

3 out of 5

Dasinger, a blonde, and maybe more than a bit of the possibility of space pirate, with some Quist.

3 out of 5

http://superprose.blogspot.com/2008/03/hub-telzey-amberdon.html ( )

Read Online: http://webscriptions.net/10.1125/Baen/0671578510/0671578510.htm