Telzey Amberdon

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Telzey and Crest Cats on the cover of the 2000 Baen edition by Bob Eggleton
Telzey and Crest Cats on the cover of the 2000 Baen edition by Bob Eggleton

Telzey Amberdon is the fictional character of the eponymous science fiction short story (and novella) series by James H. Schmitz, taking place in his "The Federation of the Hub" fictional universe in mid-4th millennium. She is a fifteen-year-old genius brunette going to college to become a lawyer, living on the colonised planet Orado (whose name comes from Eldorado by a pun). By interaction with alien psychic animals on a resort planet, she discovers that she has psychic powers. Upon return to her home planet, her abilities are "tagged" and she is effectively made an agent of the Psychology Service by a mechanism at the entry to the spaceport. The series features one of the few imaginings of the internet before its existence -- although the system takes a half-hour to download a document of modest length.

A major pattern in the stories is the development of her powers. Eventually she teams up with the redhead secret agent Trigger Argee. The series ends inconclusively; in the last story, a villain makes a duplicate of her, which is given a separate identity, rather than a derivative of Telzey's name.

The Telzey stories were originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact between 1962 and 1972. The series was quite popular, often getting the cover illustration. Most of it was assembled in three fix-ups: The Universe Against Her(Ace Books 1964), The Lion Game and The Telzey Toy (both DAW Books 1973).

In 2000 all of the Telzey and Trigger stories were republished by Baen Books, "edited and compiled" by Eric Flint into 3 fix-ups with new connecting material by him: Telzey Amberdon, T'nT: Telzey & Trigger (where both heroes feature) and Trigger & Friends (dated January 2001, for Trigger only). The books remain in print as of June 2007 and were also made available for download at Baen Free Library in 2005.

[edit] Stories

Title Analog issue
(yyyy-mm)		 Collected in
Novice 1962-06 The Universe
Against Her		 Telzey Amberdon
Undercurrrents 1964-05, 1964-06
Goblin Night 1965-04 The Lion Game
Sleep No More 1965-08
Resident Witch 1970-05 The Telzey Toy T'nT: Telzey & Trigger
Compulsion 1970-06
The Telzey Toy 1971-01 T'n'T (as "Ti's Toys")
Company Planet 1971-05 T'nT: Telzey & Trigger
Glory Day 1971-06
Poltergeist 1971-07 Telzey Amberdon
The Lion Game 1971-08 The Lion Game
Child of the Gods 1972-03 T'nT: Telzey & Trigger
The Symbiotes 1972-09

Note: T'nT: Telzey & Trigger includes as Prologue to "Compulsion" the Trigger-only story "The Pork Chop Tree", originally published in February 1965 Analog.

[edit] Books

  1. James H. Schmitz: The Universe Against Her. Ace Books (Berkley Publishing Group) 1964. ISBN 0-441-84577-0 (1984 reissue). The Universe Against Her publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
  2. The Lion Game. DAW Books 1973. The Lion Game publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
  3. The Telzey Toy. DAW 1973 The Telzey Toy publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

[edit] External links

  • Review of Telzey Amberdon by Peter D. Tillman at SF Site
    "Telzey Amberdon, age 15, is a genius, a law student, and a psi supergirl who can save the Federation in a fortnight, and still make it home in time for her sixteenth birthday party."
  • Telzey Amberdon on Schmitz fan website; includes her picture by Frank Kelly Freas and scans of covers and illustrations of individual stories on subpages
  • Original Edition of edited Schmitz Stories in Baen Free Library – contains "Undercurrents", "Poltergeist", "The Star Hyacinths" and Trigger-only novel Legacy