Telzey Amberdon

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 introduced as a fifteen-year-old genius, a first-year law student, 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.

tories

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

Books

# James H. Schmitz: "The Universe Against Her". Ace Books (Berkley Publishing Group) 1964. ISBN 0-441-84577-0 (1984 reissue). isfdb title|22092|The Universe Against Her
# "The Lion Game". DAW Books 1973. isfdb title|5833|The Lion Game
# "The Telzey Toy". DAW 1973 isfdb title|37346|The Telzey Toy
*# James H. Schmitz, edited and compiled by Eric Flint: "Telzey Amberdon". Baen Books, New York April 2000. ISBN 0-671-57851-0. [http://www.webscription.net/p-411-telzey-amberdon.aspx Full text] in Baen Free Library. isfdb title|39914
*# James H. Schmitz, edited by first Eric Flint: [http://www.webscription.net/images/PRODUCT/icon/0671578790.jpg"T'n'T: Telzey & Trigger" (full text in Baen Free Library)] . Baen Books, July 2000. ISBN 0-671-57879-0. isfdb title|22092|T'nT: Telzey & Trigger

External links

* [http://www.sfsite.com/09b/ta89.htm 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."
* [http://24.131.35.146:8080/Schmitz/Characters.htm Telzey Amberdon] on Schmitz fan website; includes her picture by Frank Kelly Freas and scans of covers and illustrations of individual stories on subpages
* [http://www.webscription.net/p-308-original-edition-of-edited-schmitz-stories.aspx Original Edition of edited Schmitz Stories] in Baen Free Library – contains "Undercurrents", "Poltergeist", "The Star Hyacinths" and Trigger-only novel "Legacy"

* [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?3237 Telzey Amberdon series] in Internet Speculative Fiction Database
* [http://contento.best.vwh.net/f1.htm#A18 Telzey Amberdon series] in William G. Contento's "Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections"
* [http://www.locusmag.com/index/yr2000/f1.htm#A22 Telzey Amberdon series] in "Locus" Index to Science Fiction: 2000 and [http://www.locusmag.com/index/f2.html#A70 in the 1984–98 volume]