TNT: Telzey & Trigger

Others have discussed the general content of this book, so I won't repeat what they have said. Schmitz is my favorite sci-fi writer of all time. His "Agent of Vega" stories, and "Witches of Karres "novel are my two favorites in sci-fi history. That's subjective, but there are some reasons why he was and is so compelling. His books have totally stood the test of time for me. I loved them as a 15 year old boy back in 1962, and I still love them. Around 1950, he created something we might have never seen before. He created the hero who is female, and during his career was criticized some by critics and readers (males), who tended to ask. "Why isn't the hero a male?" Why indeed? This was in a totally male-dominated society, where women who didn't have graduate degrees were usually secretaries, and taking care of their home was their primary job, no matter what else they did. Yet Schmitz truly looked far into the future, and knew for a fact that when brute strength is eliminated as important (which technology had amply demostrated long before 1950), then there is no reason why females can't and won't be as capable as males in virtually any position. This is totally accepted now, but was against the grain back then, especially by males, and it was a mostly male audience he was writing for. I loved his stories and heroines. For the first time I encountered heroes I could admire and emulate, and in addition be attracted to them, since I was a boy, and they were girls and women. In his first truly successful story, "Agent of Vega" (one of four Agent of Vega stories), his hero is a male, but we meet a female in that story, who appears in three of the four Agent of Vega stories, and Schmitz never looked back. From that point on, virtually all of his heroes were females. It was incredibly refreshing. He never attempted to claim that females constituted most, or even half, of Zone Agents or other "adventure/power" roles. He simply focused on heroes who happened to be female, as a natural/ordinary role for a female in the future, if she wished it. This was quite an extraordinary departure in fiction, and I loved it. In Witches of Karres, the main character is male, but the power figure is a 10 year old girl, and to a lesser extent, her 5 year old sister. Most writers have a character which defines them, and Telzey was Schmitz's. Her stories didn't sell as much as the "Agent" stories, nor Witches of Karres, but he loved writing about her, and I loved reading about her. Since she was about my age, I was particularly fond of her, and attracted to her. I loved Schmitz's fascination with "psi" (Mental) powers, and Telzey was truly awesome, from the time she discovered she had these powers in her first story as perhaps a 15 year old, until her last story, where she is still not an adult. Her stories and adventures are well written, and we watch her grow up. There is no PC in her stories. She is capable of unleashing a killing mental blast without remorse,

I read my parents' copies of these stories in the seventies and eighties. They have long been among my favorite short stories, and I'm definitely a James Schmitz fan. I'm glad to see that the stories are being republished. In this collection, I was also glad to see the pairing of Schmitz's "Pork Chop Tree" and "Compulsion" into the single story they are, especially because "Pork Chop Tree" is so hard to find. This series has definitely been edited, and the more anachronistic technical elements of Schmitz's stories (microfilm, etc) have been suppressed. Other than that, the stories are as Schmitz wrote them. My one major complaint are the covers, which are a big letdown, especially compared to the covers of the '80s editions. And T'Nt! Give me a break! These books should be packaged to attract new readers to Schmitz's work. The title of this volume strikes me as a cheesy in-joke that will attract people who already know about the stories but which will repel everyone else. These stories are truly classic SF, and they should have classier jackets!Other than that, buy this book!

An excellent book. This the second of four books that Baen Books is publishing that are compilations of the short stories my James Schmitz. While I normally am not a fan of short stories, these are some of the finest that I have read.

This second reprint volume of Schmitz's Hub tales lives up to the promise of the first. It finishes up the Telzey stories and introduces Trigger Argee, an agent for the Psychology Service. Schmitz was finally hitting his stride with the Telzey stories in these tales, and this volume includes what I regard as some of the best. Resident Witch, Company Planet, Ti's Toys, and Child of the Gods are much better than most of the prior Telzey stories, with only Goblin Night being their equal. She meets Trigger in Compulsion and their relationship is developed further in Glory Day, and The Symbiotes. That is the last Telzey story Schmitz wrote, and I wonder what he might have done further with her character. Her Matri twin, Gaziel, from Ti's Toys, certainly offered opportunity for more story lines. Trigger, by contrast, is not an active psi, and relies on wit, cunning, intelligence, training, and pluck to get out of predicaments. In many ways she is a much more mature, complex, and interesting character. While Telzey is fascinating, powerful (in more ways than one) and has what Flint calls a "solitary splendor" Trigger is more humanly fallible, and humanly competent, despite her latent psi ability. The next volume will feature her, her husband (a married Sci -Fi Heroine? How unusual, human, and normal.) and various associates, and I look forward to it.

This is the second volume of four presenting James Schmitz's Federation of the Hub. The first, "Telzey Amberdon," introduced one of his most popular characters, a powerful teen-aged psi. The second volume introduces a more mature character, Trigger Argee (and incidently reprints a series of Telzey stories that have never before seen book publication). Trigger is a married woman (although you will have to wait to volume 3 to meet her husband), and unlike Telzey, is not powerful--just competent. In "Compulsion", the pair make contact with a xenophobic alien species, and in "The Symbiotes", Trigger puts paid to a pair of nasty aliens, and incidently attracts the attention of a nemesis, a third alien. These stories are written in a 50s-60s style--almost like the "Jetsons" cartoon--that incidently makes them suitable for older children and younger teens.Enjoy!