A quick read, partly because I'd read about half the stories recently in The Telzey Toy. I didn't notice any significant differences in this Flint-edited version. Some of the stories were completely new to me. One, The Pork Chop Tree, was an intro to a story I'd recently read (Compulsion); I knew what had happened in it, because it was thoroughly referenced in Compulsion, but it was nice to see it written in Schmitz's style. Enjoyable. I'm listing it as a reread, though it was about half and half. ( )

(Original Review, 1980-12-19)

The story is the “The Telzey Toy” and it is in a collection of the same name. There are about 3-4 stories in the novella. It was the second time I had encountered the lady and it took some time to make the connection. I thought that the first story I had read was much better. I don’t recall its name, but it was the story in which she first realized that She Had Powers. There was a large cat-like creature that was her pet, till she discovers that it is of an intelligent, telepathic species that had chosen her as a candidate for developing a comm-link with humans.

By the way, does anyone know if there has been a sequel to David Gerrold's MOONSTAR ODYSSEY (1977)? There was going to be/ one, and I seem to recall reading something about its plot, but I've not seen any. Not that I cared for MOONSTAR..., but again, after WHEN HARLIE WAS ONE, my expectations were probably too high..., however, it was/ a fempro, and its sequel is likely to be, too.

[2018 EDIT: The above edition on the picture is the 2000 edition I bought later on in that very same year.]

[2018 EDIT: This review was written at the time as I was running my own personal BBS server. Much of the language of this and other reviews written in 1980 reflect a very particular kind of language: what I call now in retrospect a “BBS language”.] ( )

In this 2nd collection of short stories set in the Galactic Hub, Schmitz weaves together a series of YA-style science-fiction stories with a bit of a hard-boiled detective sentimentality to the dialog. These are fun, pulpy stories in the vein of Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers with lots of evil geniuses that need thwarting and puzzles to be solved. The twist being that the protagonists here are a pair of strong young females in Telzey Amberdon and Trigger Argee. More interestingly, while there are many 'good guy' male personas, they are all secondary characters and are rarely, if ever, called upon to rescue the capable main characters - although they do rescue each other now & again. ( )

Not bad, but these books are a little dated. ( )

Next on my list is TnT by James H. Schmitz. I debated picking this up because most of it I already own. Almost everything written by James H. Schmitz was originally published in Analog magazine as novelettes or serializations from 1965 to 1971. The only exception appears to be the cult classic The Witches of Karres, which is essentially comic fantasy in science fiction drag (my copy was published in 1966), and possibly The Universe Against Her (1964), the first Telzey Amberdon story. The stories in Analog were reissued in the 70s as novels: The Telzey Toy and Other Stories, The Lion Game (Telzey #3), and The Demon Breed--the last featuring Nile Etland (and my favorite thanks to the water world ecology). It looks like everything has been reissued again as Telzey Amberdon, TNT: Telzey & Trigger, and Trigger Argee.

This second volume of The Complete Federation of the Hub comprises "Company Planet," "Resident Witch," "Compulsion" (including "The Pork Chop Tree"), "Glory Day," "Child of the Gods," "Ti's Toys," and "The Symbiotes," as well as an afterword by the editor, Eric Flint, and a brief essay ("That Certain Something") by Guy Gordon, both names unfamiliar to me. The first three stories and "Ti's Toys" appeared in The Telzey Toy and Other Stories. The other three stories were new to me; "Glory Day" involved Trigger and Telzey together, while "Child of the Gods" was just Telzey and "The Symbiotes" was just Trigger.

As both closing essays of this volume note (as does the author information of the 70s books), James H. Schmitz wrote about incredibly strong and resourceful young women. These could easily qualify as YA, since Telzey is a teenager, albeit a precocious, gifted one who can add xenotelepathy to genius-level intelligence. He is perhaps the only male science fiction author I can think of who has strong female protagonists as solo or central characters, rather than amidst an ensemble cast or as strictly supporting characters. And he did this in the 60s in what are essentially action-adventure stories. As Guy Gordon points out, he was consciously addressing cultural biases, and part of that process was choosing gender-neutral names for all of his characters: Telzey, Trigger, Nile, Pilch, Gikkes, Hishee (all women), Ticos, Noal, Wellan, Larien (all men). Admittedly, as far as I can tell, all of his characters are white and straight, but his accomplishments are still noteworthy, particularly contrasted with the sexism of so many other writers of the day, such as James White (no matter how much I enjoy his medical xenobiology). And don't get me started on the giants: Bradbury, Asimov, Heinlein.

So were the three additional stories and two essays worth the price of the book? I don't know, I suppose so. If you've never read any of Schmitz's work, then it is definitely worth it. I was surprised to see the 2000 rerelease, which isn't new by this time, but I haven't spent much time in new bookstores for the last couple decades. New or used, his books are rare on the shelves. I would be interested in the third volume of this rerelease, because I haven't seen much of Trigger, but didn't see it when I picked up this second volume. ( )