Telzey Amberdon is a fictional character in a series of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

short stories and two short novels by American writer

James H. Schmitz James Henry Schmitz (October 15, 1911 – April 18, 1981) was an American science fiction writer born in Hamburg, Germany of American parents. Life Schmitz was educated at a ''Realgymnasium'' in Hamburg, and grew up speaking both English ...

, taking place in his " Federation of the Hub" fictional universe, presumably in the mid-4th millennium. She is introduced as a fifteen-year-old genius, a first-year law student, living on the human-settled planet Orado (whose name comes from

Eldorado El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king o ...

by a

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

). Through interaction with alien psychic animals on a resort planet, she discovers that she has

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...

powers. Upon her return to her home planet, her abilities are recognized by a mechanism at the spaceport reentry gate and she is effectively made an agent of the Psychology Service. A major pattern in the stories is the development of her powers. Eventually she teams up with the redheaded secret agent

Trigger Argee James Henry Schmitz (October 15, 1911 – April 18, 1981) was an American science fiction writer born in Hamburg, Germany of American parents. Life Schmitz was educated at a ''Realgymnasium'' in Hamburg, and grew up speaking both English ...

. The series ends inconclusively; in the last story, a villain makes a duplicate of her, who gains a separate identity and name. The series features one of the few imaginings (the "ComWeb") of the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

before its existence—although the system takes a half-hour to download a document of modest length. The Telzey stories were originally published in ''

Analog Science Fiction and Fact ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William C ...

'' between

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

and 1972. The series was quite popular, often getting the cover illustration. Most of it was assembled in three books: ''The Universe Against Her'' (short story collection,

Ace Books Ace Books is a publisher of science fiction (SF) and fantasy books founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn. It began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns, and soon branched out into other genres, publishing its first scienc ...

1964), ''The Lion Game'' (short novel) and ''The Telzey Toy'' (short story collection) (both DAW Books 1973). In

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

all of the Telzey and Trigger stories were republished by

Baen Books Baen Books () is an American publishing house for science fiction and fantasy. In science fiction, it emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, and military science fiction. The company was established in 1983 by science fiction publisher an ...

, "edited and compiled" by

Eric Flint Eric Flint (February 6, 1947 – July 17, 2022) was an American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works are alternate history science fiction, but he also wrote humorous fantasy adventures. His works have been listed ...

into three collections with some connecting material by Flint: ''Telzey Amberdon'', ''T'nT: Telzey & Trigger'' (where both heroes feature) and ''Trigger & Friends'' (dated January 2001, for Trigger only). The books remained in print as of June 2007. They were made available for download at

Baen Free Library The Baen Free Library is a digital library of the science fiction and fantasy publishing house Baen Books where 61 e-books as of June 2016 (112 e-books as of December 2008) can be downloaded free in a number of formats, without copy protection. It ...

in 2005, but are no longer downloadable in 2016.

Stories

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

Books

: ''The Universe Against Her''.

(Berkley Publishing Group) 1964. (1984 reissue). * ''The Lion Game''. DAW Books 1973. * ''The Telzey Toy''. DAW 1973. * James H. Schmitz, edited and compiled by

: ''Telzey Amberdon''.

, New York April 2000.
Partial text
in

. * James H. Schmitz, edited by first Eric Flint
''T'n'T: Telzey & Trigger''
Baen Books, July 2000.

References

External links

SF Site SF may refer to: Locations * San Francisco, California, United States * Sidi Fredj, Algeria * South Florida, an urban region in the United States * Suomi Finland, former vehicular country code for Finland In arts and entertainment Genre ...

*:"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 Frank Kelly Freas (August 27, 1922 – January 2, 2005) was an American science fiction and fantasy artist with a career spanning more than 50 years. He was known as the "Dean of Science Fiction Artists" and he was the second artist inducted by ...

and scans of covers and illustrations of individual stories on subpages
Original Edition of edited Schmitz Stories
in Baen Free Library (not free as of 2016) – contains "Undercurrents", "Poltergeist", "The Star Hyacinths" and Trigger-only novel ''Legacy'' *{{isfdb series, id=3237, title=Telzey Amberdon

in William G. Contento's ''Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections''
Telzey Amberdon series
in ''

Locus Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to: Entertainment * Locus (comics), a Marvel Comics mutant villainess, a member of the Mutant Liberation Front * ''Locus'' (magazine), science fiction and fantasy magazine ** ''Locus Award' ...

'' Index to Science Fiction: 2000 an
in the 1984–98 volume
Amberdon, Telzey Science fiction short story collections 2000 short story collections Fictional telepaths