The Universe Against Her, by James H. Schmitz

[rachelmanija]

Telzey Amberdon is a genius teenage girl with a mysterious giant sometimes-invisible pet alien cat. In part one of this fix-up novel, she discovers that she’s a telepath and negotiates between humans and cat-aliens. In part two, she develops her psychic powers and tries to prevent a murder. Part one is great fun, though it doesn’t have quite the madcap charm of The Witches of Karres. Part two is more uneven, with some very fun bits but too much legal maneuvering and not enough Telzey.

Apparently some later editions of this book were poorly rewritten and given a heavy-handed edit, so I’m linking to the edition I read. It’s out of print but Amazon has lots of cheap used copies.

Thanks, tool_of_satan!

Universe against Her (Telzey Amberdon)

Comments

[wordweaverlynn]

The first part of that book is a great favorite of mine; I read it when I was Telzey's ago in the early 1970s. I used to envy her the "portable law library" she kept in her pocket and am thrilled to have lived to see such things become relatively cheap common technology. I've got a 6-year-old PDA loaded with books, and it fits in my pocket.

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I have read the first part of this book (as the original story) fairly recently, and it is fun, but for me it didn't rise to the level of making me want to read more Telzey stories. It didn't seem to develop the potentially humorous bits (such as locking up the aunt) as well as it could have. And then there's the end (which might be different in the book version) with Telzey forcibly changing her aunt's personality. Which is ethically questionable, to say the least.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

INCREDIBLY ethically questionable! And I'm fine with reading about amoral protagonists, but was waiting for that to go somewhere, and (at least in that book) it didn't.

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's brought up in the later books, but I could be wrong - it's been a long time since I read them.

Considering that Telzey is supposed to be such a legal scholar, one would think she would at least ponder this a bit. Although it's possibly just as well she didn't, as characters thinking about abstract concepts is not one of Schmitz' strengths. He does have it in quite a few stories, and it doesn't tend to work well.

[strangerian.livejournal.com]

Agree that Schmitz's strengths were more action and picuresque world-building, than ethical dilemmas. The bit with Telsey manipulating her aunt's personality may be more understandable when one recalls that Telzey is at that time 15, for all her precocious genius status. Except, of course, Telzey is presented as mature enough to handle her psi talent as well as legal studies. This does read more ominously now than it did to me in the 60s.

The whole story series is more on the lines of Bond adventures (in space! with telepathy! with a no-nonsense female hero!) than a considered and realistic treatment of the gray areas inherent in a runaway psychic genius.

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

The whole story series is more on the lines of Bond adventures (in space! with telepathy! with a no-nonsense female hero!) than a considered and realistic treatment of the gray areas inherent in a runaway psychic genius.

I think that's a fair assessment.

And while Schmitz does assert that Telzey is a teenager, she hardly ever seems like one, at least to me. Goth, in Karres, doesn't really act like a ten-year-old, I suppose, but it doesn't bother me as much, possibly because she's not doing things that might lead one to try her as an adult.