November 05, 2012

Schmitz, James H

Tagged: Author

(1911-1981) German-born writer of American parents; in the US from 1938, serving with the USAF in World War Two; his first story was "Greenface" for Unknown in August 1943. From 1949, when "Agent of Vega" (July 1949 Astounding) appeared as the first of four stories featuring Robot Spaceships later assembled as Agent of Vega (coll of linked stories 1960) – they are also included in Agent of Vega and Other Stories (coll 2001) with many other tales – he regularly produced the kind of Genre SF for which he remains most warmly remembered: Space-Opera adventures, several featuring female Heroes depicted with minimum recourse to their "femininity" – they perform their active tasks, and save the Universe when necessary, in a manner almost completely free of sexual role-playing Clichés. Most of his best work shares a roughly characterized common background, a Galaxy inhabited by humans and Aliens with room for all and numerous opportunities for discoveries and reversals that carefully fall short of threatening the stability of that background, whose stabilizing function is commonly encountered in the kind of Future History underlying the argued vision of the galaxy as published in Astounding during the two decades – 1950 to about 1970 – of Schmitz's greatest activity. Many of his stories, as a result, focus less on moments of Conceptual Breakthrough than on the pragmatic operations of teams and bureaux involved in maintaining the state of things against criminals, Monsters and unfriendly species; in this they rather resemble the tales of Murray Leinster, though they are more vigorous and less inclined to punish adventurousness. Psi Powers are often found, especially Telepathy.

At the heart of this common Universe is the Federation of the Hub or the Overgovernment. The main Hub sequence is A Tale of Two Clocks (1962; vt Legacy 1979), A Nice Day for Screaming and Other Tales of the Hub (coll 1965), The Demon Breed (September-October 1968 Analog as "The Tuvela"; exp 1968) and portions of A Pride of Monsters (coll 1970). The Telzey Amberdon books – The Universe Against Her (June 1962, May-June 1964 Analog as "Novice" and "Undercurrents"; fixup 1964), The Telzey Toy (coll 1973) and The Lion Game (April, August 1965 Analog as "Goblin Night" and "Sleep No More"; cont August-September 1971 Analog as "The Lion Game"; fixup 1973) – nestle conceptually within the Hub. Amberdon, a brilliant young Telepath whom the Psychology Service of the Overgovernment would like to recruit as a full agent but who retains a large measure of independence, is perhaps Schmitz's most typical creation, and the stories in which she performs her activities are only marginally less appealing than his single finest novel, The Witches of Karres (December 1949 Astounding; exp 1966), which features three Amberdon-like juvenile "witches" with Psi Powers and their rescue from slavery by a Spaceship captain in whom they induce first apoplexy and eventually transcendence – for he too finds Superpowers within him. The Hub and Hub: Telzey Amberdon stories have been assembled in four volumes, beginning with Telzey Amberdon: The Complete Federation of the Hub Volume 1 (coll 2000) edited by Eric Flint and Guy Gordon [as their contents are extensively resorted, these omnis are listed separately in the Checklist below].

One novel, The Eternal Frontiers (1973), is set outside this common background; it fails to delight. The Best of James H. Schmitz (coll 1991) edited by Mark L Olson is a good conspectus, though Eternal Frontier (coll 2002) edited by Eric Flint and Guy Gordon, is more comprehensive. It may be that Schmitz's work is too pleasing to have seemed revolutionary, and indeed – with the exception of his choice of protagonists – he always played very safe with conventions; but for many years he succeeded in demonstrating, modestly and competently, that the template of space opera could provide continuing joy. [JC]

see also: Children in SF; Ecology; Identity Exchange; Life on Other Worlds; Little Green Men; Matter Penetration; Matter Transmission; Memory Edit; Miniaturization; Superman; Telekinesis; Toys in SF; World Ships; Zoo.

James Henry Schmitz

born Hamburg, Germany: 15 October 1911

died Los Angeles, California: 18 April 1981

works

series

Hub

Hub: Telzey Amberdon

The Complete Federation of the Hub

individual titles

collections and stories

about the author

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