<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

James Henry Schmitz (October 15, 1911 – April 18, 1981) occasionally strayed from his usual subject matter, but the vast majority of his fiction consists of elaborate space operas, many of his best featuring one of two recurring female characters, Telzey Amberdon or Trigger Argee. Both of these characters were part of his broader background setting of the Hub, an interstellar civilization in which humans and various alien races co-exist.

Amberdon was a telepath who worked for the government and who frequently found herself uncovering plots and criminals. Her adventures included several short stories and the novels The Universe Against Her (1964, magazine title Undercurrents) and The Lion Game (1973). Argee, who had no telepathy but a very similar personality, also appeared in short stories as well as the novel, A Tale of Two Clocks (1962, aka Legacy).

Schmitz's single best novel was The Witches of Karres (1966), which was expanded from one of his short stories originally published in 1949. Three young women with psi powers that seem almost like magic take refuge with an amenable starship captain who offers to transport them to a world where they will be free of their former master. Unfortunately, they involve him in troublesome situations en route. A recent sequel, The Wizard of Karres (2004), written by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and Dave Freer, only occasionally captures the charm of the original.

Four of Schmitz's best stories were assembled as a "novel" under the title Agent of Vega (1960), including the excellent "The Second Night of Summer" (1950). "We Don't Want Any Trouble" (1953), "The Summer Guests" (1959), "Balanced Ecology" (1965) and "Goblin Night" (1965) are also exceptional.

His novel The Eternal Frontiers (1973) is a rather routine account of a single man negotiating an accommodation between humanity and an alien race. Schmitz was one of the most reliable and popular of the writers associated with Astounding/Analog magazine. Baen Books has reprinted the majority of Schmitz's SF in omnibus editions in recent years.