The Telenizer

by Don Thompson

Don Thompson was a fan who worked most of his life as a professional journalist. He was also active in comic book fandom. He was married to Margaret (Maggie) Curtis Thompson, whose mother was SF author Betsy Curtis. Don and Maggie met in June, 1957, at a SF picnic at the home of SF author Basil Wells; they were married in June, 1962. He is often confused with Don C. Thompson, one of the several other Don Thompsons in fandom, who co-chaired Denvention Two with Suzanne Carnival. He and Dick Lupoff co-edited two collections of articles on comic books: All in Color for a Dime (1970) and The Comic-Book Book (1973). Don contributed chapters to both books. He published Rainy Days with Maggie Thompson.

36 pages, Paperback

First published May 28, 2010

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Ray Daley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bloody weird, but worth the read.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 4 out of 5]

✔️ Published in Galaxy Science Fiction (March 1954) Vol. 7, No. 6.

Certainly, The Telenizer by Don Thompson, Science Fiction, Fantasy is one of the quirkiest science fiction short stories I ever read. It is so quirky; I really do not know what to make of it.

Don Thompson’s writing is good, as it is smooth and moves the story along well.

Passages to ponder :

I spent the rest of the day at the beach, sprawled out on the hot sand with the defense mech beside me and an army of people—humans and aliens—surrounding me.

I braced myself for what might come, with the telenizer knowing that I was aware.

The same hideous secretary, with the loose jowels and the deep, livid scar on his right cheek, met me at the door of Grogan's suite.

I heard a tiny howling, and looked down. I screamed and threw the soft, brown, fuzzy, squirming puppy-thing that had been a razor into . . .

This short story from the Golden Age of Science Fiction deserves my re-reading.

🟣Kindle version.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a nice little hard boiled short story published in 1954 and now in the public domain.