A Tale of Two Clocks

The Hub

by James H. Schmitz

Centuries in the Future, when Earth has been all but forgotten. some of humanity's star-flung descendants struggle to master the Plasmoids, strange and alarming life-forms with robotlike traits.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space Opera, Pulp, Audiobook

210 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

James Henry Schmitz (October 15, 1911–April 18, 1981) was an American writer born in Hamburg, Germany of American parents. Aside from two years at business school in Chicago, Schmitz lived in Germany until 1938, leaving before World War II broke out in Europe in 1939. During World War II, Schmitz served as an aerial photographer in the Pacific for the United States Army Air Corps. After the war, he and his brother-in-law ran a business which manufactured trailers until they broke up the business in 1949.

Schmitz is best known as a writer of space opera, and for strong female characters (including Telzey Amberdon and Trigger Argee) that didn't fit into the damsel in distress stereotype typical of science fiction during the time he was writing. His first published story was Greenface, published in August 1943 in Unknown. Most of his works are part of the "Hub" series, though his best known novel is the non-Hub The Witches of Karres, concerning juvenile "witches" with genuine psi-powers and their escape from slavery. Karres was nominated for a Hugo Award.

In recent years, his novels and short stories have been republished by Baen Books (which bought the rights to his estate for $6500), edited (sometimes heavily edited) and with notes by Eric Flint. Baen have also published new works based in the Karres universe.

Schmitz died of congestive lung failure in 1981 after a five week stay in the hospital in Los Angeles. He was survived by his wife, Betty Mae Chapman Schmitz.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good old-fashioned science fiction adventure novel that originally appeared as A Tale of Two Clocks, a title which I much prefer. Back in the days when people used to complain frequently about the science fiction field not having strong female characters, Schmitz was the go-to author to refute those assertions due to his stories about Telzey Amberdon, the witches of Karres, and Trigger Argee. Schmitz set many of his best stories in the richly designed Hub universe, including the Trigger and Telzey stories, and they mesh well. The Hub is an imaginatively drawn setting, with telepathic powers, holdouts from a former galactic empire, interstellar governmental agencies and counter agencies, rival scientific institutions, etc. Trigger isn't treated with the respect she'd have if the stories were written in today's current societal climate, but she was far, far ahead of her time, and I believe the stories still hold their own. I read the novel a long time ago, and just finished listening to this fine Librivox reading.

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 3 out of 5]

ENGLISH: One of the two novel-sized works by J.H.Schmitz (the other is The witches of Karres), starring one of his strong women (Trigger Argee). I read this book first in 1967 in a Spanish translation, and have read it 5 times since. It is a very nice Hub space opera with a convoluted argument, although everything becomes clear at the end, specially if you read it more than once.

Apparently the author forgot to extend his copyright on the book (the U.S. copyright legislation is very complicated) and so this book is in the public domain and can be downloaded legally from several Internet locations (including the Gutenberg project).

For those who say that this novel is dated, because of the behaviour of its male and female characters, I'll say that these critics are falling in the fallacy of contemporaneity: believing that our current uses and customs are the best possible ones and valid forever. Who can say what will the customs be ten thousand years from now, in a galactic federation? By the way: would any of these critics dare to affirm that the Sherlock Holmes stories are dated because they take place in the time of Queen Victoria?

In this link in my blog I explain the changes they made to this novel, to bring it nearer to contemporary ideas: http://populscience.blogspot.com/2021...

ESPAÑOL: Una de las dos novelas largas de J.H.Schmitz (la otra es "Las brujas de Karres"), protagonizada por una de sus mujeres fuertes (Trigger Argee). Leí este libro por primera vez en 1967 en traducción al español, y desde entonces lo he leído 5 veces. Es una agradable novela espacial sobre el Hub, con un argumento complicado, aunque todo queda claro al final, especialmente si se lee más de una vez.

Al parecer, el autor se olvidó de extender sus derechos de autor sobre el libro (la legislación de derechos de autor de los Estados Unidos es muy complicada), por lo que este libro es de dominio público y se puede descargar legalmente desde varias ubicaciones de Internet, incluido el proyecto Gutenberg.

Para quienes dicen que esta novela está anticuada, debido al comportamiento de sus personajes masculinos y femeninos, diré que esos críticos caen en la falacia de la contemporaneidad: creer que nuestros usos y costumbres actuales son los mejores y los únicos posibles. ¿Quién puede decir cuáles serán las costumbres dentro de diez mil años en una federación galáctica? Por cierto: ¿alguno de estos críticos se atrevería a afirmar que las historias de Sherlock Holmes están anticuadas porque tienen lugar en la época de la reina Victoria?

En este enlace a mi blog explico los cambios que hicieron a esta novela para acercarla a las ideas contemporáneas: https://divulciencia.blogspot.com/202...

[Nicholas Perez]

Found a copy of this at Half-Price Books. It's so cool and weird how I can find so many random books from my TBR there.

[Sol · Rating 3 out of 5]

A secret agent story in an interstellar milieu, featuring a female protagonist, "Trigger Argee", the biggest draw of the book. She's proactive, competent, but not so perfect that she's unstoppable, nor does she fall into the "man with breasts" characterization trap that lot of female action heroes do.

The story opens with Trigger being given the runaround by her government, The Federation, regarding her involvement in the plasmoid project, the investigation of biological machines created tens of thousands of years ago by the vanished Old Galactics. So far so standard. The fun part is Trigger doing everything in her power to do what she really wants. She meets and escapes from her superiors multiple times, and it isn't until halfway through the story she decides she may as well actually work for them (but keeps marching to her own tune). However, she also has vulnerable moments. She cries when she realizes her boyfriend isn't who she thought he was. She needs to get a little drunk to wear a revealing gown to a dinner party. She gets peeved when people make comments about her butt. It all adds up to a well rounded character, which is quite a rarity in this kind of pulpy mid-20th century scifi. There is a bit of spanking, but it doesn't happen onscreen, and I find authors injecting their fetishes like that can add some personal flair, assuming it doesn't get out of hand.

The story has a seemingly complicated setting and backstory, where the Federation is a loose collection of planetary governments, some of which are tightly bound together, and others are vying for their own supremacy and are more or less covertly at war with the Federation government, with implied wildly diverging cultures. Almost none of this is explained, and I appreciate being thrown into the deep end every now and again. The actual plot is reasonably straightforward. There's spying, kidnapping, hypnosis, but the developments are linear and easy to understand. The villains are villains and the heroes are heroes. From what I understand Schmitz wrote several stories in this universe and featuring Trigger, but I didn't feel I was missing anything crucial jumping in here.

The plasmoids are mostly a macguffin right up until the ending, where Trigger's pet plasmoid Repulsive helps her defeat the rogue plasmoid 112, and after the climax it's revealed that Repulsive IS one of the Old Galactics. The original title of the novel, A Tale of Two Clocks, refers to the differing speeds that humans and the Old Galactics live at. With their extremely slow life cycle, small size, and similarity to their biological creations, the few surviving Old Galactics were mistaken for a type of their plasmoid machines (hope nobody dissected any of them). In the happily ever after ending, Repulsive lives on and revitalizes a dying redwood tree, and aims to hypnotically manipulate the Federation into locating a female Old Galactic.

Another one of those cases where Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials spoils the twist of a story, but this was 90% action and 10% mystery. This is one of Barlowe's pieces I appreciate more looking back. The pink streaks are lovely and I can easily imagine them undulating pleasingly, and the reflective skin, which almost suggests an inner light, is equally well done. The accompanying text states several things which weren't directly said in the story, but maybe it's information from other stories set in this universe. Also, misspelled the author's name.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plasmoids are organisms which appear inanimate, created by the Old Guardians for inscrutable reasons - as is much of the action in this novel. When humans find Plasmoids they are in pairs but unbeknownst to them the smaller one is a control mechanism for the larger dominant Plasmoid. When a human scientist separates them it allows the dominant one to unleash its abilities - which include mental control of organisms over a fairly wide area. For reasons not made clear, Triger Argee, a super-competent female trainee, bonds with a secondary and starts slowly to be aware of its thoughts. Hunted by both the goodies and the baddies (it’s occasionally difficult to tell which is which) Trigger must somehow unravel this mystery. A feat which I sadly did not achieve. James Schmitz has set many stories in this Hub milieu and most are enjoyable space opera romps, but I found I spent most of this book just plain puzzled.

[Marianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story of a strong woman, caught up in intrigue without being aware of it. I enjoyed the fresh quality of someone being manipulated and doing what normal people would do to try to get out of the situation. I also liked the continuity of relationships that obviously extended to other books, but didn't require me to have read others in the series to enjoy this one. I knocked a star off because the ending felt rushed, like a Star Trek: Next Gen episode where they wrap it all up in the last 3 minutes of the show. It was rather anticlimactic after the epic-sized ships, spies and manipulation up to that point.

It's a nice read if you just want some light popcorn sci-fi. I could see reading others in the series.

[kvon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trigger Argee vs the plasmoids (aka ancient alien artifacts). Watch her shoot! And dress fancy! Be knocked out! And get things explained to her! She speeds up her proactiveness at the end of the book. It's actually pretty good for a book from 1962, nice worldbuilding with a complex group of societies.

[Brunvatne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main character, Trigger Argee, is easy to identify with in some ways. It is nice to see a character written that isn't so honest or 100% true to self as book characters tend to be. For example, Trigger will often think one thing yet say/indicate another (like trivial unconscious misrepresentation) without the pre-calculated decision to and without it being to do with a plot point. My primary issue with this book is the vague thought process. Often things aren't hashed out and thoughts aren't brought to fruition. The reader has to make many assumptions and leaps as to where Trigger's thoughts and actions lead or what they truly mean. Kind of makes for a half baked character.

[Eric Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Golden age space opera from a much underrated master.

[Kalef · Rating 1 out of 5]

Una traduzione pessima e tante aspettative tradite.

[Roddy Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

'MEET TRIGGER ARGEE. . . . SHE'S ABOUT TO ENTER THE MYSTERY OF HER LIFE -- IN LEGACY

Ancient living machines that after millennia of stillness suddenly begin to move under their own power, for reasons that remain a mystery to men. Holati Tate discovered them -- then disappeared. Trigger Argee was his closest associate -- she means to find him. She's brilliant, beautiful, and skilled in every known martial art. She's worth plenty -- dead or alive -- to more than one faction in this obscure battle. And she's beginning to have a chilling notion that the long-vanished Masters of the Old Galaxy were wise when they exiled the plasmoids to the most distant and isolated world they knew. . . .'

Blurb from the 1979 paperback edition

Trigger Argee is a curious character. She works for Holati Tate, a former space scout, who now holds a high level position in the Precolonisation Department. Trigger is young, intelligent, highly attractive and a bit of a ninja, being proficient in martial arts and shooting things.
The novel is set in Schmitz' Hub universe where Humanity has settled on many new worlds. On some, artefacts of a vanished elder race were discovered by Holati Tate. These are plasmoids, biological machines which have remained inert until now, and plasmoid research is part of Trigger's responsibilities.
Trigger becomes suspicious of Holati's sudden disappearance and, unable to get hold of him, believes there are things she is not being told. Being a bit hot headed, she determines to sneak off to see her boyfriend.
It seems however that Trigger is a target for the Grabbers, professional thieves and kidnappers, and her life becomes suddenly very adventurous.
As the truth unravels Trigger is forced to go undercover as various factions attempt to kidnap or kill her.
It's refreshing to read an SF novel from this time with a feisty female lead character who can stand her own ground. On the other hand she is objectively sexualised to a certain degree but one has to give Schmitz credit for putting women on an equal footing with men.
It's on a Young Adult level, but the writing and characterisation is top quality.
Schmitz is very underrated.

[Xabi1990 · Rating 2 out of 5]

5/10. De este autor de comienzos del XX soló leí esta novela y ahí quedó. Que, por cierto, se tradujo en castellano como "Plasmoides" (vaya usted a saber por qué)

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can’t quite bring myself to give this a fourth star, although it is better than a lot of the male-authored classic sf I’ve been making a project of for the last ten years or so. It didn’t insult my intelligence, had a tough female character who was capable of using a gun and kicking butt in a fight, and was reasonably interesting, but still didn’t strike me a terrible original, even taking its original date of publication into account. Essentially, it’s a space-based version of H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness,” but with a rather benign take on the Old Ones, and some pretty nasty shoggoth politics. The narrative structure is more like something one might expect from Fran Herbert (who did post-date Schmitz, and could have been influenced by him), with the audience slowly coming to realize how unreliable the narrator is as she learns the ways in which she has been manipulated by other forces around her.

Apparently the universe in which this takes place, known as the “Hub,” is one Schmitz developed in other stories and novels, and I think even his protagonist, Trigger Argee, was familiar to some of his audience. There are competing interests and high-level politics at work that might be more satisfying if one were familiar with the players, but on the whole the universe seems believable and well-thought out. Relatively few aspects of the “future” look dated now – partly because he doesn’t give intricate descriptions of the technological devices in use, allowing a 21st-century reader to envision something smaller and more compact than what Schmitz probably had in mind, as when the shipboard computer doles out information as if it were running Google searches for Argee and then prints out a dress on demand. The computer appears to be stationary, stuck in Argee’s room, but there’s no reason to assume it takes up a whole wall – it could just be a little speaker/screen interface with a large port for the 3d printer nearby.

In all, I had a fun time reading it, just wasn’t quite blown away.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

While my perception is not an original thought, this piece of old 20th Century pulp fiction is both
silly techie and amusingly sexist. While you
groan at times at its values and language, the story is an interesting one and the characters do draw you happily into their adventures. Cotton candy straight from some old carnie, but enjoyable in its craziness

[Rob Hopwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This title is a little difficult to review. I found myself enjoying it, and then suddenly feeling it was tediuous, and then getting absorbed again. Firstly, the storytelling itself is quite go0d, and the female protagonist is very likeable. The original book, A Tale of Two Clocks, was written in 1962, and was reissued as Legacy in 1979. The story holds up quite well considering that it was written more than half a century ago. Of course, there are attitudes which reflect the time in which it was written, mainly sexist ones, which would not go down so well today. But that is part of the fascination with reading vintage novels. So although the main character is a strong-willed and independent girl, gender roles are very traditional. What I found a little irksome was that the plot moves along too slowly. I think there is a lot of dialogue in the book which could have been omitted or condensed to make the pacing more brisk. Also, although we are introduced to the Plasmoids which have been left over from a vanished ancient galactic civilization, no serious attempt is made to evoke a sense of wonder about what they are and what secrets they may conceal. In some ways Legacy reminded me of Charles Sheffield's Heritage Universe series, but Sheffield created that sense of wonder very successfully. Legacy was an interesting read, and there were some imaginative ideas and technologies described in it. It is however essentially a rather two-dimensional action novel which includes little of an introspective nature in its narrative.

[Kathy KS · Rating 2 out of 5]

Science fiction from the 1960s aren't my favorite time period to read, but this one was better than some. At times I felt that the story was rather choppy and had some trouble following; it was almost as if Schmitz expected readers to extrapolate some of the action/dialogue, etc.

The adventure here was pretty decent. However, the strongest aspect of this one is the portrayal of women as equals in the service and capable of thinking, fighting, flying space vehicles, etc. Many books and shows from 1962 see the females as merely window dressing, it seems. Another feature that I liked was the fact that much of the technology used by our characters do already have correlations to today's level of technology, so younger readers may not have much trouble following that part of the story, other than the fact that things may be called something different.

[Martyn Vaughan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Schmitz was a middling author of late Golden Age SF. His claim to fame is mainly his use of "Strong Female Characters" at a time when such were not the norm and his over-use of the "psi powers" trope. "Legacy" gives us another Strong Female Character . This one doesn't have any psi-powers, but is a crack shot and an expert at hand-to-hand combat.
The story is another Galaxy-wide romp through improbability, and centres around the discovery of biological weapons left behind by an earlier, now extinct civilisation.
Most of the book is reported speech, and so it is light on engaging action or tension.
One to be kept for Long-Haul flights only.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first in the Trigger series, this is a re-read for me. It's been years since I've read this book and the memory that stands out the most for me is the Belden. I've been trying to figure out how that dress would work because the description makes it sound pretty fabulous.

Some of the concepts are rather far-fetched, but Trigger is such a great character. James Schmitz sure knows how to create strong and brilliant women (who are, of course, gorgeous, as well--he is a male author, after all). I have enjoyed all the stories set in the Hub universe.

[Tom Britz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read from the 60's. Trigger Argee is a sort of agent for the far future system of the Hub. Trigger is one of the rare female protagonists of the 60's sf. This tale concerns a mysterious plasmoid creature that turns out to be an ancient form of a biological robot/worker and the trouble that ensues when man tries to figure out it's mysterious function.

[Steven Lomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Retro early 60's SF adventure abounds in this very 'of it's time' story. It's rollicking good fun to read (with some original ideas) just don't expect much characterisation or attitudes that don't pander to males in 1962.

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable book but you will have to inure yourself to a rampant patriarchy including referring to a main character as "[name] girl" repeatedly. It is of its age and if you can allow it to be what it is, it is worth it.

[Alan Mawyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favorite book.

[Isca Silurum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blows hot and cold, but on the whole quite enjoyable.

[Janelle]

Dnf. Couldn’t get into this.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Those wiggly plasmoids sure did a number on everyone. I like that she had a little purse to put her plasmoid friend in!

[Alexandre Jorge · Rating 3 out of 5]

brother

[Garick Cooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novel-length sequel to the short story “Harvest Time,” which introduced the main characters of Trigger Argee and Holati Tate. However, it is not really necessary to read “Harvest Time” first.

I found it quite difficult to compose this review. On the one hand, this is probably my second-favorite work by Schmitz, and I’ve read it at least 6-8 times by this point in my life. On the other hand, it is certainly not a perfect novel, and a reader who comes to it without a previous love of Schmitz’s work might regard it as merely a mediocre piece of space opera. In this work, Schmitz’s narrative method is to pile up mysterious events and tension, and then have one of the supporting characters explain to Trigger what has happened and why. This works well enough for a while, but in the second half of the novel I think it begins to wear thin. Also, the solution to the central mystery is a deus ex machina. It didn’t impair my enjoyment of the story while I was reading it, but in hindsight it feels unearned, if not unfair. (I thought Schmitz might have set the stage in “Harvest Time,” and I re-read that story preparatory to writing this review. But no such luck.)

So at this point I had about talked myself into a three-star review. Still, having read and enjoyed it multiple times, there is obviously something here. What is it? From a technical standpoint, I think there is about two-thirds of a really excellent novel here. And there is the heroine, Trigger, whom I favor over Schmitz’s other major heroine, Telzey Amberdon. Telzey’s superhuman psi abilities make her more than equal to any situation she may encounter. Trigger is far more at the mercy of events. Also, at least in A Tale of Two Clocks, Schmitz introduces an element of romance. In between episodes of espionage and personal combat, Trigger pines for her boyfriend and frets over her appearance, things Telzey would never do. In short, Trigger makes a far more interesting viewpoint character. At least, I think so. (As another aside, Telzey and Trigger do eventually meet each other and have adventures together in several further short stories, for those who are interested.)

So, I can’t in good conscience give this five stars. For the character of Trigger, as well as for some really well-done early scenes, including her trip aboard a luxury spaceliner, I give it three-and-a-half.

Final thoughts: I wonder to what extent, if any, this novel influenced Zelazny's Doorways in the Sand? Both novels feature a protagonist who unwittingly plays host to an alien symbiote, a representative from an ancient civilization. Both plots hinge on the protagonist being pursued by various organizations, including his/her own government, who are intent on recovering said symbiote. And both hosts have difficulty in communicating with their symbiote, even after they become aware of its existence. Did Zelazny, consciously or unconsciously, use Schmitz's earlier novel as a jumping-off point for his own? We'll probably never know. All that said, the differences are obvious, as well. Zelazny was a better writer than Schmitz, and Doorways was a superior novel. It is, indeed, one of the real classics of the genre.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set well into the future where the human race has spread throughout the galaxy, this follows Trigger Argee as she tries to unravel the disappearance of Tate and the various plasmoids that have been found in the past. In doing so she jumps from one dilemma to another and exposes conspiracy, corruption and deceit wherever she turns. Although Trigger is considered to be a strong female character (at at the time this was written I'm sure she was) some of the attitudes within the book are a little dated which can grate as the story continues. However this does not detract too much from the story as a whole which is entertaining and intriguing and keeps the reader interested from start to finish (although the after story events in Trigger's life a little cliche). Overall a pretty good read with inventive and descriptive prose that takes the reader to other worlds.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

James Schmitz's novel, about a young woman who finds herself as the center of interstellar intrigue, is very much a work of its times. The plot itself is a fairly typical adventure tale, with the best ideas squeezed in at the end. While the main character, Trigger Agee, is supposedly as strong and capable, the rape scene involving her and the primary male protagonist reveals the misogynistic beliefs that date the book so badly. Together it makes the book a dated and disappointing read, one that can be bypassed in favor of its many better counterparts in the genre.

[Marciealana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oy. Maybe this book was good once. It was published several times. The condescending attitudes about women really rankle. The story hangs together marginally well. It's a story of petty planetary kingdoms and something they call "The Old Galactics" -- a race long gone, that has left confusing traces everywhere.