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Card Trick
HardPress Classic Books Series
- GenresScience FictionAudiobook
48 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1961
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 31, 2022
Card Trick is a fairly well written Golden Age story. The story involves a poker player biogeneticist who doesn't realize he has PSI abilities.
And if you need more than that to know where this story goes, you're not familiar with the genre's tropes because they're rampant.
The writing itself is standard for that time period and Bupp/Garrett's plot has come clever twists which are pure Golden Age.
I did wonder if J. Michael Straczynski used some elements in his Babylon 5 "Mind War" episode.
And if you need more than that to know where this story goes, you're not familiar with the genre's tropes because they're rampant.
The writing itself is standard for that time period and Bupp/Garrett's plot has come clever twists which are pure Golden Age.
I did wonder if J. Michael Straczynski used some elements in his Babylon 5 "Mind War" episode.
August 6, 2025
Walter Bupp’s ‘Card Trick,’ published in the January 1961 issue of Analog is a light-hearted satire on the rising popularity of psionics as a driving agent in some forms of science fiction.
Tex Robertson and his girlfriend almost part ways when they realise that he possesses psi powers and she doesn't. He is inducted into the (Psi) Lodge, where he meets other Psis, including some very pretty girls, while she, as normal as a puppy, is left outside as a “Normal”. Fur begins to fly, feelings are hurt, until it is established that Ted's psi abilities are not like other techniques, such as telekinesis.
On that basis, things go smoothly with the path of true love…
Tex Robertson and his girlfriend almost part ways when they realise that he possesses psi powers and she doesn't. He is inducted into the (Psi) Lodge, where he meets other Psis, including some very pretty girls, while she, as normal as a puppy, is left outside as a “Normal”. Fur begins to fly, feelings are hurt, until it is established that Ted's psi abilities are not like other techniques, such as telekinesis.
On that basis, things go smoothly with the path of true love…
June 8, 2014
Card Trick, John Berryman? Maybe Randall Garrett, or Walter Burp, not entirely sure.
This is one of the best science fiction stories I've read (or listened to) in some time and I assure you that if you simply take me up my recommendation on that, you'll disagree with me until the very end.
“Tex” Robertson is our protagonist, and Dr. Shari King, a psi specialist is his love interest. Gambling appears to be Tex's growing love in his life, despite the trouble it is causing his love life, until he runs into the mysterious “Lodge” claiming he can no longer gamble due to his PSI abilities, which Tex denies, gets tested for, proving he has no psi abilities, only to end up dragging his ex-girlfriend, Shari, downtown to the Lodge to retest him “live' and once and for all prove he is “normal” and is not a psi.
In the book meta data blurb it says that the Lodge has it's ways of applying pressure when the pressure is needed.
Initially I liked it, like maybe 3-3.5* largely on Gary Dana's unique dramatic voice for that era of the genre. I bumped that up to 4* with the unexpected conclusion, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
https://librivox.org/card-trick-by-jo...
https://archive.org/details/cardtrick...
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24277
Ahh HA!!! the intrigue starts before you ever read the book!
Librovox says John Berryman, author, The book says Randall Garrett... Gary Dana is reading for Librovox precisely the book authored by Randall Garrett while claiming it is Berryman Thought they were the same person, but sources have them with different born and deceased dates. So... if you decide to check this out based on this review, click around with the links provided. You'll get the audio or your choice of ebook format. Oh, oddly, Walter Burp is the name of one of the characters.
On these shorter librovox readings, I listen and read along. I mention this because I really want to praise Gary Dana's dramatic Librovox reading. It had an entertaining “gum shoe detective” feel to it.
January 29, 2015
A simple little sci-fi story, that could have been a short story but somehow stretched out into a little novella. It’s about a gambler who is thrown out of a game because he is telekinetic. and how that impacts his not-quite romantic relationship with a scientist who studies telekinesis. I liked that the author didn’t feel the need to draw out his twists. Worth the time if you are into early sci-fi with a bit of noir attitude. Available through Internet Archive (free e-book) and Librivox (free audio).
This review was first posted on book coasters
This review was first posted on book coasters
June 16, 2016
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September 2, 2016
Really liked this one. It had a few twists I wasn't expecting.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews