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Agent of Vega
Cover Artist: John Woolhiser
Contains the following closely linked stories first published in Astounding Science Fiction 1949, 1950 and 1951 and in Galaxy Science Fiction 1950:
1 Agent of Vega
64 The Illusionists
118 The Truth About Cushgar
156 The Second Night of Summer
Contains the following closely linked stories first published in Astounding Science Fiction 1949, 1950 and 1951 and in Galaxy Science Fiction 1950:
1 Agent of Vega
64 The Illusionists
118 The Truth About Cushgar
156 The Second Night of Summer
185 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1960
1 person is currently reading
84 people want to read
About the author
James H. Schmitz
240 books92 followersJames 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 9, 2018
A set of four related short stories from the late 40's, early 50's. They also might be the first hard SF stories with female protagonists. I haven't found references to any earlier ones and I can't recall reading any! There's even one story that passes the Bechtel test and another that's rescue the prince dude.
Nowadays each of these would be their own book, and indeed later when Schmitz expanded on the theme of female secret agents with PSI powers, the stories were much longer. Has strong female characters, damsels and guys!!! in distress and paternalism. Still a good read, it's aged well.
Nowadays each of these would be their own book, and indeed later when Schmitz expanded on the theme of female secret agents with PSI powers, the stories were much longer. Has strong female characters, damsels and guys!!! in distress and paternalism. Still a good read, it's aged well.
April 10, 2018
I found this French copy in a free library at work, one of those free libraries where everyone can leave books and take others to read. James H. Schmitz is an unknown author to me and the only chance to read something by him was, at the moment and overall, this French translation of 1970.
The book contains 4 Vega stories and 3 short stories by other authors:
Agent de Véga - James H. Schmitz
* Agent de Véga (Original: Agent of Vega)
* Les Illusionnistes (Original: The Illusionists)
* La Vérité sur Cushgar (Original: The Truth about Cushgar)
* La Seconde nuit de l'été (Original: The Second Night of Summer)
* Tout au fond de moi, je pleure - Clifford D. Simak (Original: I'm crying all inside)
* Drame intérieur - Charles Van de Vet (Original: Wheels within)
* Les Étoiles répondent - T.K. Brown III (Original: When the stars answer)
--------------------
The four Vega-stories are stand-alone, though are part of the same, expanded universe, which contains lots of planets and what not. Some stories offer a bit of background info, but I found it hard to imagine the scenery and setting.
They're all action/police stories, more or less, with female robots and other kinds of characters securing the space-ways, intercepting and disabling perpetrators. In the first story, telepathic communication is a vital ingredient, next to battling aliens. In the second story, Pagadan also plays a role. This character is also present in the first story. And again, mental communication is an important element.
The other two stories are different from the first two, with for example The Second Night of Summer being about preventing alien invasion, by undercover Agents.
I do know that external circumstances prevented me from really getting into the stories. However, I do think it's either the French translation or maybe Schmitz's writing style itself that were a bigger burden for me. I experienced some nice reading moments, but overall I can't really recommend these stories, at least in their French version.
For a review of the original versions of the Vega-stories, I'll gladly direct you to the reviews of Robert Wilfred Franson on Troynovant.com (direct link). Do shorten the link to its main url (like so) to see the entire website, as it's designed in frames.
On a side-note: Due to a printing error, all copies of this French version have a blank page 197.
--------------------
Regarding the three short-stories:
Tout au fond de moi, je pleure - Clifford D. Simak (Original: I'm crying all inside) is about poor and rich people. The rich take off into space, to seek new places to live; the poor decide to take control of the rich people's premises, but don't really know what to do next with their lives, since they were in service of said rich people.
Drame intérieur - Charles Van de Vet (Original: Wheels within) is about seeking your true identity, whilst being in a sort of coma and reliving a life of a very long time ago in order to remember who you really are. A strange, but nice story.
Les Étoiles répondent - T.K. Brown III (Original: When the stars answer) can be summarised as so: Should we really send out a message into space to seek alien contact? What if one of them does visit Earth? What if they are more advanced than us, human beings?
All in all, a nice acquaintance with other unknown authors. These three stories are short enough reads for a quick reading in-between.
--------------------
In short: James H. Schmitz will not feature any more on my reading list. It's nice to once in a while encounter new authors, new stories (no matter how old they are), but when there's a lack of reading pleasure and insight into the events... :/ The added short stories were a nice bonus.
A change in style, setting, themes, even if it wasn't the smoothest French read so far. I'll put the book back next week - it wasn't mine in the first place -, so someone else can make a trip into the future via the past.
The book contains 4 Vega stories and 3 short stories by other authors:
Agent de Véga - James H. Schmitz
* Agent de Véga (Original: Agent of Vega)
* Les Illusionnistes (Original: The Illusionists)
* La Vérité sur Cushgar (Original: The Truth about Cushgar)
* La Seconde nuit de l'été (Original: The Second Night of Summer)
* Tout au fond de moi, je pleure - Clifford D. Simak (Original: I'm crying all inside)
* Drame intérieur - Charles Van de Vet (Original: Wheels within)
* Les Étoiles répondent - T.K. Brown III (Original: When the stars answer)
--------------------
The four Vega-stories are stand-alone, though are part of the same, expanded universe, which contains lots of planets and what not. Some stories offer a bit of background info, but I found it hard to imagine the scenery and setting.
They're all action/police stories, more or less, with female robots and other kinds of characters securing the space-ways, intercepting and disabling perpetrators. In the first story, telepathic communication is a vital ingredient, next to battling aliens. In the second story, Pagadan also plays a role. This character is also present in the first story. And again, mental communication is an important element.
The other two stories are different from the first two, with for example The Second Night of Summer being about preventing alien invasion, by undercover Agents.
I do know that external circumstances prevented me from really getting into the stories. However, I do think it's either the French translation or maybe Schmitz's writing style itself that were a bigger burden for me. I experienced some nice reading moments, but overall I can't really recommend these stories, at least in their French version.
For a review of the original versions of the Vega-stories, I'll gladly direct you to the reviews of Robert Wilfred Franson on Troynovant.com (direct link). Do shorten the link to its main url (like so) to see the entire website, as it's designed in frames.
On a side-note: Due to a printing error, all copies of this French version have a blank page 197.
--------------------
Regarding the three short-stories:
Tout au fond de moi, je pleure - Clifford D. Simak (Original: I'm crying all inside) is about poor and rich people. The rich take off into space, to seek new places to live; the poor decide to take control of the rich people's premises, but don't really know what to do next with their lives, since they were in service of said rich people.
Drame intérieur - Charles Van de Vet (Original: Wheels within) is about seeking your true identity, whilst being in a sort of coma and reliving a life of a very long time ago in order to remember who you really are. A strange, but nice story.
Les Étoiles répondent - T.K. Brown III (Original: When the stars answer) can be summarised as so: Should we really send out a message into space to seek alien contact? What if one of them does visit Earth? What if they are more advanced than us, human beings?
All in all, a nice acquaintance with other unknown authors. These three stories are short enough reads for a quick reading in-between.
--------------------
In short: James H. Schmitz will not feature any more on my reading list. It's nice to once in a while encounter new authors, new stories (no matter how old they are), but when there's a lack of reading pleasure and insight into the events... :/ The added short stories were a nice bonus.
A change in style, setting, themes, even if it wasn't the smoothest French read so far. I'll put the book back next week - it wasn't mine in the first place -, so someone else can make a trip into the future via the past.
July 28, 2019
Enjoyable enough, but didn't really grip me. Well written and plotted, but somehow just didn't grab me. Partly I felt I was only beginning to get to know the characters by the end of their stories (and most of them I didn't particularly like). On the other hand, has actual female characters who are competent and have agency, motivation and careers - and not all of them have motivations that revolve around family.
February 29, 2024
Probably first read in late 1982 or early 1983. As usual for most of Schmitz's books, the heroic female lead is atypical for the period.
September 8, 2012
Reading the beginning of this collection was a slog for me. Probably because I had just finished Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, told in the first person and with great insight into the protagonist's thoughts. The first story here seemed disjointed in comparison, especially with some of the character confusion that comes from mind-control within the story and Schmitz's writing style that often has him jumping around without transitions.
Schmitz's stories describe the Agents of the Vegan Confederacy. They are all telepathic experts and many of the battles, defenses and technology are based on these powers. In fact the ships themselves are telepathically linked to their agents in ways which I believe are much more awesome than we could imagine. Each story builds on the next with characters introduced in one taking the lead in another. "Grandma", her rhinocerene pony and their flying trailer from the fourth story were only described in one paragraph in the third. As Schmitz tells the stories of his agents he constantly pans out building a huge future universe where many of the inhabitants are humans who have evolved over time to suit their planet's needs. Some of the battles contain large casualties which seem small in perspective while many of the agents are just pin-pointing one enemy.
What's truly remarkable is that these were written in 1949. Not only for the ideas espoused but also because three of his four main characters happen to be women and none are to be trifled with. I'd like to give this collection 3.5 stars and I think it's only stubborness that keeps me from giving it 4.
Schmitz's stories describe the Agents of the Vegan Confederacy. They are all telepathic experts and many of the battles, defenses and technology are based on these powers. In fact the ships themselves are telepathically linked to their agents in ways which I believe are much more awesome than we could imagine. Each story builds on the next with characters introduced in one taking the lead in another. "Grandma", her rhinocerene pony and their flying trailer from the fourth story were only described in one paragraph in the third. As Schmitz tells the stories of his agents he constantly pans out building a huge future universe where many of the inhabitants are humans who have evolved over time to suit their planet's needs. Some of the battles contain large casualties which seem small in perspective while many of the agents are just pin-pointing one enemy.
What's truly remarkable is that these were written in 1949. Not only for the ideas espoused but also because three of his four main characters happen to be women and none are to be trifled with. I'd like to give this collection 3.5 stars and I think it's only stubborness that keeps me from giving it 4.
September 25, 2011
What an interesting little book. The stories seem like straight up adventure, but they have odd misdirections, often where some personal goal is the real story instead of the obvious political spy adventure.
These stories were first published in 1949-51, so I expect that readers would have immediately recognized the planet-wide dictator as Hitler. He uses mind control and is slowly going insane. He's started mass murders, but they populace doesn't know it yet. That makes me think that these (and maybe other spy stories) are a reaction to the experience of WWII -- is there some way to defeat a powerful dictator without millions of casualties?
But you don't have to think that hard. You can just enjoy these.
These stories were first published in 1949-51, so I expect that readers would have immediately recognized the planet-wide dictator as Hitler. He uses mind control and is slowly going insane. He's started mass murders, but they populace doesn't know it yet. That makes me think that these (and maybe other spy stories) are a reaction to the experience of WWII -- is there some way to defeat a powerful dictator without millions of casualties?
But you don't have to think that hard. You can just enjoy these.
January 13, 2016
This was the first James Schmitz work I ever read, and it's still one of my favorites. Telzey Amberdon and The Witches of Karres may be more famous, but these stories are the essence of Schmitz -- quirky, sly, uncompromisingly elitist but also essentially humanist. Plucky individualists, working and sacrificing together for the greater good of mankind.
...and "The Department of Galactic Zones" has to be the best name ever for a top-secret psychic super-spy organization.
...and "The Department of Galactic Zones" has to be the best name ever for a top-secret psychic super-spy organization.
June 6, 2008
Still on a science-fiction jag, reading from my collection. This series of four closely-connected spy-stories, featuring as many agents of the Vegan Confederacy, is an exciting read.
June 16, 2012
Plain fun space adventure fiction with more going on than most. Would recommend it for fans of Heinlein juveniles who crave more (and neither author was writing kid's stuff).
March 6, 2013
very old-fashioned, didactic. more finishing the set for me than enjoyable.
May 9, 2016
Strong characters, who happen to be women. Stories with common background, and with nice short twists.
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July 25, 2015Second copy of the book; different edition; i.e., duplicate :-(
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews