The Telenizer

by Don Thompson

"What the hell are you doing here?" the boss asked when I opened his office door and peeked in. "You're supposed to be in Palm Beach. Well, damn it, come on in!"
I clung to the door firmly as I maneuvered myself through the opening. And when I closed the door, I leaned back against it heavily.
I could see the boss—Carson Newell, managing editor of Intergalaxy News Service—half rising from behind his big desk across the room; but he was pretty dim and I couldn't get him to stay in one place. His voice was clear enough,
"Must be mighty important to bring you back from… . Damn it, Langston, are you drunk?"

48 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.