The Universe Against Her

Paperback Publications: Ace F-314, 1964 Ace 84575-4, 1979 Hardbound Publications: Gregg Press, 1981 * * Issued with no dust jacket, hence no artwork.	Contents Novice Undercurrents The Gregg Press edition also has an Introduction, that you can read here.

Click on a title to view a larger picture. The Universe Against Her Full Color paperback cover by Steve Durke, Ace 84575-4, 1979 Dedication: This book is for Betty (Note: Betty Schmitz was his wife.) Back Cover (Ace 1979) Meet Telzey Amberdon She's one in a billion. She's brilliant, charming, beautiful, and a high-level genius. She's also the most powerful latent telepath the Psychology Service has ever discovered. That's why the Service is keeping a very close watch on her: fully developed, Telzey's Talent could prove disastrous for the Service's plans for the future development of galactic civilization. If Telzey gives so much as a telepathic sneeze the "psionic traffic cop" they've implanted in her head will blow the whistle! For Telzey the answer is obvious: join the Service and enjoy both its protection and its not inconsiderable assistance. But she's an independent sort, a person who wants to go her own way in her own time. That's why she has The Universe Against Her	Book Blurb (Ace 1979) Within a few hundred yards, it became apparent that she had an escort. She didn't look around for them, but spread out to right and left like a skirmish line, keeping abreast with her, occasional shadows slid silently through patches of open, sunlit ground, disappeared again under the trees. Wisps of thought which were not her own thoughts flicked through Telzey's mind from moment to moment as the silent line of shadows moved deeper into the park with her. She realized she was being sized up, judged, evaluated again... This was the first human mind they'd been able to make heads or tails of, and that hadn't seemed deaf and silent to their form of communication. They were taking time out to study it... They were curious and they liked games. At the moment, Telzey and what she might try to do to change their plans was the game on which their attention was fixed.... But what is a game to the telepathic Crest Cats is deadly earnest to the human race -- and Telzey Amberdon must walk the perilous line between alien intelligence and human government if she doesn't want to find herself abandoned by them both.

The Universe Against Her Full Color paperback cover by John Schoenherr, Ace F-314, 1964	Back Cover (Ace 1964) If you use your psi power, it will mean trouble. If you read the wrong minds, it will mean trouble. But if you find out about us -- we will rally the universe against you! The story of Telzey Amberdon, the one in a million mentalist, whose startling mutant abilities might mean miracles for galactic society if she ever learned to use them fully, is a brilliant novel of the interstellar future. For when first she tuned in on the secrets of an alien race, it was just a minor alarm. But when finally her uncharted talents stood squarely in the way of a planet-seizing plot, it was a full-fledged red alert for a galaxy's undercover contestants.

From Ace F-314, 1964 JAMES H. SCHMITZ was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1911 of American parents. Aside from several trips to the United States, he lived in Germany until 1938, returning to America with the outbreak of World War II. He flew with an Army Air Corps group in the Southern Pacific Theater during the war, sold his first science-fiction story in 1949, and now lives with his wife in Inglewood, California. He writes: "Except that I've worked intermittently for a living during that period, the above outline seems to cover most of the essential facts. Among interests, my principal one during the past few years has been to learn to write more proficiently, faster and preferably with less strain.The pursuit of such goals is at present a full-time occupation and seems to be producing moderately encouraging results. "Other interests have been pretty well laid aside for now, though I find them absorbing enough in the past and might again if I get back to them eventually. They included investigation of what goes on in the nooks and crannies of people's minds, including my own, zoology, and a variety of sports."

Die Xenotelepathin (The Xenotelepath) Full Color paperback cover, Artist unknown, German reprint of The Universe Against Her, found on ebay.

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