Stardropper addiction runs rampant…and then the disappearances begin. There is the feeling that, if you could just wrap your head around them, the secrets of the universe might be yours. Yet, listening to these emanations is compelling in the extreme. This isn’t telepathy, and even if it were, who could understand the minds of total aliens? Using a sort of acoustic telescope, the “stardropper,” one can tune in to the mental vibrations of extraterrestrials. Listen! takes place a few decades from now, just after the discovery of an esoteric electronic principle that allows one to literally eavesdrop on the stars. Read on!:īrunner is a new British author whose prolific writings have already enchanted one of the Journey’s writers. In some cases, the execution can be admired even if the story isn’t great shakes. The July 1962 Analog Science Fiction delivers a series of object lessons in how (and how not) to write efficiently. Is the plot innovative? Does it resonate emotionally? Are the featured characters unusual? Does it employ clever literary devices?Īs a writer, I am always particularly impressed by efficiency: the ability of an author to develop his tale with a minimum of exposition, unfolding a plot teasingly so as to keep the reader turning those pages with increased anticipation, and then delivering a solid conclusion at the end – where it belongs. He was survived by his wife, Betty Mae Chapman Schmitz.There are many ways to measure the strength of a story. Schmitz died of congestive lung failure in 1981 after a five week stay in the hospital in Los Angeles. Baen have also published new works based in the Karres universe. 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. 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. His first published story was Greenface, published in August 1943 in Unknown. 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. After the war, he and his brother-in-law ran a business which manufactured trailers until they broke up the business in 1949.

During World War II, Schmitz served as an aerial photographer in the Pacific for the United States Army Air Corps. 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.

James Henry Schmitz (October 15, 1911–April 18, 1981) was an American writer born in Hamburg, Germany of American parents.

The Other Likeness by James H. Schmitz