[The pictures above are links to amazon, so you can read others' reviews.]

These are among my very favorite books.

They were written in the 1940s and 1950s, but they are not dated like most other science fiction being written at the time. It's not just that there are strong, interesting female lead characters - unusual enough in itself - but the way the characters interact is modern. For example, in children's books written by Isaac and Janet Asimov - and I remember Isaac Asimov so fondly - a male character cannot even speak to a female character without complimenting her on her physical appearance. It seems very strange, reading them now, that anyone ever acted or wrote that way. Another oddly non-dating point is the fact that the characters in Schmitz's books are not continually lighting up cigarettes, as most characters in much of the science fiction of the mid twentieth century do.

I didn't get these books out of some fascination with the history of science fiction, however. I bought them because they are great. They are completely fresh. I've read them again and again, and I'm still not tired of them. We're lucky they've been republished. Thanks to Eric Flint and Mercedes Lackey for convincing me (in what they wrote about them) that I needed to read these books.

Agent of Vega & Other Stories
Trigger & Friends
Telzey Amberdon
TNT : Telzey & Trigger
The Hub : Dangerous Territory
Witches of Karres

(Note that the posting date on this entry is fictitious; this weblog was created in 2004, but I am placing pre-2004 dates on those books and series which I read in 2003 or before.)