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4.0 out of 5 stars
His first; not his best, but still a good read, April 28 2003
"Telempath" follows the world's last assassin - Isham Stone - on his quest to avenge the death of 90% of civilization thanks to the creation of a virus that increases people's sense of smell by several thousand orders of magnitude. (Could you stand living in a city when suddenly every odor was a thousand times as strong and hammering at your brain?) Isham's quest leads us to the man who made this virus and to his latest endeavor: communicating with the "Muskies", ethereal beings who went unnoticed by mankind for eons until the creation of the aforementioned virus. What follows are revalations, betrayals, and eventually hope for the survival of mankind.Spider's first novel is based on his Hugo-award winning story, "By Any Other Name" (available in a recent paperback collection with that very title). The work beyond the original short story/novella contains the early strains of themes that run throughout Spider's work - communication by thought, understanding of human nature, the sanctity of life, etc. But these strains aren't quite the virtuoso melodies one hears in the "Callahan" and "Stardancer" books. The book ends (like most of Spider's books end) with a happy ending... but dammit, it was almost TOO happy for my tastes. I encourage readers to pick up the collection "By Any Other Name" and read the novella first. If it tickles your fancy, try "Telempath". And if you haven't read "Stardance" yet, then shame on you! Buy it right now!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Ignore the stupid cover, Aug 15 2002
Baen Books just has a hard time with cover art, I guess. But this time they've underdone themselves.Anyway, grab this book while it's back in print. It's the novel-length expansion of Spider Robinson's novella "By Any Other Name," and it's great from start to finish. I guess I can tell you a little bit of the plot without spoiling anything. Isham Stone lives in a world in which most of civilization has collapsed, and he's going to get the man responsible. Okay, that's all I can say without giving things away. I _can_ say that the story is told with all of Spider's trademark humaneness and wit, with no punches pulled but also with none of the gloom-and-doom pessimism that marks "noir" SF. Because this book squarely faces a number of interesting and difficult problems, _and works them through to resolution_, it's actually a profoundly hopeful story despite its apocalyptic backdrop. Spider is one of my favorite two living SF writers (the other being James Hogan), and this is about as close as Spider comes to writing "hard" SF. Get it while it's available; Spider is incapable of writing a dull word.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Correction to preceding review, Dec 19 2001
By A Customer
"God Is An Iron" is the short story that was later expanded into _Mindkiller_ (now available in the combi volume _Deathkiller_). It is not included in this volume. _Telempath_ is an expanded version of the novella "By Any Other Name," collected (as you might expect) in _By Any Other Name_.Either way, though, _Telempth_ is one of Spider's best novels.
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