Telek-Jack Vance novella

Telek-Jack Vance novella

Telek is a 36/69 page novella that was first published in January, 1952 in Astounding Science Fiction magazine.  It is set in the future where Earth is controlled by Teleks who are humans who have learned telekinetic powers. These Teleks live apart from regular humans but interact with them and manage much of the industry, finances and law enforcement on Earth.  Although vastly outnumbered by humans, Teleks have immense power to do damage and to control society. If a Telek is attacked or killed by ordinary humans, there is terrible retribution against them so they are usually treated with deference.  In our story a Telek is suddenly killed after the Telek kills an angry worker and the killer and other workers who saw the incident decide to cover up the death to avoid retaliation. But Teleks have bug like spying devices that fly around keeping surveillance, making such cover ups extremely difficult. One human, Shorn, who joins a group that is conspiring against the Teleks, decides offer the Teleks some vital information (which does not exist) in exchange for their teaching him telekinesis so he can be a Telek.  He hopes to teach other ordinary people this power so they are not dominated and terrorized by the Teleks. The alternative plan is to try to kill all of the Teleks. But they would have to kill every one of them because if even one was left alive, there would be terrible retaliation.  I suspect Telek was a story Vance wrote for his editor, John Campbell, who was editor of the magazine Astounding Science Fiction from 1937 to 1971 and who liked parapsychological themes. Telek was engaging enough to read but is not, by any means, top drawer Vance.  I rated it a 3 "Liked it."

Note: I list Telek as a novella rather than a novelette. Telek is 69 pages long in my copy of the World-Thinker and Other Stories but only 36 pages in smaller print in my copy of the January, 1952 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. The standards for the Science Fiction Writers of America lists novellas as usually being between 53 and 121 pages, although the standard goes by words rather than pages. The Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base lists Telek as a “novella.” 

 

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled Eight Fantasms and Magics (1969)

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled When the Five Moons Rise (1992)

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled Minding the Stars: Early Jack Vance, volume 4 (2014)

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled World-Thinker and Other Stories (2017)