James Schmitz's Hub tales revolve around a central core. Or, it might be better to say, a tandem axle—the adventures of Telzey Amberdon and Trigger Argee. Those core stories, with two exceptions ("The Searcher" and "A Nice Day for Screaming"), have all been assembled in the first three volumes of this four-volume series.
Depending on whether you approach the "core" from a Telzey or a Trigger angle, the volumes can be read in different orders. The early adventures of Telzey are collected in Telzey Amberdon and those of Trigger in Trigger & Friends—respectively, volumes 1 and 3 of the series. Volume 2, T'nT: Telzey and Trigger, serves as the sequel either way. Telzey stars in all seven stories collected in volume 2, although in "The Symbiotes" she plays a distinctly secondary role. Trigger features in three of them: "Compulsion," "Glory Day," and "The Symbiotes."
But the core stories involve more than just Telzey and Trigger. In addition, there are a number of secondary characters who frequently appear in Telzey and Trigger's adventures. Many of these "secondary" characters are quite prominent in their own right, and they are as much a part of the "core" as Telzey and Trigger. In fact, most of them get at least one story in which they are the protagonist rather than the spear-carrier.
Holati Tate, for instance, is actually the hero in the opening story of this volume, "Harvest Time"—and Trigger is his supporting character.
Pilch stars in "Sour Note," as the other lead character with Bayne Duffold (who never appears anywhere else).
Wellan Dasinger, the head of the Kyth Interstellar Detective Agency who figures as Telzey's sidekick in "Undercurrents" and "Resident Witch", is the lead character of "The Star Hyacinths." (All three of those stories being included in the first volume.)
Heslet Quillan, in addition to being the other main character in Legacy, is the protagonist of the novella "Lion Loose." He also stars in "Forget It," of course, but . . .
"Forget It" is actually an adaptation by Guy Gordon of a non-Hub story called "Planet of Forgetting." In the course of assembling the stories for this volume, I remarked to Guy that it was unfortunate that Schmitz only wrote one independent Quillan story. Guy sent me a copy of "Planet of Forgetting," pointing out that with just a change of names, a slight addition to the dialogue (Quillan's ubiquitous "doll") and changing a few paragraphs of background information, it was a Quillan story. I read the story, saw that he was right, and we decided to include Guy's adaptation as part of this volume. That was very "impure" of us, true, but I can't say I feel in the least apologetic about it. In either version, it's a nice story, and Schmitz's original would not have been included in this series anyway.
We are now almost finished with the core stories of Schmitz's Hub universe. But not quite—and one of the very best is still to come.
That is "The Searcher," which will open Volume 4 of this series. "The Searcher" stars Danestar Gems and Corvin Wergard, two detectives from the Kyth agency. (Wergard also appears in the Telzey story "Resident Witch" in Volume 2.)
In addition, there's "A Nice Day For Screaming," which stars Keth Deboll. Deboll was the reporter whom Telzey allied with in "Company Planet," and he had a very minor off-stage role in Legacy. (He's the one who calls Quillan in the Dawn City's lounge and tries to get introduced to Trigger—to no avail.)
And that will be it, for what I'm calling the "core stories" of the Hub. Most of Volume 4 shifts focus entirely, and except for the two stories mentioned none of the core characters appear. Yet, in a way, Volume 4 also revolves around a tandem axle of its own—and a central character.
The character is Nile Etland, who is the most important character Schmitz developed for his Hub universe other than Telzey and Trigger. Nile features in two stories, the novelette "Trouble Tide" and the novel entitled The Demon Breed (which was originally serialized in Analog magazine under the title "The Tuvela"). The Demon Breed is, in many ways, the best piece of fiction that James Schmitz ever wrote. Together with "Trouble Tide"—which has never been re-issued since its original appearance in Astounding Science Fiction in September of 1958—the Nile Etland "saga" comprises about half the material in the last volume of the Hub series.
And the "tandem axle" I spoke of earlier is perhaps better exemplified by The Demon Breed than any of the stories in Volume 4, although it can be found in all of them:
Ecology, as a theme, stands at the center of most of the stories in Volume 4. Two of them, in fact—"Grandpa" and "Balanced Ecology"—are quite possibly the best ecology-oriented stories ever written in the history of science fiction.
The other "axle" is another staple of science fiction: alien invasion. In one way or another, most of the stories in Volume 4 deal with a threat posed by intelligent aliens to the human society of the Hub. The nature of that threat varies widely, from the inimical ("The Searcher," "The Winds of Time" and The Demon Breed) through the casually accidental ("A Nice Day for Screaming") all the way to threats which are not really threats at all, as we discover in "The Other Likeness."
The special approach which Schmitz took to the theme of alien menace—which is perhaps unique to his writings—is that he almost always couched it in broad ecological terms. True, in "The Searcher" and "The Winds of Time" the alien menace is presented in a simple and straight-forward manner. (In fact, they are among the handful of all-time classic SF Alien Menace! stories—and it is amazing to me that no-one in Hollywood seems to have noticed that either story would make 99% of all science fiction horror movies pale in comparison.)
But, for the most part, Schmitz presents aliens as simply another factor in the ecology of an inhabited galaxy. And so, for all the excitement of the adventures, there is also a certain serenity in his approach. Serenity, and a kind of warm and relaxed humanism which shines through these stories perhaps even more than any others he wrote.
All of which is a roundabout editor's way of assuring readers who have read and enjoyed the first three volumes that the last one is not the "rag, tag and bobtail" of the Hub series. By no means. On average, in fact, the quality of the stories in Volume 4 is perhaps the highest of any of the volumes.
So, yes—we now leave our familiar and beloved Telzey and Trigger behind. But Nile Etland is still to come. She, and her Parahuan enemies and her mutant otter friends—and all the other wonderful characters whom you will find in Volume 4: ranging from monsters like the goyal and the janandra to the benign figure at the center of the diamondwood forest.
And, of course, my personal favorites: the slurp with whom plucky young Ilf contemplates a friendly duel in "Balanced Ecology," and the mysterious creature with whom plucky young Cord does fight a duel in "Grandpa"—and a deadly one, nothing friendly about it.
I won't go quite as far as saying "the best is yet to come." But I'm tempted, despite my great fondness for the Telzey and Trigger cycle—and could easily argue the case, either way.