Telempathy

Simonds, VanceProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.3

Word count: 39K words
Chapters: 4

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Telempathy by Vance SimondsAuthor: Simonds, Vance,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Feb 1, 2010

Editor's review

Telempathy is an English-language science fiction work by Vance Simonds, included in the Project Gutenberg public-domain ebook library. As the title suggests, the story revolves around the premise of "telempathy" and belongs to genre fiction under the category of American and Canadian literature. As an early science fiction short story, its value lies not in length or structural complexity but in showing how authors of that era imagined future telepathic technology. Read it as a sample from science fiction's early history: observe how the author uses a limited technical vocabulary to construct another possibility for interpersonal perception. It suits a single reading session during fragmented time such as a commute or before bed, and also works as English extensive reading material, using the short length to experience the narrative rhythm of old-style science fiction. Because the text comes from a public-domain ebook, readers should be prepared for original formatting without modern annotations and fill in the historical context themselves as they read.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Genre fiction readers who enjoy early British and American science fiction short stories and want to broaden their reading
Learners who need short English extensive reading material and want to control session length
Readers interested in science fiction premises such as telepathy and empathy who are willing to accept old-style writing
Enthusiasts studying public-domain ebooks and the publishing landscape of early science fiction

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting modern hard science fiction technical detail and rigorous worldbuilding
Readers who need full author biographies, annotations, or introductions
Readers who prefer long continuous narratives and find short stories unsatisfying

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the plot, then read again to notice how the author uses dialogue to convey the "empathy" premise.
Keep the ebook on hand and read it in two or three sessions during fragmented time such as commuting or waiting in line.
After reading, note one technological imagination you consider outdated and compare it with contemporary works on similar themes.
If using it for English study, copy out sentences describing perception to experience the vocabulary of old-style science fiction.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a short story?

According to its listing in Project Gutenberg, Telempathy is a short literary work in that library, categorized under American and Canadian literature. Public-domain ebooks usually preserve the original length; readers can finish it in one or two sessions and need not plan their time as for a novel.

Do I need to know the author's background before reading?

No. The available information gives only the author's name, the work's language, and its category, with no further biographical details. Go straight into the text; the premise unfolds through the narrative itself. If you become interested afterward, you can look up public-domain bibliographic records, but external speculation should not be treated as part of the work.

Is the ebook formatting suitable for reading on a phone?

Project Gutenberg texts are mainly plain text with simple formatting and are generally readable on a phone. Old public-domain books may lack modern tables of contents and annotations, so consider increasing the font size, turning off automatic line-break interference, and looking up unfamiliar words directly in a dictionary rather than waiting for annotations.

Is this book suitable for practicing English reading?

It works as short extensive reading material. The length is limited, the language is in an early English science fiction style, and the sentences are not overly complex, though there may be individual old-fashioned expressions. Focus on understanding the plot rather than checking every word; after reading, closely read two or three passages describing perception to balance fluency and vocabulary building.

Comments

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About the author

Simonds, Vance Author

Vance Simonds is an author about whom very little public information is available; the only confirmed details are his name and a single work. His representative novel, Telempathy, is the main entry point for understanding his writing. Judging by its title, the book likely revolves around telepathy or empathic ability and falls within speculative fiction, focusing on how perception and emotion are transmitted between people. Because biographical details, nationality, and a chronology of his work are lacking, it is not possible to assess the overall direction of his writing career, nor to determine this work's place within it or how it was received. Readers who wish to learn more about this author can only turn to the work itself and observe how it uses speculative premises to explore themes of emotion and communication. Overall, Simonds remains a sparsely documented author whose work awaits greater discovery by readers and researchers.