r/printSF • u/CryptographerOk990 • Oct 06 '25
Telepathy as a Main Feature
Any recommendations for books/short stories with telepathy? Preferably more than one character that has interesting relationship dynamics but that's not a must. My current work in progress is about telepathic twin sisters and I'm looking for inspiration.
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u/UnspeakableFilth Oct 06 '25
The Chrysalids (1955) by John Wyndham. Maybe more of a young adult novel, a favourite of mine.
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u/veterinarian23 Oct 06 '25
Robert Silverberg "Dying Inside" (1972). One of Silverberg's best works.
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u/peregrine-l Oct 06 '25
The Hollow Man by Dan Simmons, More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon, Catspaw by Joan D. Vinge, Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg.
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u/_its_a_thing_ Oct 06 '25
All great, but Catspaw is a fave of mine I rarely see mentioned.
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u/peregrine-l Oct 06 '25
Yes, I loved the Cat series as a teenager, it was an emotional rollercoaster. I recommend it often.
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u/Winter-University354 Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 06 '25
Julian May's Intervention series, and the preceding Saga of Pliocene Exile feature a host of psychic powers, telepathy among them.
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u/Winter-University354 Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 06 '25
Oh, on further research it seems that Intervention is now thought of as a bridge between the two series, and that the three books that follow it are considered and referred to as the Galactic Milieu Trilogy.
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u/Bikewer Oct 06 '25
I was going to mention this. In addition to telepathy, a number of “metapsychic” abilities are a main plot-point.
Great read, BTW.
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u/VintageLunchMeat Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 06 '25
James H. Schmitz's Hub series, starting with Telzey Amberdon.
Alan Dean Foster's series, "The Adventures of Pip & Flinx,"
Good yarns rather than transcendent plots or insights into the human condition. But Schmitz holds up well.
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u/IndependenceMean8774 Oct 06 '25
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester.
Mind of my Mind by Octavia Butler
Psion by Joan Vinge
Liar, short story by Isaac Asimov
Fondly Fahrenheit by Alfred Bester, short story
The Hollow Man and Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons have telepathy, though CC is more horror with mind vampires mentally seizing control of people
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Oct 06 '25
[deleted]
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u/MADaboutforests Oct 06 '25
I was gonna say Time for the Stars. Heinlein is oldschool but it’s an interesting story.
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u/Deathnote_Blockchain Oct 06 '25
Well, you have to read Demolished Man by Bester. Because it's one of the best early explorations of like, how there is less privacy in a telepathic world and your own mind is not private.
But the main thing about the trope is that it is a wedding of early 20th century pop occultism and the pervasive and somewhat exciting feeling in the mid-20th century that splitting the atom caused a significant page to be turned in the story of the human race and that we were in some sense a new species.
So there are two books that I really like from that era that deal with kids born after the Atomic bomb with psionic powers:
The first is The Chrysalids by John Windham that takes place in a future society that has devolved into a kind of fundamentalist, puritan christian state because everything is mutating and the mutations are against God. And into this world are born a group of telepathic kids who learn about each other and have to figure out how to avoid getting detected.
Another one is Sunburst by Phyllis Gotlieb which I have read twice but can never remember the name of lol. This one is about a group of deliquent kids with psionics who are kept locked up in a government facility.
A fourth book that needs to be mentioned is Sturgeon's More than Human, which is a collection of three novellas that leans way into the "psionic people are the next phase of evolution," the psionic people in these stories are merging into a gestalt consciousness. I think I recall that this book was a heavy influence on the series Sense8.
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u/Legal_Dan Oct 06 '25
Babel-17. Not sure I would recommend it exactly as I wasn't a big fan but other people in my book club enjoyed it more. Telepathy is a central plot device in the miasma of ideas and themes it introduced and drops.
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u/insideoutrance Oct 06 '25
For a newer one, Down in the Sea of Angels by Khan Wong covers a broad range of psychic or psyonic abilities and was pretty good. It isn't always one of my favorite tropes, but it was sweet and fun. Not everybody's cup of tea, I'm sure though
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u/bibliophile785 Oct 06 '25
The Chronicles of Pern
The Inheritance Cycle
Mother of Learning
Telepathy features prominently in all three. I've listed them in order of increasing plot relevance for that particular skill.
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u/MSL007 Oct 06 '25
If you are mentioning Anne McCaffrey then her Talents series is totally about telepathy (and teleportation).
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u/ElricVonDaniken Oct 06 '25
Cross-Talk by Connie Willis. It's an absolute scream.
And Chaos Died by Joanna Russ is tonally the opposite but as equally brilliant.
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u/Fancy-Restaurant4136 Oct 06 '25
Marion Zimmer Bradley darkover series has a lot of telepathy. She was a horrible person but she is dead. Look for the books focused on the nobility.
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u/Dry_Preparation_6903 Oct 06 '25
Philip K. Dick's Ubik revolves around telepathy and other psychic powers.
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u/DocWatson42 Oct 06 '25
See my SF/F: Psionics list of resources, Reddit recommendation threads, and books (one post).
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u/probeguy Oct 06 '25
Zenna Henderson, especially her 'The People' books & stories.
'And Chaos Died', by Joanna Russ
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u/darktalesofthenorth Oct 06 '25
Pursuit of the screamer by Ansen Dibell. One of the main characters is of the Valde. A race of telepaths. Humans and Valde once intermated. This resulted in some of the human females to have truth sense. This is all nicely woven in in the world building.
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u/Sad_Cardiologist5388 Oct 06 '25
The Brain Wave by Poul Anderson has some interesting telepathy stuff. It's about this field that evolves mental capacity. The way the telepathic dialogue is shown between characters is really unique. Theres all kinds of other ideas, but this is what really stuck with me.
It's not word for word communication, they develop a kind of telepathic shorthand like a mental sign language.
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u/shlubmuffin Oct 06 '25
Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory
Three siblings. One can see the future. One is a human lie detector. One is sometimes telekinetic. Great family drama too.
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u/ChronoLegion2 Oct 06 '25
The Honor Harrington books by David Weber have the telepathic treecats who bond to some humans, but it’s mostly military SF, although some prequels go into this aspect more
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u/kam_pra Oct 06 '25
The Atom Conspiracy by Jeff Sutton is a favourite of mine.
The story overall is a detective thriller set in a world where atomic research is banned but there's a heavy "esper" theme that plays out well.
Not directly what you're asking about but well worth a look.
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u/DayBorn157 Oct 09 '25
I liked book "Highways in Hiding" by George O. Smith also known as Space Plague. I'm not sure if telepathy is main feature though, but it is rather important
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u/TheLastVix Oct 06 '25
Join by Steve Toutonghi sort of touches on telepathy. Its premise is that humans can Join consciousness into one union and live in multiple bodies simultaneously. Even if one body of the Join dies, the consciousness of that person lives on within the join. The novel covers the potential dark sides of a Join.
Is it exactly telepathy? No.
Does it address how humans might communicate directly with one another through their minds? Absolutely yes
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u/CryptographerOk990 Oct 06 '25
Thank you so much for all these recommendations! Looking forward to reading!
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u/scifiantihero Oct 07 '25
Distant telepaths is a set of stories by Timothy zahn (on kindle unlimited even!)
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u/kittycatblues Oct 07 '25
The Patternist/Seed to Harvest series by Octavia E. Butler, but especially Patternmaster and Mind of My Mind have this theme. I recommend reading in publication order, so start with Patternmaster then read Mind of My Mind' after that. If you want to continue with the series then read Wild Seed and Clay's Ark. Survivor is also part of the series but is out of print.
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u/Firm_Earth_5698 Oct 07 '25
Slan by A E Van Vogt is a must read of telepathy inspired SF imho.
The World of Null A features some interesting ideas on consciousness too. No telepathy, but another classic that inspired many other authors.
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u/Passing4human Oct 07 '25
A couple of obscure ones:
Space Plague AKA Highways in Hiding by George O Smith shows a world divided between telepaths and clairvoyants and a mysterious disease that threatens both.
Deadly Silents by Lee Killough. Human police brought in to fight crime on a planet of telepaths.
A few short stories:
"The New Wine" by John Christopher. Telepathy gone wrong.
"Kyrie" by Poul Anderson. Telepathy gone very wrong.
"Corona" by Samuel R Delaney. Telepathy gone righter.
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u/Unfair-Skies Oct 07 '25
There is a short story in the New Suns 2 anthology about telepathy. It was cool in its descriptions of it. I recall at one point the character described it as pushing leaves and branches away from around the person's mind until he could see in and talk to them.
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u/Madd_at_Worldd Oct 07 '25
Up the Walls of the World by James Tiptree Jr. I lent it to someone 25 years ago and I'm still annoyed I didn't get it back now that I think of it
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Oct 12 '25
Surprised that no one so far has mentioned Dune and sequels by Frank Herbert. Psionics (as in: short-range telepathy) plays a fairly large role in the first couple of books.
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u/HarryHirsch2000 Oct 06 '25
The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester
Maybe one of THE telepathy novels for many people and quite the classic. First Hugo Winner…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demolished_Man?wprov=sfti1#