Who writes about telepaths and telepathy? Do you have a lot of trouble communicating details without sounding... fake or overdone? I love the concept of telepathy but every time I sit down to write it I am tormented by my inability to portray it in a way that is meaningful rather than sensational.

Does anyone have any tips for writing believable mind reading scenes and whatnot? What about all the other possibilities that arise from the ability to read minds, such as mental torture?

What books have you read that feature telepathy? What made them well or poorly written? What about mental battles? And... how do you visualize all of this? What sort of metaphors or comparisons do you use to help readers comprehend these sorts of concepts?

Try the "Blood of Kings" series by Jill Williamson. Bloodvoicing in her series is essentially telepathy and I find it was really well done. She is an amazing Christian author.

I distinguish between "telepathy" and "mind reading", and only use the former in my writing. For me, telepathy is just mind-to-mind communication, usually dialogue that happens to not be out loud.

Mine is insanely complex. It involves basic communication, mind-reading, mind-linking, teleportation, matter manipulation, memory exchanges, and in some occasions the ability to mentally communicate with electronics. (It's scifi, but telepathy seems more common in Fantasy, so I'm seeking advice over here rather than over there.)

The series I mentioned covers everything except for teleportation and matter manipulation, though in strict terms, I have always thought of those more as abilities far beyond simple telepathy.

I had the Blood of King's trilogy sitting in my living room for a few weeks last month... haven't read 'em though, and they're gone now. (I can't remember who won them, either.) My library turns up nil. But! Firebird is on its way from PBS, so thanks for the recommend.

As others have said, most of that goes beyond "telepathy" (though "mind-linking", memory sharing, and communication with electronics are reasonable to include in it). The others are related---in some stories telepathy, teleportation, and telekenesis always go together---but distinct.


It doesn't seem that way to me , but that's probably because so much of the SF that I read is a generation or two old, and during that period "psi" was common and even sometimes de rigeur---partly beause it was widely thought to be possible, and partly because the editor of Analog believed in it and pushed it as a subject heavily.

Well, it really just depends on how you write it, I think. Teleportation is a stretch, but I need it for the plot so... it exists.

I use telepathy, but not mind reading. However, my telepathy only occurs between my Diegose and its rider, who are linked. I'm very happy with how I chose to portray the telepathy. It is a fun addition to a story. However, mine is not very complex.

Yes, it is.

Thanks, Jonathan.

Perhaps "Psionics" could label the broader category?

"The Warriors" by Larry Niven is a short story which contains telepathy/mind-reading, albeit of an alien and not a human. Still, in my opinion he does a decent job of describing it in action. Other stories by him also include various forms of telepathy (in both humans and aliens), especially "World of Ptavvs" and "The Man who would be Kzin". As these are earlier stories of his, they're reasonably clean. His later works can be a little sexually liberal.

I'm far more familiar with the older term "psi", as I've met it mostly in my dad's old Analog collection, from back when it was still Campbell's pet theory and thus "science fiction". (Though he apparently coined "psionics", and well before most of the stories I've read were written; I suspect it didn't catch on with his writers.) I've only met "psionics" before in RPGs, and hadn't been aware that the two terms were in any way connected.

Vicious pink cats in space. Thanks for the recommends, though. I'm enjoying 'em.

Most welcome! Good fiction, that stuff.

@kingjon: I suppose Psi could work, too. I actually first encountered the term "psionic" in the StarCraft lore about the Protoss, but apparently wikipedia says RPGs were already using the term 2 decades earlier...

I've been thinking of this as well, because a new character is being constructed in my brain. He's going to have some sort of telepathic (Psionic would be a better term) powers that I haven't figured out yet. The Jill portrays them in the Blood of Kings trilogy is really good.

I'll be following this to see what y'all come up with.

Now I really wish I'd read that trilogy while it was sitting in my living room. I wonder who won them...

It did take almost the entire series to really get a view of everything Bloodvoicers were capable of, and it was quite a lot.