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The Witches of Karres
Color dust jacket
by Jeff Zinggeler,
Chilton, 1966,
3rd Printing, April 1968
Dedication:
This book is dedicated to a very good little witch named Sylvia Ann Thomas(Note: This dedication is to his niece. See also the dedication to A Pride of Monsters)
Dust jacket blurb (Chilton, 1968)
Hurrah for kindness, virtue and free enterprise!Young Captain Pausert, of the independent planet Nikkeldepain, has gone alone, on a private trading venture in his own vessel, to Porlumma, a border planet of the Empire (Galactic, that is).
Here, he finds three helpless and attractive little girls, held as slaves by a cruel master, and buys them in a spirit of generosity. The cruel master seems relieved, oddly enough.
Goth, Maleen and the Leewit (not Leewit, the Leewit), as the charming trio are named, soon demonstrate why their former owner can now relax. And why Pausert can't!
The poor fellow has adopted three of the notorious Witches of Karres, inhabitants of a mystery planet which moves around, in space. Furthermore, these charming children themselves are teleports, a talent used chiefly for theft, and also masters of other hidden and weird powers.
In no time at all, Pausert has the whole Galaxy pursuing him and his passengers, including the law-enforcement authorities of his own planet. Hurried into desperate flight, a new power of the three elfin children appears, the Sheewash Drive. It simply raises a spaceship's speed to a degree that it enters another dimension and reappears billions of mils away. And there is more!
For the hapless Pausert is now involved in a war spanning the entire universe, with aliens, humans, and forces all beyond his comprehension. What a plight for an innocent, young trader. And how to get out?
James Schmitz has done it again, deftly building a rollicking, boisterous tale of the future into the grand dimensions of an outre classic. The Witches of Karres combines humor, suspense and magic in unforgettable portions.
The Witches of Karres
Full Color cover by Paul Alexander,
Ace SF 89853-X, 1981.
His luck had finally turned--
--and for the worse. Unlucky at love, unsuccessful in business, unable to win friends and influence people, Pausert thought he had finally found his niche, captaining the stout old tramp starship Venture and her odd-lot cargoes around the fringes of the Empire. He'd even taken to performing the odd noble deed, such as freeing three poor little child-slaves from their abusive masters. Strange, though, how eager those sadistic bullies had been to let them go -- and even stranger how quickly those adorable little girls made Pausert the mortal enemy of his fiancé, his planet, the Empire the Sirians the Uldunians the dread pirate chieftain Laes Yango -- and the Worm World, the darkest threat to mankind in all of space. It was all very mysterious -- until Pausert realized that he was dealing not with a trio of underage slaves, but three of The Witches of Karres!The Witches of Karres
Full Color cover, uncredited,
Ace SF 89852, 1977 (?).
Back Cover
In the far future, Mankind has scattered among the stars, bred into peculiar forms and developed peculiar powers. Captain Pausert of Nikkeldepain makes the serious mistake of rescuing three little Witches of Karres from their overwrought owners. There follow espionage, piracy, assorted forms of mayhem, and a free-wheeling galactic war that nobody knew was in progress. You will, in the process, encounter such things as Worm Weather, klatha hooks, and a vatch to end all vatches... not to mention grik-dogs and Nartheby Sprites and Sheem Robots.--P. Schuyler Miller, Analog
The Witches of Karres
Full Color cover,
Leo & Diane Dillon,
Ace SF 89851, 1966 (?).
Leo & Diane Dillon,
Inside page
"The eternal conflict between good and evil is waged with enchanting dimensions in this picaresque tale of the space voyages of Captain Pausert of Nikkeldepain. The joining of wily witchery and space spoofery is shaped by a wonderfully fresh imagination."--The Horn Book
In this free-wheeling, pyrotechnic novel of galactic adventure on a huge scale, James H. Schmitz has created three of his most memorable characters in the young Witches of Karres, Goth, Maleen and the Leewit (not Leewit, the Leewit). The trouble they cause for the space captain who rescues them from slavery spans half the universe in the twinkling of an eye...and grows to truly deadly proportions for all mankind!
"Delightful... a legend-tale set in the future... amusing and refreshing."
--Sacramento Bee
The Witches of Karres
Full Color cover,
by Leo and Diane Dillon,
Ace A-13, 1966.
Back Cover
Judged one of the four best SF novels of the year -- 25th World Science Fiction Convention"In the far future, Mankind has scattered among the stars, bred into peculiar forms and developed peculiar powers. Captain Pausert of Nikkeldepain makes the serious mistake of rescuing three little Witches of Karres from their overwroght owners. There follow espionage, piracy, assorted forms of mayhem, and a freewheeling galactic war that nobody knew was in progress. you will, in the process, encounter such things as Worm Weather, klatha hooks, and a vatch to end all vatches... not to mention grik-dogs and Nartheby Sprites and Sheem Robots." -- P. Schuyler Miller, Analog
"Wonderfully fresh imagination. The reader takes on taste of Wintenberry jelly, tingles at one message from a hidden vatch, and he knows for sure that there are uncharted paths in literature as well as in space." -- The Horn Book
"Highly Recommended." -- Judith Merril, Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Witches of Karres
Full Color cover, Josh Kirby,
Gollancz, 1988
Back Cover
His luck had finally turned -- for the worse!Unlucky at love, unsuccessful in business, Captain Pausert thought he had finally found his niche -- hawking the stout old starship Venture and her job-lot cargoes around the fringes of the Empire. He'd even taken to performing the odd noble deed, such as freeing three poor child-slaves from their abusive masters. Strange though, how eager those bullies had been to let them go...
And even stranger how quickly those adoring little girls made Pausert the mortal enemy of his fiancé, his planet and the most malevolent force in all of space, the Worm World. It was all very mysterious -- until Pausert realized that he was dealing, not with a trio of juvenile slaves, but with three of the legendary witches of Karres...
"A slambang space happy fantasy" --Kirkus
(The Witches of Karres)
1987, Shinchou-bunko, 440yen
Hayao Miyazaki
Gollancz, 1988
Never ones to spare any expense on covers...
Peter Mansfield sent in this cover from Baen Books
Peter Mansfield sent in this cover from
Le streghe di Karres
(The Witches of Karres)
Il Meglio della Fantascienza 28 Libra Editrice
Bologna - Nov 1976.
Cover by Allison.
de heksen van karres
Full Color cover, Reindert van Briemen,
Meulenhoff, 1969
Kurt Van den Branden from Belgium sent this cover from the Dutch publication
de heksen van karres
(The Witches of Karres)
Meulenhoff science fiction
MSF 27 - 1969.
According to the description in the book, the cover is part of a larger piece called "Met het oog op de tijd" by Reindert van Briemen.
Kurt translates the back cover as:
In the fairytale universe of Schmitz floats the planet Karres;
a planet that's inhabited by creatures that are called witches
by other inhabitants of space. That's why the planet is
avoided by everybody, even if in the end it turns out to be a
paradise and not a horrible place at all.
The hero of the story, Pausert, gets involved with 3 very young female witches. With them, but especially because of them, he gets involved in lots of adventures, not without danger or excitement.
Not everything goes without tensions in the spaceship in which he travels with the three witches. On the contrary; like all little girls, Maleen, Goth and the Leewit are often a handful and cause Pausert lots of problems.
This amusing book is again a beautiful piece of pop-science fiction.