The Wizard of Karres; The Sorceress of Karres; The Shaman of Karres

The covers of the original book – whose text is not currently available for audiobook recording – are more evocative than any of the covers of the contemporary sequels.
The top illustration is by Hayao Miyazaki.

Synopsis

The continuing adventures of characters created by James H. Schmitz in his 1966 novel (and 1949 story) The Witches of Karres.

Sardonic but stalwart Captain Pausert, traveling merchant on his ship Venture, rescued three young sisters from slavery on planet Porlumma, only to find they were witches from the dread planet Karres. 14-year old psychic Maleen, 9-year old shape-shifting Goth and obstreperous 6-year old The Leewit, whose whistles can shatter stone, have powers which attract the attention of various warlords, aliens, pirates, smugglers, spies, gangsters, soldiers and interfering bureaucrats throughout the solar system, with Pausert barely able to manage the assaults, attacks, deceptions, intrigues, imprisonments and frequent escapes as he attempts to get the witches back to Karres. Once there, he discovers the witches are very different and much kinder than legend has it, and dedicates himself to continuing to help them.

In The Wizard of Karres, Pausert and the witches attempt to halt the devastation of an inter-planetary plague and get waylaid into joining a traveling circus. The Sorceress of Karres finds the characters a little older, with Goth traveling back in time to meet Pausert as teenager and rescue his future self and The Leewit from a planet of cannibal aliens, and The Shaman of Karres finds Goth kidnapped by slavers and the now-teenage The Leewit developing powers as a healer while Pausert tries to escape a planet where an addictive pollen is traded like gold dust. Other characters in the adventures include the sprite Hantis and her talking dog Pul, the safe-cracking ex-spy Vezzarn, Sedmon the Daal of Uldune, who exists in six bodies simultaneously, elegant imperial agent Hulik do Eldel, flamboyant circus-master Himbo Petey, imposing bodyguard Ta’zara, gangster mastermind Me’a, and the giggling Vatch, a floating piece of anti-matter who regards humans as disposable figures in a dream-game. The fast-paced series is relentlessly inventive and exciting, as often funny as it is frightening, and has a cumulative emotional weight as the characters mature, deal with love and loss, face moral challenges and seek their place in the world.

The text of the original novel was not available for audiobook recording. I recorded only the 3 sequels.