THE WITCHES OF KARRES

Reviewed 2/25/2015

Cover art by Jeff Zinggeler2

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THE WITCHES OF KARRES James H. Schmitz Philadelphia: Chilton Books, February 1967 (2nd prtg.)				Rating: 5.0 High
ISBN-13 978-1-416-50915-8
ISBN-10 1-416-50915-1	202pp.	HC	$4.95

Captain Pausert had left his home world of Nikkeldepain under a cloud: he was deeply in debt due to the failure of a previous business. But now, after a successful trading run in the starship Venture, he was returning solvent. Just one more hop from Porlumma to home... That was when he met the first of the witches of Karres.

She was in an alley, frantically dodging the irate grasp of Bruth the Baker, who accused her of adulterating a cake and sickening 52 of his customers. Seeing an apparently helpless girl of about 14 menaced by an adult, the Captain intervened. He won the resulting fight with Bruth, but a constable showed up before he could make his escape with Maleen. The judgment of the court was that Captain Pausert would buy Maleen from the baker — for slavery was legal on Porlumma — after which all charges would be dropped. The purchase set him back somewhat, but left him in the black. Then Maleen dropped her bombshell, telling the Captain she had two little sisters. You'll be seeing them soon, he reassured her, promising to take her home. "No, I won't," she wailed. "They're here!"

To cut to the chase, the Captain bought Goth and the Leewit from their owners, took the three sisters to his ship and set out for Karres. There began the series of amazing adventures which makes this 1966 novel1 Schmitz's best-known work and keeps it popular today. After eluding police and pirates, in what is really just a warm-up, the Captain made it to the Iverdahl system and began to look for Karres.

After a brief study Karres could be distinguished easily enough by the fact that it moved counterclockwise to all the other planets of the Iverdahl system.

Well, it would, the captain thought.

– Page 22

After a three-week interlude on Karres, which serves to fill in some of the background for the story, the Captain set out alone for Nikkeldepain — or so he thought. But he soon learned there was a stowaway aboard: Goth. Parents on Karres, it seemed, did not worry much about their children wandering the galaxy. Their lack of concern was generally justified, for the young of Karres were uniquely capable of taking care of themselves. Goth saved the Captain's bacon on a number of occasions. Then, complementing his existing skills at ship-handling and sheer survival against human threats, he began to develop witch powers himself — and none too soon for the challenges he faced.

The Witches of Karres is no soaring literary achievement, nor does it address deep philosophical ideas or ethical issues. I would not even call it Schmitz's best work.3 But it is one rollicking adventure story, and there is nothing wrong with that. For this novel, top marks.

Regarding the literary legacy of James H. Schmitz, Wikipedia quotes Gardner Dozois as follows:

"Schmitz was decades ahead of the curve in his portrayal of female characters—years before the Women's Movement of the '70s would come along to raise the consciousness of SF writers (or attempt to), Schmitz was not only frequently using women as the heroines in swashbuckling tales of interplanetary adventure—itself almost unheard of at the time—but he was also treating them as the total equal of the male characters, every bit as competent and brave and smart (and ruthless, when needs be), without saddling them with any of the "female weaknesses"—like an inclination to faint or cower under extreme duress, and/or seek protection behind the muscular frame of the Tough Male Hero) that would mar the characterization of women by some writers for years to come. (The Schmitz Woman, for instance, is every bit as tough and competent as the Heinlein Woman—who, to be fair, isn't prone to fainting in a crisis either—but without her annoying tendency to think that nothing in the universe is as important as marrying Her Man and settling down to have as many babies as possible.)[6]"

– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_H._Schmitz#Legacy

1 The story dates from December 1949, when it was first published in Astounding.

2 Being a library copy, the book I read has no dust jacket. But it is a first edition, and this is the image of the first-edition cover. (Its LibCong number is 66-25045; the ISBNs are for the 2005 Baen reissue edited by Eric Flint.)

3 At this point, I consider The Demon Breed the best novel Schmitz wrote.