The Witches of Karres
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The Witches of Karres is a novel by James H. Schmitz. It is his best known book and is considered a science fiction classic. It is considered within the genre of "space opera" and features well-developed characters, a mix of both fantasy and hard science fiction as well as a sense of humour.
The story begins with Captain Pausert, a well-intentioned but inexperienced merchant spacer from the planet Nikkeldepain, liberating three young witches (Maleen, Goth, and the Leewit) from slavery on the Imperial planet of Porlumma. The sisters were captured in a raid by Imperial Slavers while visiting a planet on a jaunt of their own.
After returning the witch sisters to their homeworld, Karres, Captain Pausert attempts to return to his own planet, but is stopped before he can obtain permission to land. The Captain is informed that he faces several legal charges, many relating to his encounter with the witches and his brief stay on Karres. He escapes the Nikkeldepain Police ship with the help of the middle witch sister, Goth, who has stowed away on the ship. From that point, he and Goth find themselves becoming more and more embroiled in wild adventures involving interdimensional alien invaders, space pirates, many more of the Karres witches, and assorted other villains.
In 2005, the book was reissued by Baen Books, and a sequel, The Wizard of Karres, written by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and David Freer was published by Baen Books in 2004, featuring the same characters as the original novel.
The story is unrelated to the "Hub" series of stories of Schmitz.
