The Witches of Karres
by James Schmitz
“It was around the hub
of the evening on the planet of Porlumma when Captain Pausert, commercial traveler
from the Republic of Nikkeldepain, met the first of the witches of Karres.”
The library in my
hometown of Grande Prairie had two floors. The main floor housed the grown-up
books and the lower floor was the kids’ section. The librarian took her job very
seriously. She would not let you take books from the shelves on the main floor
until she judged you were old enough. I know this for a fact because I tried. I
wanted to read those grown-up books so badly. I wanted to know what was in them
that I wasn’t supposed to read.
I forget what book it was I brought to her
counter from the adult section, but she asked me how old I was and then told me
to go put it back. She had a deep, loud voice, unusual for a librarian. Her words carried through the library. Defeated, I put the book back and
descended once more to the floor for children.
Then one day I found this book. The Witches of Karres, by James
Schmitz. I think now that it had been relegated to the kids’ section by mistake. Not that it was
particularly adult in theme or content, but it wasn’t really a book for kids, either.
I got it past the librarian without incident, and I read it and kind of liked it, even though I didn’t understand a lot
of what was going on in it.
That’s probably the
reason the book has stuck with me all these years when so many other books
haven’t. Because it was so unlike most of the other books I was allowed to read
by our vigilant librarian. I’m not sure but I think Witches was probably the very first science fiction novel I ever
encountered. This was before Star Wars. There wasn’t a
lot out there for me to compare the book to back then. Interestingly, Witches and Star Wars share some
similarities of plot and theme, not to mention a penchant for funny, memorable
names for all things alien. Sheewash drive, Yango, the Chaladoor, klatha energy…. I
wonder how well George Lucas knew this novel.
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