James H. Schmitz was one of the finest writers of light-hearted adventure stories in the history of science fiction. His most familiar works, the Hub and Vegan Confederacy tales and his novel The Witches of Karres, were almost all of that nature.
But he wrote a number of other stories which were quite similar, which are much less well-known—and, often, simply due to the vagaries of the publishing industry. To give an example, the opening tale of this volume ("The Big Terrarium") is as good a story as almost anything Schmitz ever wrote. Alas, it was published in a magazine called Saturn, which folded after four issues. So, unlike the stories published in Analog, which were usually reissued several times in various anthologies, "The Big Terrarium" vanished from sight. To the best of our knowledge, this anthology is the first time it has been reissued since it first appeared in that little-known and short-lived magazine in May of 1957. To one extent or another, the same fate befell many of the stories in this section of our anthology.
One of these stories is of particular interest, for anyone familiar with the history of science fiction. Schmitz's most famous single work, his novel The Witches of Karres, was published at the height of his career in 1968. But what few people know is that, at the beginning of his career—in the late 40s, twenty years earlier—he wrote a story which served as the prototype for the later novel. His "trial run," you might call it.
It's all very complicated . . .
Schmitz wrote the story "Captives of the Thieve-Star" sometime very early in his career, and then decided it was unpublishable and set it aside. The original title of the story was "What Threbus Said." Then, in 1949, he published the novelette "The Witches of Karres," which he would later expand into the novel by that name. Deciding that his earlier story was in fact sellable, he hauled it out of the dustbin—but, of course, having already used the name "Threbus" in "The Witches of Karres," had to change the name of the heroine's father and the title "What Threbus Said" to "Captives of the Thieve-Star."
And that's how it all happened, honest.
That story, "Captives of the Thieve-Star," is included here. We think any reader will enjoy it for its own sake. But those of you familiar with The Witches of Karres will also enjoy seeing how Schmitz transmuted the protagonists of the earlier story into the familiar figures of Captain Pausert and Goth. And will chuckle, perhaps, at seeing the origins of the mysterious and mighty witches of Karres—as disreputable a clan of space gypsies as you could ask for.