help in remembering author/title of a series of books

[chulain]

Hi
Tough one that has had me racking my brains for weeks

Two main threads to the story
1) Galactic Agent making contact with the lost colonies trying to bring them to a level where they can join a de-centralised glactic government - series from what I remember just focuses on 1 colony

2) before the timeline of the book there was a oppressive society that leaned heavily on creative spirits a few of these joined together and left earth
They landed on a planet with a strange plantlife - a type of moss that was reactive to psyhcic powers (and the colonist had these in plenty even if mainly dormant)
Story begins (I think) at the stage where the colony has a form of medievil monarchy with the moss taking on the form of pixies - goblins etc

Any help or thoughts would be appreciated

thanks

 

[thepaladin]

Except for the moss this sounds like The Warlock In Spite of Himself series by Christopher Stasheff. Plenty of "wee folk" and a population that started out as colinists with dormant (or not so dormant) psychic powers (books I believe use the "ESP" designation). The main character Rod Gallowglass is an agent for SCENT searching for lost colonies.

Sorry....something on the planet amplifies the mental abilities of the populace bringing about what they see as magic....I don't remember any moss however. That being said it has been thirty years or so since I read these.

 

[Pyan]

You're correct, Paladin, even though your memory hasn't retained the bit about the psychoactive moss. It's used by the espers on the planet to create the "wee folk", and other "magical" critters...

Internet Book List :: Book Information: Warlock in Spite of Himself, the

 

[thepaladin]

Well, like I said...it's been a while.

 

[Pyan]

Gods, for me too - I just worked out that I must have read this in about 1970...*wince*

 

[chulain]

Thanks Guys
Cant remember how long it is since I read but at least 25 years ago. was before I left for Uni.

Thx Again

 

[thepaladin]

Ever read his Wizard series? It's a little different as I remember...postry based magic.

 

[thepaladin]

sorry..........that should have been "poetry" based magic, typo.

 

[chulain]

Hi got hold of it in ebook now and didn't realise he had added to the Gramayre series
looks like some happy reading ahead of me

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

"The Warlock In Spite of Himself" is clever and amusing, and I also liked the sequel King Kobold very much, but after that the series, at least for me, went swiftly downhill. Maybe the later books are better; I never tried them since the books immediately after Kobold disappointed me. I don't know whether I lost interest in the central conceit (like a joke that's been repeated one time too many) or whether the writing was actually worse. The series has continued and gained many fans so it may just have been that my tastes changed.

Looking at the amazon reviews just now, I see that Stasheff has massively rewritten King Kobold. Since I have fond memories of that book, I'm wondering whether this was a good idea.

(One of the reviewers amused me by stating that the original version was so obscure that it was never published in the US. That's news to me, since the copy I read and reread back in the 70's was an Ace paperback!)

 

[thepaladin]

Not sure if anyone else feels this way (as there are some glaring weaknesses in the books) but I actually liked the Wizard" series better in some ways than the Warlock series...and yes it did get weaker a few books in.

 

[the smiling weirwood]

There is a similar set of books in the Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley.