Looking for an older less known sci fi novel

[jjbookworm]

I'm trying really hard to find this sci fi book that I read a while ago and loved. It was about this commander/leader who had special mental telepathic powers and an extended lifespan who at the beginning of the novel encounters this abandoned world. The world is inhabited by a race of people descended from slaves and so are more docile/obedient and caring. He meets and falls in love with a woman there and ends up taking her with him back to his world/worlds. It starts out I believe mostly in her perspective and then switches between the two. I also for some reason remember that he escaped some kind of imprisonment on a world by being ejected into space in a coffin as was the custom of his captors however the plan went wrong when the people who were supposed to pick him up took awhile getting to him. He spent along time confined in the box made more difficult by the effect it had on his mental powers and is haunted by the incident. I really can't remember much about how the story goes and its making me crazy. I think I must have been pretty young when I read it as I don't recall names, the author or the title although I think that it might have started with Q or K and perhaps was an alien made up word as it's totally slipping my mind. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Some of it sounds a little like Shards of Honour, the first of the Vorkosigan saga? I don't remember anything about a coffin but the docile vs warlike people and the female and then male perspective is somewhat similar. If so, it's by Lois McMaster Bujold.

 

[jjbookworm]

I checked it out and it wasn't the one I'm looking for but it looks good too and I will have to give a try. Appreciate your help.

 

[Westpoint]

2rd inthe Harry Harrison Death World Trilogy?