Usually when a author fires off a 'one shot' outside their usual universes that is the end of things, no matter well liked the original short story was or how well received the novel was. ...especially when the author leaves this plane of existence without leaving any forwarding address.

James H. Schmitz put together The Witches of Karres back in 1966; his novel version took the original short story and expanded that light-hearted, irreverent romp into a darned decent piece of SF. Schmitz reportedly had an outline for a second book, but it has never surfaced. He died in 1981.

I read "Witches..." not long after it was published and thoroughly enjoyed the action, adventure and humor I found there. ...so what to think about a book published by three SF authors just a few years back? Well, Mercedes Lackey I've read; Eric Flint too. Dave Freer is the new kid to me, but the other two have enough street cred to let me shell out the shekels to see what they came up with.

They came up with one heck of a story! Take two of the original three witches, hide Karres away, mix in some former badies as allies, keep a couple of darned nasty enemies, add a travelling interstellar circus, subtract a bank account, make sure the dog bites the correct people, make darned sure to keep the vatches under control, have the thespian troupe help save the day...

Oh, heck, yes!

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Publisher: Baen; Reprint edition (December 6, 2005)
ISBN: 1416509267