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I read this series of novels in paperback more than 40 years ago. There were at least three books in this series, but I'm not sure exactly how many. Not more than six, I believe.

All I remember is that a team of space explorers, men and women, would visit various planets to open them for colonisation. But if they found any intelligent life on a planet they could not claim it for mankind. It was not always quite clear, however, as to what constituted intelligent life. Interactions with whatever life existed on these planets were usually complicated. Alas I don't remember much else.

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  • A Bertram Chandlers John Grimes Survey Service series?
    – John Rennie
    Commented Apr 15 at 9:02
  • @JohnRennie From the abstracts I read, in at least some of the planets described in Chandlers series, there has already been a previous colonisation from Earth. This is not so in the case of my series.
    – Alfred
    Commented Apr 15 at 9:43
  • Did any of the stories involve an intelligent octopus race that preyed on non-sentient humanoids?
    – Pastychomper thanks Monica
    Commented Apr 15 at 12:03
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    @PastychomperthanksMonica That was long ago... I do remember snakes in one of the stories, but not octopuses. But I am not sure...
    – Alfred
    Commented Apr 15 at 14:52
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    Could this be the Edmund Cooper (writing as Richard Avery) series The Expendables? There are 4 and the first is "The Deathworms of Kratos" (1975)
    – Cassfrank
    Commented Apr 15 at 16:49

1 Answer 1

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As confirmed by Alfred, this is Edmund Cooper's series The Expendables (written under the pen name, Richard Avery) in the mid-1970s.

They are: The Deathworms of Kratos (1975, The Rings of Tantalus (1975), The War Games of Zelos (1975) and The Venom of Argus (1976)

From Fantastic Fiction:

The Expendables were criminals, offered pardons in exchange for exploring alien worlds. But their mission takes them to Kratos, where the local lifeform is giant, slimy and hostile!

First novel

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