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I read a series of paperbacks in the late 80s or early 90s that I found at my local library. I don't know how many books there were because I never finished the series. I feel like I read 3 to 5 and that it was going to be a long-running series (10 or more).

It was young adult fiction, sci-fi, about a group of teenagers in space who ended up getting stranded on an alien planet. Then they start to develop some minor psychic abilities. The covers were cheesy early 90s YA covers with pictures of the characters. I don't remember how they got stranded but I think maybe spaceship crashed? Then I remember a scene where they were standing in a circle with their eyes closed and they could see this psychic connection between them. There were no adults in the story.

It was pulpy but pretty good. Anyway, I've never forgotten it. Any idea what it might be?

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  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remnants_(novel_series)? No planet, though. They're stranded on an alien ship.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Nov 17, 2023 at 20:37
  • looks like remnants came out in early 2000s, these books were definitely published earlier Commented Nov 17, 2023 at 20:40
  • Hi, welcome to SF&F. Do you recall how many books there were? What the covers of any of them looked like? How did they get stranded? (Left by aliens, teleported, some kind of gate, their spaceship crashed...) What kind of psychic abilities?
    – DavidW
    Commented Nov 17, 2023 at 20:45
  • I don't know how many books there were because I never finished the series :( I feel like I read 3 to 5 and that it was going to be a long-running series (10 or more). The covers were cheesy early 90s YA covers with pictures of the characters. I don't remember how they got stranded but I think maybe spaceship crashed? Then I remember a scene where they were standing in a circle with their eyes closed and they could see this psychic connection between them Commented Nov 17, 2023 at 20:47
  • Just a shot in the dark but it sounds like "My Teacher is an Alien," series. The last book is called "My teacher blew up my planet," or something like that. Involves 3 friends who all have psychic abilities from the aliens.
    – Tom S.
    Commented Jan 1 at 2:21

2 Answers 2

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Could it be Timothy Zahn's A Coming of Age?

Danger in Paradise.

The first colonists to reach Tigris thought they had found Eden... but the planet had a horrifying effect on their children. Babies born there developed frightening telekinetic powers at the age of five. No one could control them -- and as the changelings grew and became aware of their abilities they initiated a bloodbath of chaos and violence that nearly destroyed the planet.

Two centuries after the Lost Generation, Tigrins have learned to cope with their strange planet and its effects. But a new threat is rising. In secret a medical researcher is experimenting with the TK ability. His guinea pigs are stolen children; his object, to extend their powers past adolescence and into adulthood. If he succeeds, Tigris faces disintegration.

Not matching, it's a single novel, not a series.

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  • it was definitely a series, not a stand-alone. also there were no adults Commented Nov 17, 2023 at 20:43
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If you had a bunch of students off Earth for a short survival test and got stranded for a couple of years, then that might be "Tunnel in the Sky" by Robert Heinlein. Main character had gone with only a knife for armament, and a warning to beware the "stobor". Something like Lord of the Flies cross Hunger Games. (Not really a series though.)

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  • and no psychic abilities at all.
    – Ben Bolker
    Commented Dec 18, 2023 at 16:48

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