The Witling is a 1976 science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Vernor Vinge

Vernor Vinge

Vernor Steffen Vinge is a retired San Diego State University Professor of Mathematics, computer scientist, and science fiction author. He is best known for his Hugo Award-winning novels and novellas A Fire Upon the Deep , A Deepness in the Sky , Rainbows End , Fast Times at Fairmont High ...

, about a planet populated by a race of nearly-human aliens who have the ability to teleport with their minds. This ability varies from person to person: those without the talent at all are called witlings and are the lowest class of person in the planet's primitive societies.

Two human explorers from a nearby colonized world become trapped on the planet, and struggle to find help from various powerful factions that wish to exploit the relatively advanced technology the humans brought with them.

The slower-than-light human colonization that serves as a backdrop for the setting is similar in description to the Slow Zone colonization in Vinge's 1999 novel A Deepness in the Sky

A Deepness in the Sky

A Deepness in the Sky is a Hugo Award–winning science fiction novel by Vernor Vinge. Published in 1999, the novel is a loose prequel to his earlier novel A Fire Upon the Deep...

.