Norton, Andre - Forerunner 1 - 5

Forerunner Series

Featuring the Forerunners, an incomprehensible yet powerful vanished alien race whose artefacts survive them. This series is also tied to the "Janus" and "Dipple" books.

Storm Over Warlock (1960)

“Storm Over Warlock” is one of author Andre Norton’s best works. He was alone on a hostile planet. The Throg task force moved against the Terran survey camp just a few minutes after dawn. They struck entirely without warning, and with a deadly precision that seemed to argue that the aliens had fully reconnoitered the area and made detailed preparations for the attack. Eye-searing lances of energy lashed back and forth across the base with an unnerving and methodical accuracy. And a single cowering witness—flattened on a ledge in the heights above—knew that when the last of those yellow-red bolts fell, nothing human would be left alive down below. And so Shann Lantee, most menial of the men attached to the Terran camp on the planet Warlock, was left alone and weaponless in a strange and hostile world. The only human survivor, and the prey of aliens from outer space and aliens on the ground alike.

Ordeal in Otherwhere (1964)

Classis Andre Norton! A sequel to "Storm Over Warlock" An illegal trading venture to the planet Warlock has resulted in a crew-woman going insane due to the mind influence of the females of the pseudo-reptilian Wyverns of Warlock. So the trader captain purchases the "labor contract" of Charis, a former education officer to a fanatic religious colony, thinking because she is female he can use her to contact the witches and induce them to trade with him. However, the Witches incite the males to overrun the trader's encampment and Charis is forced to flee to the wilderness to save her life. There, she manages to save the life of a "curl-cat" who becomes her telepathic companion; she also encounters Shann Lantee and his wolverine partners, and together they defeat the Thieve's Guild attempt at takeover of the planet.

Forerunner Foray (1973) – also in Dipple series

"Forerunner Foray" is the 3rd novel in the Shan Lantee series (see _Storm Over Warlock_, _Ordeal in Otherwhere_), although it won't be apparent until you're well along in the book.
"Forerunner" is a term used to refer to long-dead civilizations, where 'long' is measured in millions of years rather than millenia. Forerunner artifacts are sometimes of immense value, particularly examples of technology that outstrip that of the current galactic civilization. In this universe, archeologists have to compete not only with legitimate government agencies over custody of their finds, but with the Guild, that shadowy, loose organization of the Galaxy's criminals.
The evening our story begins, Ziantha, a Guild Esper, ventures into the office of one of the many power-brokers who reside on the pleasure-planet Korwar. She's not there even to touch any of the valuable artwork - just to use her talent to identify specific computer memory cubes in his safe, and to copy their contents into her own memory without touching them, or leaving any trace. But while her defenses are down for the transfer, she is drawn to one of the artifacts - the ugly lump of rock on the coffee table, which is more than it seems.
Ziantha's superior, the Lady Yasa, organizes an expedition to trace the artifact back to its origins, during which Ziantha is drawn into its past.

Forerunner (1981)

Andre Norton was one of the best known writers of science fiction in the genre’s history, and the subject of especially fervent loyalty and enthusiasm. One of her greatest triumphs is the Forerunner series, which has earned a place of legend among fans with such books as The Time Traders, Galactic Derelict, Sargasso of Space, and many more. Forerunner is the definitive novel in that series. It also holds a special place in the history of Tor, as it is the first book Tor ever published.

“Kuxortal has always been,” Forerunner begins. This ancient port was established in the time of antiquity and has built and rebuilt itself on the ruins of former civilizations. Kuxortal is inhabited by a lowly race of Burrowers, who tunnel and excavate beneath the city’s towers and sometimes discover artifacts from the past. Simsa is a Burrower who has spent her entire life in the service of an older, crippled mentor, Ferwar, who had reputedly rescued Simsa from a trash heap when she was an infant. Simsa, with her blue-black skin and platinum hair, clearly comes from different stock than the other Burrowers, but Ferwar never revealed her origin.

When scavengers attempt to loot the treasures that Ferwar had left behind, it becomes clear that Simsa must flee. Especially when they discover that the scavengers consider Simsa one of the treasures that they have come to steal....

Forerunner: The Second Venture (1985)

Sisma, the beggar whose mind held the ancient legacy of the Forerunners, had escaped her claw-and-fang life in the Burrows, with the off-planet Rangers. But the Rangers wanted her in captivity for study by historians.

So Sisma and Zass, her winged hunting zorsal, escaped again, taking a stolen lifeboat to an unknown world. A desert where shapeshifting creatures lurked beneath the sand, where Zass and Sisma's hunting skills, psychic powers, and strange link to the Elder One in Sisma's mind were their only survival weapons.

Then Thom, the Ranger who saved--and perhaps betrayed--Sisma, crashed on the planet. Together, they realized that a mysterious, mind-threatening and possibly monstrous power had found them...

And only the Elder One could help.