The Gameplayers of Zan

<b>From the back cover of the DAW first edition:</b> "The <i>ler</i> had been genetically created to be a new race of supermen, and the experiment had not been entirely successful&gt; They were superior to normal humans in certain ways, but all too human in others. <p>Grudgingly, suspiciously, the overpopulated billions of Earth allotted the families of the ler a special reservation - a vast wilderness area where they could live their odd lives, contribute their brilliant talents to humanity's desperate needs - and yet be under constant surveillance. <p>For the ler the situation was precarious and their future dubious. And with the disappearance of a ler girl outside the reservation, the explosion point had been reached."

Chronologically, the earliest of the Ler Series.