The X Factor

The X-Factor (1965) is a standalone SF novel, probably in the Council/Confederation universe. The Survey Service allowed their space personnel leave to marry and to produce children. After several years, the marriage was break-bonded and the couple went their own ways. Any children from the marriage were raised in a Service creche. In this novel, Diskan Fentress was raised in the Service creche on Nyborg. Unlike his fellows, Diskan was oversized and clumsy. Under direct or hostile supervision, he was even more clumsy. His superiors deemed him suitable only for the most degrading forms of manual labor. Then Renfry Fentress returns from presumed death to find his son. His ship had been holed by a meteor and left drifting. Another scout from an unknown spacefaring species had rescued Renfry and took him back to Vaanchard. There he had married a Vaan woman and became stepfather of her two children, Rika and Drustans. Since they could not have children of their own, Renfry searched for his children from previous service marriages and found Diskan. Before his long absence, Renfry had earned an impressive reputation as a First-In Scout. Obviously Diskan was not going to follow in his father's footsteps, so Renfry took him to a new home on Vaanchard. The Vaans are a refined and sensitive culture. They do not issue rude remarks as had some of his crechemates. But they do consider him crude and inept. Diskan just doesn't fit in here anymore than he did at the creche. One day Diskan finds himself in his father's study and decides to flee the planet. He takes a trip tape from a rack and heads for the spaceport. There he steals a smaller ship, inserts the tape, and goes into stasis for the remainder of the trip. However, the ship awakens him for an emergency landing. During the landing on Mimir, a drive tube blows and the ship rolls across the terrain, finally coming to rest in a muddy bog. While the ship sinks into the mud, Diskan is ejected and reaches safety. Yet all emergency equipment and supplies go down with the ship. In this story, Diskan barely survives the first night. Still, the natives detect his presence and converge on his position. One makes initial contact, leaving the carcass of a small, big-eared animal with him for food. Then the native saves him from a menacing predator. Later, Diskan has strange dreams of walking through sweet scented water while accompanied by frolicking animals. He is surrounded by shadows that seem friendly. He senses a feeling of great expectation around him. Diskan finds signs of other offworlders on the planet, including a survival shelter with labels in several languages other than Basic. Later, he discovers a Zacathan and human from a stranded archaeological expedition. Then a Jack ship lands to search for treasure. Some of the crew start looking for the archaeologists. This story deals with the mindset of outsiders. Diskan differs from his fellows in body and mind. He doesn

When I was forty I wrote Andre Norton a letter in which I thanked her for everything that her books at taught me when I was growing up. Her stories about outsiders who succeed by finding the right path for the right person, something that out of step adolescents need to hear. Ms. Norton graciously responded with a letter I cherish nearly a decade later-- actually it's professionally framed and hanging in my office. This was one of the books I was thinking about when I wrote her. The hero has great physical strength, but feels as though he lacks the mental swiftness and physical grace to fit into the world of his father. He flees using a stolen travel tape and ends up on Mimir where he must find the courage and wits to survive and foil a villainous plot.On one level a simple adventure story, on another a story that most adolescents, who can't seem to fit in their changing bodies, can identify with. This Norton's juvenile stories at their best.

This book combines some of the great SF/Fantasy themes in a way that works and flows. It is the Norton that I would most frequently check out of the library to re-read as a young adult. Some of the mental images I developed in reading this story, can still bubble up in my memory today. The sense of alienation - of not belonging - felt by the main character echoes the feelings of all unpopular-due-to-nerdiness kids - many of whom were SF fans in the making. That alone should explain part of its appeal.We also get - *a cold wintry planet with a Forerunner-like mystery*one of the friendliest and most interesting of Norton's Zacathan characters [a wise, peaceful lizard-evolved race (in sharp contrast to most authors' intelligent-lizards-are-savage depictions (although see Norton's *Eye of the Monster*)]*a hidden, "furry" race*Norton's trademarked handling of telepathy, with her concept since copied by many other authors*and a plot that , while a classic hero's journey, has many particular 'vignettes' that have also been copied since - including by Norton herself - but rarely as well done.All in all, my sentimental favorite of early Nortons, and still fondly remembered.-Brooks A Rowlett

At this point in Norton's Council / Confederation universe, the job of discovering and exploring new planets - that of the First-In Scouts - is pretty much a closed occupation. Scouts make contract marriages with suitable women, which end after the birth of a child or upon the Scout's departure for his next assignment, and any children of the union - nearly always sons - go to the nearest Scout creche to become the next generation.But what happens when the child of such a union isn't suited to the life of a Scout?Diskan Fentress was rejected as mentally unsuitable for Scout training; his size and great strength mark him as a throwback. Since his mother's death in childbirth and his father's disappearance in space left him in state custody, he wound up assigned to manual labor - until the day Renfry Fentress reappeared. Renfry had found a new civilization, and even a wife among his adopted people - but knowing that they could not have children, he sought out his son.But Diskan, despite - or because of - the endless patience, charm, and tact of his father's adopted people, is utterly alone among strangers, marked by clumsiness, his great size and strength, and inability to express himself. Anyone who has ever felt like an outsider will appreciate how his isolation is drawn here - and will understand why he gives in to temptation.Fleeing from an embarrassing scene of (accidentally) shattered artwork, Diskan hides in Renfry's study - and steals a voyage tape for Mimir, a world marked as only partially explored and having some mystery about it. His journey in a stolen spaceship brings him into contact with a Zacathan archeologist, the Guild, and the ruins of an alien civilization. Or are they really ruins - could Mimir still be inhabited?The saurian Zacathans, historians of the galaxy, are mentioned throughout the books set in this universe, but this is one of their (to date) few appearances as actual characters. The Guild - the criminal underworld - appears in many books, as do many Forerunner civilizations. If you're interested in books wherein the Guild plays a major role, try _The Zero Stone_ or _Forerunner Foray_. For another story of someone rejected from Scout training, try _Dread Companion_ (the daughter of a Scout, rejected for reasons different from Diskan's).

I read this back in high school for the first time, then came across it in a used book store a few years back after searching in vain for several years to find another copy, (I'm 31 now, so it had been awhile since I had read it) and read it again, and loved it even more the second time around. I feel it's time to read it again, because the way Norton paints the plot it flows like a movie inside your head. It's one of the best books I've ever read that lets you visualize exactly what's taking place. If you come across a dog-eared copy in a used bookstore somewhere, by all means pick it up, hold it close, and give it a good home, you won't regret it! And for those of you that have read it, please feel free to e-mail me your thoughts and comments about it