The X Factor by Andre Norton

[james_davis_nicoll]

The X Factor by Andre Norton

Comments

Re: The X Factor

[disassembly_rsn]

In a way, this would be interesting to consider together with Dread Companion. In both cases, the protagonists are kids who were the children of Scouts under the same circumstances (marriage severed when the Scout was reassigned), and in both cases the kids were not what the Scouts wanted:
- Diskan was the preferred gender, but didn't pass the psych tests
- Kilda, I think, would've passed the psych tests but wasn't the preferred gender

Dread Companion is in the 1st person rather than 3rd, and you can see a bit more of how someone rejected as a Scout candidate is treated by the system.

Re: The X Factor

[james_davis_nicoll]

I should get to Dread Companion in about five weeks.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I entirely agree. Unlike most of Norton's SF, I reread this novel only once (because I read it when quite young and didn't remember it well) and am unlikely to do so again. It was clear to me that the protagonists of The Zero Stone, Judgment on Janus, Catseye, and various similar novels by Norton were considerably better off by the end of the novel - in this one, my reading is that Diskan ended up a puppet/slave of the animals he was in contact with.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I only read it once (in junior high), didn't like it, and have never reread it. My only real memory is of Diskan rocking in fetal position and asking the brothers-in-fur "What do you want of me?", which is not really conducive to making me want to give it another shot.

Which is not to say it's a BAD book...I just didn't like it much.

Dreams

[(Anonymous)]

It's an interesting concept and a dark ending.

Norton returns to the same thing in "Perilous Dreams" a collection of three linked novellas about the same technology that explores the interface between dreams, telepathy, and parallel worlds. I gather it's not on your 50 Norton list, being a collection, but it might be an interesting work to cover anyway afterward due to its thematic connection with X-Factor.

-David

Re: Dreams

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I gather it's not on your 50 Norton list, being a collection

Actually, because it is not one of the fifty works listed in a specific iconic Ace ad.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

What number are we at now?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

33, I think?