The Forerunner Factor by André Norton
Cover art by Tom Kidd
Published by Baen Books
Reviewed by Leigh Kimmel
Many authors have a recurring theme that keeps showing up in their work. For Allen Steele it's the Nazis' Amerika bomber, and how the Space Age would've been different if it had been built and launched. For William Barton, it's multiple nested universes that the characters travel through until they discover that such a multiverse needs someone to fulfill the role of Almighty God. And for André Norton, it was always the archeology of deep space and deep time, of long-vanished Elder Races who had left mysterious and incredibly valuable artifacts scattered across a thousand worlds.
This volume contains two of her later works on the subject of the mysterious Forerunners, from the 1980's, when she was beginning to reach the age at which she was becoming one of the senior figures of science fiction, but not yet to the point where writing became difficult enough that much of the work was being handed off to junior collaborators. Together these two novels, Forerunner and Forerunner: the Second Venture tell the story of Simsa, a young woman who started life as a foundling in the ancient trade city of Kuxortal. Her very body marked her out as a stranger, of unknown species, but she was still taken in by Ferwar the Old One, who was a sort of wise-woman to the poorest the poor in this ancient city full of "wicked oriental splendor," to quote Kipling.
It's a setting strongly reminiscent of the city of Jubbulpoor in the beginning of Robert A Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy, but with Thorby and Baslim the Beggar gender-swapped. However, there's not nearly the level of development of Simsa's upbringing at the hands of Ferwar. Instead, the story pretty much begins with the Old One's passing from the maladies of old age, leaving Simsa at loose ends.
Not quite as dramatic an event to propel the protagonist forward as the Sargony's arrest of Baslim when his cover is blown, but it still leaves Simsa needing to find a new way to live. At least she's not on the run from the secret police, but neither does she have the refuge of the Sisu and its captain to call upon. Instead, she has some artifacts, bits and fragments of sculpture that she discovered in various excavations and hopes she can interest one of the spacers in them.
The details of her meeting are fascinating, from the eating customs followed by these fictional people to her insistence that she be paid in bits of broken silver, since one of her social status will automatically be assumed to have stolen actual coin. But more important is the spacer's reason to be so interested in her wares: his brother came to this world in search of artifacts of the Forerunners, and disappeared. Thorn hopes to find his brother, and the possibility that Simsa's artifacts are X-Arth (from Earth, which by the time of the novel has become as distant in history as the actual alien Forerunners) leads him to hope that hope is nigh.
As it turns out, Thorn is sufficiently impressed by Simsa to take her on as a native guide in his trek to seek his brother. The fact that she has trained several zorsals, batlike alien creatures with antennae reminiscent of those of a moth, makes her even more valuable.
However, what was supposed to be a relatively straightforward journey turns out to be far more complicated than they'd planned. Yes, there are ancient spacecraft left from a time when this world was an important part of a long-vanished star nation. But no, Thorn's brother was not the only person investigating it.
Wherever there are highly valuable unique items to be found, there will be those who would happily dispossess others of them. And André Norton's Forerunner 'verse is no exception. Powerful criminal organizations often are involved in any sort of archeological find related to the Forerunners. Thorn learns some bittersweet truths about his brother's fate, while Simsa discovers the truths of her own identity and origins, tied to a long-vanished civilization to which their world once belonged.
The second novel picks up with Simsa abandoned, wrapped in her cloak and cursing Thorn's name. She still has the mysterious alien rod through which she awakened herself to her mysterious past, and by which she identified herself as being tied to the Forerunners.
As things proceed, we soon discover that Simsa is no longer on the world of her birth. She has been taken on a starship, apparently with the intention of handing her over to those who study the Forerunners and their artifacts. However, she is determined not to become their prisoner, their plaything, and has contrived to escape to an alien world. Of her zorsals, she has only the mother, Zass, since she was able to release the young males before being loaded onto that starship.
Now she is two people in one body -- the girl who'd grown up in the bottom of society in the ancient city of Kuxortal, and the Ancient One who once wielded the rod of authority. And at times it seems as if the two of them are struggling to attain control over that one body.
And while she may have escaped the danger of humans who would do her harm instead of delivering her to the Zacathans, the aliens who study the Forerunners, she is by no means safe. Instead, she has thrown herself onto a desert planet as brutal as Tatooine or Arrakis, where inimical alien lifeforms dwell in the sand-filled riverbeds. But those are inimical simply because their biology is incompatible with hers -- they bear her no enmity.
Not so the insect-like indigenous people, who hold a grudge over a terrible wrong that Simsa's people did them with the best intentions. In attempting to help these people, Simsa's people attracted the attention of another starfaring species, more akin to Thorn's people, and it ignited a terrible conflict that left the entire world in a blasted state.
There's a lot going on in this novel, but it seems at times that it's more and more difficult to follow all the story elements. At least part of the problem is the ever-increasing number of minds inside Simsa's head as she recovers more and more of her people's ancient powers. Also, a lot of the ruins she discovers seem to exist in isolation, disconnected from the larger story. On one hand, it's reasonable that a catastrophic war would leave only fragments of the former technology. On the other, it does create the impression of an episodic story with a herky-jerky movement.
But with all its faults, it has a strong moral core based upon the Kantean categorical imperative to always treat other sentient beings as ends unto themselves rather than means to one's own ends. As the novel progresses, the various characters see the ways in which they are using one another to obtain their own ends, and the harm this causes.
Table of Contents
- Forerunner
- Forerunner: the Second Venture
Buy Forerunner Factor from Amazon.com
Review posted January 1, 2021
