ABANDONED. Aliens kidnap a man because of this ability, regrow his arm and put him on a ship of other misfits. The kidnappers are part of a spacefleet that is fighting a war.

[Mark]

pre-1985 but may be pre-1980 sci-fi. I've read the story as both an individual book and as part of a collection. I'm also pretty sure it was under 2 different titles as, well, but I know for a fact it's the same story.

1 armed man has one of those "mom lifts bus off of her baby" moments. It's either at the beginning of the story or he is remembering the event. Aliens kidnap him because of this ability, regrow his arm and put him on a ship of other misfits. The kidnappers are part of a spacefleet that is fighting a war. Part of their weaponry is the psychic energy that gave the main character the ability to do what he did.

He has to fight other aliens to rise in ranks on the ship.

That's about as much as I remember except the 2 highest ranked aliens are hard to defeat. #2 looks fat, but is actually mostly muscle. #1 is thin, but comes from a bigger planet with stronger gravity, so his reflexes are much faster than everyone else. #1 gives up command when main character tells him his plan.

I could have swore one of the titles it was known by was X Factor, but it's not the Andre Norton book.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Please always include plot details in your header, as per the Group Rules. Your query is more likely to be spotted by the people who can help you find it.

Use the little edit link.

If you don't add plot details we may close the thread.

[Mark]

When you say header, are you talking about in "Topic" or "What the topic is about"?

Which area am I supposed to put it in? There are 3 different spaces. I put that I'm looking for a sci-fi book in topic. Am I supposed to put a whole paragraph there?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

The "Topic" field is where you put your header. This field can fit 256 characters. No, of course you don't have to fill the entire field, but you should put in a fair amount of detail, enough to distinguish your thread at a single glance from any other sci-fi thread.

The "This topic is about" box is where we eventually put the book title of the found book.

[Kris]

Mark, please post a new comment if you're still looking for this book - or if you found it.

Last active on the site in January 2020. Moving to Abandoned folder.