Trying för att identifiera gammal SF-roman om sinnekontroll

Mind Traders

Denna Goodreads diskussion föreslår att detta är The Mind Traders , av Joan Carol Hunter Holly.

Den ursprungliga affischen nämnde en bok som mycket liknar den som beskrivs i den här frågan:

I read this book in 1975 or so; it featured a society in which people with telepathic powers were ranked by how many others they could dominate with their minds - some people were ranked as "threes" who could only dominate 3 others, while the top of the line were "nines" (I think). The main character was low-ranked, but learned (of course) that he was in fact far more powerful than he thought. I was reading a lot of Andre' Norton at the time - so this could be her. Any ideas?

En annan användare kom ihåg vad som uppenbarligen var samma bok;

Okay, this is just weird. I thought about this very book today while I was at work and am frustrated that I cannot recall the title. I remember that the whole thing takes place on an alien world where humanoids have varying powers and can control a certain number of others to perform duties. A human investigator goes there looking for missing humans. I hope someone recalls the title. I'm going to search for this myself.

Den andra användaren identifierar senare The Mind Traders som rätt titel:

The Mind Traders by Joan Hunter Holly! Found it by being stubborn with Google search.

So, I guess you can call this one "solved?", if this IS the one you were remembering.

Den första användaren bestämmer senare att detta är boken som de letade efter.

En beskrivning av den här boken:

A place of crawling spiders and poisonous snakes where nightmares came true.. that was "The Black" where men were punished for challenging minds more powerful than their own. The detective from Earth feared The Black more than any torture his own planet could conceive. But he had to uncover the sinister plot that threatened Earth and all its people.

Så det ligger säkert på en annan planet än jorden.

En Amazon-recension säger något liknande:

A human detective hunts a murderer on a planet with telepathic natives.

Jag fick en utskrift av The Mind Traders och det verkar matcha både boken i citat # 2 och kanske den som beskrivs i den här frågan, men inte boken som beskrivs i citat # 1 (dvs huvudpersonen var inte lågrankad, utan snarare från jorden, och saknar således makt totalt).

• Sätt på en annan planet än jorden .

  Ja. Det är inställt på Riga:

  "Missing persons. Does this ring a bell—a flurry of missing persons six months ago that ran on for a few months than stopped abruptly?"

  "All right," Morgan said, "so what about them."

  "They now number twenty thousand!"

  Morgan let his breath out and stared at Flabert.

  "Missing with no trace," Flabert continued. "Vanished completely from Earth."

  "Oh." The line of talk clicked into shape in Morgan's mind. "And you think they have literally vanished from Earth. To Riga.

• Vår hjälte har ingen förmåga att kontrollera andra

  Ja. Som en vanlig jordmänniska har han ingen maktstyrka.

  Brute strength was Earth's only possible contribution to this fight, and brute strength he had.

• Lokalbefolkningen rankas av hur många personer de kan kontrollera

  Ja.

  Morgan read the symbols, too. There was a woman with Twenty over her heart; there a man with Ten, and there an adolescent with thirty. The numbers only went by tens above the first ten. Below that they spaced by ones so there were Sixes interspersed with Fours, and even a lowly two.

  Den högsta rangen är dock åttio, inte tio, och det finns inga nollor.

• Det finns ett element av jordbruk och människor som arbetar på områden där de lägsta personerna, de två och ena och nollarna spenderar mycket av sin tid.

  Ja. Som tidigare nämnts verkar det inte vara "nulls", och skalan är lite annorlunda än vad du beskrivit, men de lågrankade personerna arbetar i fälten:

  "Rather than keep you worrying, I'll get right to my point. As a Ten, you do a great deal of farm work, don't you?"

  She nodded, and Jael said nothing.