The Dipple Series

by Andre Norton

 

Catseye ~ 1961;

Even the harsh life of the slums of the planet Korwar had not prepared young Troy Horan for the strange goings on at Kyger's exotic pet shop. Somehow he could hear the minds of Terran animals - and their warnings of danger saved his life more than once.
Then the pet shop owner was brutally murdered, and Troy found himself in the middle of a frightening and far-reaching intrigue. With nowhere to go and no on to turn to, he ran for the wilderness in a perilous quest to save the animals and himself.

 

Night of Masks ~ 1964;

To Nik Kolherne, no price seemed too high to pay for cosmetic surgery on his hideously disfigured face - a deformity that otherwise would keep him forever in the Dipple, a sordid settlement for those dispossessed in interplanetary wars. All he was asked to do was lure a small boy, Vandy, from the high-security villa where his warlord father had hidden him and hold him until he revealed information the Thieves' Guild wanted.
The plan went smoothly, and Nik and Vandy were shipped off to Dis, a burned-out planet inhabited only by outlaws. But once there, Nik found that he and Vandy were prisoners and Vandy's life was threatened. In their nightmare flight to escape, during which Nik was driven almost to the edge of sanity, he came to realize at last that a man's worth is determined by his actions, not his face.

 

Masks of the Outcasts ~ 2004;

Two shunned outcasts... Two planets of danger...
The planet Korwar was a glittering jewel of a world, home to the galaxy's wealthiest, but the jewel had a flaw: the huge slum called the Dipple, where the misfits, the penniless, the hopeless eked out a wretched existence - a fate which two young men hope to escape.
Troy Horan leaped at the chance to work in an unusual pet shop in an upscale neighborhood, offering exotic creatures from other worlds to the wealthy. He thought his luck had changed. But the shop owner was playing a dangerous game of intrigue, and when his employer was murdered Troy had no choice but to hide in the mysterious ruins left by a vanished alien race; ruins which trained explorers had entered, never to return....
Nik Kolherne had a face so hideously scarred that he wore a mask to cover it. Then he was recruited by a mysterious figure who offered Nik a new face - if, in return Nik would make a young heir think he was someone else. He accepted the offer reluctantly, but soon realized that he was now an essential element in a kidnapping plot. Now he was the only hope of the young heir's survival - if they could survive on a planet veiled in eternal night ands swarming with deadly predators...