cover image People of the Sky

People of the Sky

Clare Bell. Tor Books, $18.95 (344pp) ISBN 978-0-312-93131-5

Bell has written several YA novels, including Ratha's Creature , an ALA Best Book. This futuristic novel is an intriguing blend of adult material and YA tone. Kesbe Temiya grew up on 23rd-century Earth, 220 years after most of her Pueblo Indian ancestors left Earth in order to preserve their traditions. While flying an old C-47, dubbed Gooney Bird , to its new owner on the planet Oneway, Kesbe goes down in a storm, and is rescued by Imiya, who says he is a member of a tribe called the People of the Sky, and who flies on an insect-like creature called an aronan. Kesbe realizes that Imiya is a descendant of her own long-lost tribe, who secretly settled here and abandoned their technology. What she learns about their symbiotic relationship to the aronans, and her own mixed heritage, is interwoven with Imiya's fears of his coming-of-age ritual. Bell creates a believable cultural blend of Indian and alien. (Dec.)