People of the Sky, by Clare Bell

[rachelmanija]

This amazing novel features 1) humans riding intelligent telepathic alien dragonflies, 2) a hidden village of Pueblo Indians on another planet, 3) a restored WWII Gooney Bird aircraft, 4) mpreg , 5) interspecies sex with giant dragonflies.

Kesbe Temiya, a Pueblo Indian pilot from Earth, gets hired to go to another planet to fly a restored WWII Gooney Bird from the spaceport to the home of a wealthy collector of rare airplanes. She runs into bad weather and is rescued by a boy riding an aronan (a giant alien dragonfly), who leads her to his hidden colony of Pueblo Indian dragonfly riders, the Pai. They are unknown to the rest of the population of the planet because they want to live in peace and not be bothered. Kesbe realizes that they are the descendants of a supposedly lost expedition.

Because of damage to her plane, she's stuck with them for a while, long enough to get to know some of them and befriend Imiya, the boy who rescued her, and his beloved aronan. Kesbe is in a weird position with them, as she's the first outsider they've dealt with in ages, and while she's technically of their culture, there have been BIG divergences since they landed on the planet, and Kesbe never lived in any kind of traditional village when she was on Earth. The culture clashes are thoughtful and well-done.

Kesbe notices some strange things going on in the village. Only children and teenagers ride the aronans. Once the teenagers go through a ceremony and become adults, they never ride again and their aronans are never seen again. No one in the village will discuss this, and the young humans and aronans who haven't been through the ceremony are not told what it entails. Imiya is also worried about this, and afraid of losing his beloved aronan. Is something sinister happening beneath the surface of the seemingly pleasant community?



No, not really. What's going on is weird, but not bad.

The aronans were dying out when the Pai arrived, as they had a symbiotic relationship with a large animal that had gone extinct. They made a deal that benefited both of them: the young aronans would bond with young humans, and the humans would ride them until they were both on the brink of adulthood. The adulthood ceremony involves the aronan impregnanting the human with an egg. This is a process involving major hormonal and physical changes in both parties, including creating a temporary uterus and vagina in males, and a temporary biochemical sexual bond. Once the nymph is birthed, the human and aronan return to normal, the aronan flies off to live the rest of its life in happy retirement with the wild aronans, and the human is an official adult.

The reason for the secrecy is that the ceremony is a sacred adulthood rite, not to be known before you're ready and not to be discussed outside of the ceremony. Which makes a hell of a lot more sense as the reason for secrecy than the more usual "because."

This goes horribly wrong with Imiya and his aronan due to an unfortunate set of circumstances colliding at once: Imiya is already hesitant to do the ceremony before Kesbe arrives, Kesbe has no idea of what's really going on and is suspicious, and the current shaman who runs the ceremonies is kind of a jerk and has poor people skills, and is harsh with Imiya when she should have been reassuring. As a result, Imiya flees on his aronan at the absolute worst point in the process to do so, and both the aronan and the nymph he's carrying die.

But! There is a lone aronan who must mate and whose rider has died. To make up for her part in the tragedy and as part of a deal to ensure that Imiya is not punished, Kesbe volunteers to become an aronan rider and carry its nymph!

This is depicted in very sweet and joyous terms. It's bizarre but satisfying.



Super weird book but I liked it a lot. The plot is kind of rickety but the worldbuilding is great. If you like "people riding intelligent flying creatures" and anthropological SF, you will probably like this.

I read this batshit work of anthropological SF when it first came out in 1990, then unfortunately lost it. I am pleased to report that it is now available as an ebook.