Andre Norton

The Beast Master Andre Norton

Hosteen Storm, a Navajo from the American southwest, was a soldier in the Planetary Confederacy forces. He served as a Beast Master teamed with an African eagle (Baku), two meerkats (Hing and Ho) and a dune cat (Surra). Storm and his genetically enhanced animals served valiantly in the war that defeated the alien Xiks. However, that victory did not prevent the destruction of Earth. And so his search for a new home began. Storm emigrates with his team of animals to the colonized frontier planet Arzor. He befriends the local native race, the Norbies, a mute people who have developed sign language to an art. But his new peace is shattered when he finds himself confronted by and old nemesis, Quade and a holdout Xik force that brings war to his adopted home. But perhaps an answer lies in the buried city of the Old Ones, a race that traveled the star-lanes long before man.