Daybreak--2250 AD, Andre Norton
I have no clue where I picked up this old paperback book, but I have a special place in my heart for science fiction that is from the 1960s or earlier, and this one is dated 1952. This is the story of a half mutant human in a post-nuclear war America. Survivors of a nuclear war have banded into their own tribes--the knowledge, science, and history seeking mountaineer Puma Clan, the wandering and adventurous Plains People who live much like Native Americans of old, the Flying Men, a tribe of dark skinned artists and inventors descended from airplane pilots, and the Beast Things, which come from human ancestry but are mutated into savage monsters.
Fors is the son of a Star Man, an honored title of an expert mountaineer, and he seeks to follow in his deceased father's footsteps to also become a Star Man. However, his mother was a mutant, the type which have white hair and can communicate with animals; so Fors has never been fully accepted as part of his tribe. He has taken all the tests to become a Star Man, and did well, but unexplicably was not approved, knowing it was because he is mutant. So now, he must become a laborer and give up his mountaineer ways and live as little more than a slave. He escapes his clan and takes his mutant cat with him, to try to find something in the city ruins of the Old Ones, that will bring him approval from his clan. But he must steer clear of the blue territories, which are still radioactive, and avoid the Beast Things if at all possible, for they are vicious and will hunt him down and eat him.
While he is out, he finds a dark skinned man in a trap, and pulls him out and bandages up his wounds. This is Arskane, of the Flying Men, a tribe that is from the south. He and Fors become friends like brothers, and learn of some things in their journeys about each others' peoples, and how they would like to seek peace with men rather than battle. But they also learn that the Beast Things have been attacking and perhaps evolving in their intelligence, and are becoming a bigger threat to all humanity. All clans must ban together to survive the Beast Things.
This was written at a time where there was massive racial division, and the author's message was all about looking past differences to see that we are all brothers and sisters, we are all human. Page 81 stood out to me where Arskane and Fors are talking about their civilizations: "It seems to me,"he said slowly, "that we are like the parts of one body. My people are the busy hands, fashioning things by which life may be made easier and more beautiful. The Plainspeople are the restless, hurrying feet, ever itching for new trails and the strange things which might lie beyond the sunrise and the sunset. And your clan is the head, thinking, remembering, planning for geet and hands. Together--"
"Together," Fors breathed, "we would make such a nation as this land has not seen since the days of the Old Ones!"
"No, not a nation such as the Old Ones knew!" Arskane's answer was sharp. They were not one body--for they knew war. And out of that warfare came what is today. If the body grows together again it must be because each part, knowing its own worth and taking pride in it, recognizes also the worth of the other two. And color of skin, or eyes, or the customs of a man's tribe must mean no more to strangers when meeting than the dust they wash from their hands before they take meat. We must come to one another free of such dust--or it will rise to blind our eyes and what the Old Ones started will continue to live for ever and ever to poison the earth."
