Bell, Clare
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1952- ) UK-born author, in the US from 1957; a test-equipment engineer for a computer firm 1978-1990. She began publishing sf with Ratha's Creature (1983) – the first volume of the Ratha sequence of juveniles (also known as The Named), followed by Clan Ground (1984), Ratha and Thistle-Chaser (1990) and Ratha's Challenge (1995) – which delineates the lives of a Parallel-World tribe of intelligent cougar-like felines, concentrating on Ratha, a rebel who becomes necessary for the survival of her people. Tomorrow's Sphinx (1986), also Young Adult but this time about an intelligent cheetah, is set on an Earth abandoned by the humans who have devastated it. In People of the Sky (1989), for adults, an Amerindian star-pilot discovers a planet inhabited by Pueblos; their relationship to the indigenous insect Aliens, which they ride like horses, and the puzzle of their existence on this planet, generate sufficient mystery to keep the competent narrative on the move. Bell might choose to inhabit the consciousnesses of sentient animals – as in The Jaguar Princess (1993), a fantasy – or of a member of a culture foreign to her own (such as an Amerindian), but the true Aliens in her imaginative world are clearly the (human) representatives of technological society. In collaboration with M Coleman Easton, with whom she lives, writing together as Clare Coleman, she has published the Ancient Pacific series, Daughter of the Reef (1992), Sister of the Sun (1993) and Child of the Dawn (1994); they are essentially historical in nature. [JC]
Clare Louise Bell
born Hitchin, Hertfordshire: June 1952
works (selected)
series
Ratha/The Named
- Ratha's Creature (New York: Atheneum, 1983) [Ratha/The Named: hb/]
- Clan Ground (New York: Atheneum, 1984) [Ratha/The Named: hb/]
- Ratha and Thistle-Chaser (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990) [Ratha/The Named: hb/Glen Harrington]
- Ratha's Challenge (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995) [Ratha/The Named: hb/Glen Harrington]
- Ratha's Courage (Baltimore, Maryland: Imaginator Press, 2008) [also given as "New York: Viking, 2007", a scheduled edition which was cancelled after circulation of advance reading copies: Ratha/The Named: hb/Christian Alzemann]
Ancient Pacific
- Daughter of the Reef (New York: Berkley, 1992) with M Coleman Easton as Clare Coleman [Ancient Pacific: pb/]
- The Jaguar Princess (New York: Tor, 1993) [hb/Jody A Lee]
- Sister of the Sun (New York: Berkley, 1993) with M Coleman Easton as Clare Coleman [Ancient Pacific: pb/]
- Child of the Dawn (New York: Berkley, 1994) with M Coleman Easton as Clare Coleman [Ancient Pacific: pb/]
individual titles
- Tomorrow's Sphinx (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986) [hb/]
- People of the Sky (New York: Tor, 1989) [hb/]
links
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