The Sky People The Sky People The Sky People is an alternate history science fiction novel by American writer S. M. Stirling. It was first published by Tor Books in hardcover in November 2006, with a book club edition co-published with the Science Fiction Book Club following in December of the same year. Tor issued paperback, ebook and trade paperback editions in October 2007, April 2010 and May 2010, respectively. Audiobook editions were published by Tantor Media in January 2007. The book takes place on the planet Venus in an alternate solar system where probes from the United States of America and the
Deferent and epicycle prograde motion. Near opposition, the planet would appear to reverse and move through the night sky faster than the stars for a time in retrograde motion before reversing again and resuming prograde. Epicyclic theory, in part, sought to explain this behavior. The inferior planets were always observed to be near the Sun, appearing only shortly before sunrise or shortly after sunset. Their apparent retrograde motion occurs during the transition between evening star into morning star, as they pass between the Earth and the Sun. When ancient astronomers viewed the sky, they saw the Sun, Moon, and stars moving overhead in