Military pilot Garin Featherstone is hired by a famous explorer to fly one of his planes to Antarctica to discover the source of a mysterious blue haze that might be generated by a cache of valuable minerals. As he approaches the crater from which the mist is rising, Garin senses an alien presence that takes over the plane, causing it to crash in the crater.

By the time Garin awakens, he is taken into the care of a race of humanoid lizards known as the Tav. After restoring him to health, their leader, Trar, charges Garin with a quest to venture into the lands of the Black Ones and rescue the Thrala, the Daughter of Light, who has been taken captive by Kepta and will be killed in his sinister laboratory experiments.

The People of the Crater is a standard fantasy adventure of the "fish out of water" variety so prevalent in a decade that produced similar yarns from the likes of Jack Vance, Philip Jose Farmer, and others. Andrew North's (aka Andre Norton, aka Alice Mary Norton) world building is impressive even if her villains are not. ( )