Decent 1950s SF by good author. Space gypsies before space gypsies were cool. This novel was short and had a weak ending but it was early days for SF novels and for this author. Initial ideas were good and new for the 50s. Anderson is not my favorite SF author but he has turned out many good books. He has won Hugo, Nebula and several other writing awards for his later works.

Gypsies in space discover odd danger. ( )

Anderson in his introduction to this version explains it is an early story set in a universe he later abandoned. Th only other piece I recall as of now set in this universe is the short story "The Pirate" which I like very much. This one is much sadder. it was originally published in 1956 and republished in this edition in 1978. In some ways I think it could fit better in the typical sf of 1978. Like the wave of sf including the later Andre Norton, and Ursula LeGuin among others, it involves conflict between a human highly technological culture and an alien culture which relies more on telepathy and a union with nature. However, in those other writers the techie culture is "bad" and the natural one is "good" whereas here, the natural one, though sympathetically described, is "bad" and the techies, who are the primary pov characters, are "good." In a way, it reminds me of Anderson's later "Queen of Air and Darkness:" though there the alien "natural" culture is largely an illusion, while here it is real. Spoiler Warning: In this story the central human culture is policed by the "Cordys" -- a space patrol relying more on analyzing information than on blasters. On the fringes of this culture are the Nomads, humans who live all their lives on their ships, trading with planets and providing various services to earn their way. The Nomad culture is very distinctive (one rule is that they must marry people from other Nomad ships, to prevent inbreeding, and only rare marry with outsiders.) The Peregrine is one of those ships. Its captain Joachim comes to a meeting of captains on their base world Rendezvous and points out that several of their ships have gone missing in a specific part of space, and he is going to investigate. Meanwhile the Cordy information analysis has noticed the same phenomenon and a Cordy agent, Micah, manages to get aboard the ship; so does an alien native woman(Ilaloa) from Rendezvous who has a love affair with a Nomad, Sean. On another planet (ruled by former Nomads who turned conquerors) she claims to have contacted the mind of an alien supposedly from those who were taking the ships. When Peregrine goes to the region she identifies as the aliens' home, they end up being pushed to land on a planet whose people, the Alori, are the "nature" based culture mentioned above, They are also the same race as Ilaloa, who confesses to leading the Peregrine there so the crew should be captured. The Alori explain that they have captured the earlier Nomad ships (and others) and adapted the crews to be agents of the Alori; ultimately they intend to convert the entire human race to their ways as they believe their own culture could not survive human domination. However, Ilaloa genuinely loves Sean, and he persuades her to help Joachim, Micah, his Nomad wife Nicky and a picked crew capture one of the Peregrine's spaceboats (now stored on the Alori planet) , so they can return to the Peregrine (left empty in orbit) and escape, The plan works, thanks largely to Ilaloa, but in escaping, the humans must shoot down another spaceboat filled with pursuing Alori. The shooting breaks Ilaloa's heart so she throws herself out of the escaping boat. ( )

An odd book, about starfaring people who meet an alien culture very different from their own. It started slow, but built up into an interesting mystery. Unfortunately, once you meet the alien "menace" they turn out to be intergalactic hippies who want to get back to nature, and are appalled by man's mechanical nature. The ending is a non-ending, rushed and unsatisfying. ( )

I listened to this as part of [b:A Galaxy Trilogy: Star Ways, Druid's World and The Day the World Stopped|1277451|A Galaxy Trilogy Star Ways, Druid's World and The Day the World Stopped|Poul Anderson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347698650s/1277451.jpg|1266428]. I'm going to review each book individually & put a link to the review in the overall trilogy. My overall review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit/1277451

Take a space opera & add some really thoughtful themes to get this story. Spacefaring gypsies meet an alien civilization that offers us utopia, but on their terms. Pretty well done, but a bit dated overall. I would have given it 4 stars if it hadn't been & he'd developed the theme a bit more. Quite an interesting one.

This book was also titled "Star Ways". ( )

The Nomads are an anachronism. A people bred to wander the stars. Descendants of the victims of a navigational anomaly in space, they are, essentially, gypsies. They trade, craft, cultivate natural resources or plunder the worlds they encounter. But recently their numbers had been unexpectedly dwindling. In the previous four years, four of their ships had disappeared and Captain Joachim had decided that now was the time to figure out what was going on.

I'm rather pleased to say that I had figured out the main plot twist a couple of chapters before it was presented to us. I thought it was disguised well, but it was still consistent with everything that had happened to that point.

The end was unfulfilling, though. To leave the story at that point, to me, leaves too much finalized. I recognize that earlier on the story, the characters describe the inevitability of things should the humans escape, but in all things the game's not over 'til the fat lady sings.

To me, the story took too long to get going. I guess it's a problem with the whole Sci-Fi genre in that to fully develop your characters, you've got to explain their civilizations and cultures. And when you've got two or three cultures that have to be described, it will consequently take a long time (counted in pages) to introduce those cultures and fill in the backstory.

Again, though, I found Anderson's writing to be solid. I thought some of his shortcuts were out of place, however. Once we were engaged, the action flowed. His introduction of the X was interesting and the challenge of taking on their culture was handled pretty well. Everything seemed to progress to its logical conclusion, but until the end, when we're forced to assume that things progressed to their logical conclusions... ( )