THREE AGAINST THE STARS! A sky pirate armed with superior weapons of his own invention... First contact with an alien race dangerous enough to threaten the safety of two planets... The arrival of an unseen dark sun whose attendant marauders aimed at the very end of civilization in this Solar System...
The alien spaceship was unthinkably huge, enormously powerful, apparently irresistible. It came from the void and settled on Earth, striking awe into the hearts of all who saw it. Its mission, however, was not conquest -- but a call for help! First contact was a job for the brilliant team of scientists, Arcot, Wade, and Morey. And what they received was an offer of an alliance against an invading foe so powerful that no known force could turn it back!
Islands of Space was written as a sequel to 'The Black Star Passes" 'Arcot, Wade, Morey and their computer, Fuller, put together a ship which will travel faster than light... they give us what may have been the first space-warp drive. With it they hightail it among the stars. They locate the fugitive planets of the Black Star... find a frozen cemetery-world of a lost race... then head out for another galaxy... and wind up in a knock-down-drag-out interplanetary war there.
"I am the last of my type existing today in all the Solar System. I, too, am the last existing who, in memory, sees the struggle for this System, and in memory I am still close to the Center of Rulers, for mine was the ruling type then. But I will pass soon, and with me will pass the last of my kind, a poor inefficient type, but yet the creators of those who are now, and will be, long after I pass forever..."
The star Mira was unpredictably variable. Sometimes it was blazing, brilliant and hot. Other times it was oddly dim, cool, shedding little warmth on its many planets. Gresth Gkae, leader of the Mirans, was seeking a better star, one to which his "people" could migrate. That star had to be steady, reliable, with a good planetary system. And in his astronomical searching, he found Sol.