Star Of Gypsies: Robert Silverberg

A thousand years and more into the future, the human race has spread all over the galaxy, settling on a host of bizarre and exotic worlds. The tenuous galactic empire humanity has cast across the skies depends for its very existence on hyperspace and the pilots who can ride its bizarre force-fields. And these pilots are the gypsies. The Romany have come into their own. But there is a price: the legendary Romany Star. All the leverage the gypsies can bring to bear is used in the search for their ancestral home. Intergalactic blackmail? Of course. But also a statement of intent - romantic but implacable. Who better to orchestrate a scam so colossal than Yakoub, one and future King of the Gyspies. Sulking in luxurious exile, he has been planning his return to power and reminiscing over his extraordinary life. But when the moment of truth arrives, nothing seems to go according to Yakoub's plan. All his ingenuity, every sacrifice - even his pride - may not be enough... Cover art by Jim Burns.