300 years before William the Conqueror brings feudalism to England, there is a like case in the Pacific islands. But there, two races meet, neither knowing until then that there are any others in the world. Polynesians, voyaging in quest of a place to start new fiefs, discover islands occupied by tribal blacks. Amazement, fear and curiosity give way to fascination, prejudice and ambition, but across the racial divide friendships form. Antagonisms amongst the colonisers lead to conflict. Alignments emerge, families struggle with setbacks and misfortunes. Through it all, young people form liaisons, building a society unimagined when first the two peoples met. Who then are the conquerors, and who the conquered? Out of the past, in the lush isolation of some Pacific islands, comes a story based on spoken histories told exclusively to the author. It is one that resonates strangely with issues of the present day. Led by the Stars is the first in the SAGA OF PACIFIC ISLANDS series of novels. About the Author. Australian by birth, David Luders had been an agricultural consultant, twice Officer-in-Charge of Australian Antarctic stations and policy officer in Canberra before migrating to Vanuatu when it was still under joint British-French colonial rule. By the early '90s when he began research for his books, he had the confidence of the local people who revealed histories quite unsuspected by the wider world. Astounded by the rich lode uncovered, he published two papers on the subject in professional journals before embarking on this series of novels. Now a noted local historian, he lives not far from the capital and divides his time between farming, consulting and writing.
