The Five Gold Bands
This novel was first published in the November 1950 issue of Startling Stories magazine. Actual title: The Rapparee, abriged version as The Space Pirate.
Picaresque Irish
adventurer Paddy Blackthorn is caught attempting to steal an
interstellar space drive and is sentenced to death by the ruling council of mutant humans. The mutants' creator bequeathed them the secret of
the drive, and with it a monopoly on space travel, which allows them to
dominate normal humans.
During his escape, Paddy discovers that the knowledge of how to
manufacture the engines has been stored in five gold rings, one for each mutant race. The rings are hidden in five secret locations for
safekeeping. With the help of a beautiful human secret agent, Fay
Bursill, Paddy searches the home planets of each of the mutant species,
in the hope that Earthfolk will be able to resume their rightful place
in space.
Jack Vance
John Holbrook "Jack" Vance (1916–2013) was an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published as by Jack Vance, he also wrote 11 mystery novels using his full name John Holbrook Vance, three under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, and once each using the pseudonyms Alan Wade, Peter Held, John van See, and Jay Kavanse.
Vance won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1984 and he was a Guest of Honor at the 1992 World Science Fiction Convention in Orlando, Florida. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America made him its 14th Grand Master in 1997 and the Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted him in 2001, its sixth class of two deceased and two living writers.