When the research vessel, the Dunbrody, first landed on Canis Lupus centuries ago, it didn't know that a meteor strike on Earth soon after the ship's departure all but reduced civilization on the home world to dust. Without aid or support from Earth, the crew of the ship were forced to leave their failing bases and take their chances on the planet. While the air is breathable on Canis Lupus, the non-native humans were ravaged by the pathogens that evolved there. It took several generations for the Lupusians to overcome these diseases and build immunities so that they could do more than just survive.
Fast-forward some 300 years and Earth has reestablished connections to Canis Lupus, one of the few surviving colonies. Some Terran's (the Lupusian term for those from Earth) have rebuilt the original base that first housed the settlers and live there, but they do so under the constant fear of contamination from the outside world. When a Terran leaves First Base, they do so using a bioshield that keeps them separated from the world and must go through extensive decontamination efforts before rejoining the First Base population.
Enter the Odysseus, a research vessel filled with all kinds of scientists determined to learn all they can from Canis Lupus and its people. Among them is Dr. Ichiko Aguilar, an anthropologist who hopes to study the culture and civilization of the Lupusians and one of the book's two main protagonists. The other is Saoirse Mullin, a Lupusian that belongs to a clan that thrived in a niche archipelago that seems to be of particular interest to Ichiko. While Ichiko's mission is to learn as much about the peoples of Canis Lupus as she can before the Odysseus has to return to Earth, she quickly befriends Saoirse and starts to get a sense that maybe the natives to the archipelago have a deeper secret they are not only hiding from Ichiko, but, it appears, the rest of the Lupusians as well.
While the main focus of the story is Ichiko's exploration of the native people and Saoirse's growing admiration for the doctor, there are other aspects in play as well. The personal assistant artificial intelligences that the Terran's use are starting to malfunction. There is growing unrest from the Lupusians as they wait for word from the Odysseus's captain to learn if they can be brought back to Earth. There is the constant worry of the native pathogens infecting the Terrans, and underlying it all is the question about the secret Saoirse's people seem to be hiding.
I enjoyed Amid the Crowd of Stars, but what I felt it lacked, until about the last quarter of the book, was any real conflict. Most of the story focuses on the different cultures feeling each other out and trying to work within their own rules and secrets in order to learn more about the other. While this is interesting, it is done in a generally civil manner, and it never really felt like there was a driving force that pushed the characters, or me as a reader, forward. The closest thing to a ticking clock the book represented for most of the story was that the Odysseus had a time limit to determine if they could remove the native pathogens from the Lupusians and get them to integrate with Terrans before the ship had to leave for Earth again. Granted, this desire to rejoin Earth is a major motivating factor for many of the characters, it just never seemed like the driving force of the book as a whole. The result was that for the most part, Amid the Crowd of Stars wasn't a page turner.
Don't get me wrong, Leigh weaves an interesting tale full of wonderful world-building. While Canis Lupus isn't the first speculative fiction world I've read that takes place on a tidally-locked planet that always has a side facing the sun and one facing space, I feel like the society he developed here is more thought out and examined than the others I've read. Anyone looking for a strange new world to discover will find plenty here to enjoy, it just took a long time before I felt any real urgency to find out what happened next.
