"Alien from Arcturus" aka "Arcturus Landing" by Gordon R. Dickson

Quarantine...Ever since Earth's first starship crept out on sublight drive a hundred years ago and was met by an emissary of the Galactic Federation, man has lived as a prisoner in the solar system. The Federation decreed that unless man could demonstrate his technological maturity and leave the solar system via a faster-than-light drive, he would not leave it at all. All Earth knows the test that man must pass to win Galactic Citizenship and the freedom of the stars; the FTL drive is every physicist's top priority. But what they cannot know is that they work against both an alien time-limit and human sabotage - and time is running out. Unless John Parent's star-drive project is successful, mankind will remain trapped in the solar system, forever...

This is a nice little ready by Dickson. He's great at exploring ideas and how people interact, but struggles with developing deep interaction between characters, and sometimes the ending feel half-finished or abrupt. This is about a middle of the road novel for him.

Arcturus Landing explores interesting idea about human interaction with an advanced Alien Federation, and how people react when humans are restricted to exploring only their own solar system, and the competing elements that it generates. Led by the main protagonist, Mal, the story follows his efforts to create a Faster-than-Light drive in order to break the Federation's imposed restrictions upon humanity, and the challenges he faces in achieving that goal.

Overall an enjoyable read. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. (Stephen Cross, GoodReads)