The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn

November 30, 2008November 30, 2008| StettinStettin| 0 Comment| 8:17 pm
Categories:

Book Cover
I’m slowly chipping away at my collection of Timothy Zahn novels. I recently enjoyed reading Manta’s Gift, but I definitely enjoyed Icarus Hunt more. Rather than focusing on one alien race, Zahn spreads quite a few alien species throughout the book. There is constant action, enough so that the book hardly felt like 450 paperback pages long. I categorize this book as a cross between a Sci-Fi and mystery novel.

The story starts out with Jordan McKell, a starship pilot, getting into a brawl with a couple of aliens in a bar. After dispatching the aliens, a man offers to buy McKell a drink and asks if he is available to pilot a ship. The ship will have a sealed cargo container that must be delivered to Earth as soon as possible.

Zhan appears to integrate a couple familiar elements here:

Token smuggler:
If you like Han Solo from Star Wars, you’ll enjoy Jordan McKell’s narrative. They both are unscrupulous smugglers that have debts to pay back to underworld crime lords. They both have alien partners; however Chewbacca appears to be both a pilot and mechanic while Ixil is mainly a mechanic. Both are asked to pilot another person’s ship under mysterious circumstances. Jordan is the main character in this book, so is much better developed as a character than Han.

Star travel monopoly:
The Patth don’t have a complete monopoly of star travel, but hold the key to star travel four times faster and three times cheaper than any other technology. They use their power to pressure other races. This reminded me of the Guild Navigators in Dune.

Not too long after the journey begins, McKell discovers that he is being pursued by the Patth. This, along with the mysterious death of the ship mechanic (which he replaces with his partner Ixil) complicates his mission. I kept waiting for him to say “I have a bad feeling about this!” Following these developments, this story takes goes through quite a few twists and turns, especially toward the end. Zahn kept me guessing, and when the mysteries were finally revealed, I was pleasantly surprised.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please prove you are a human * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload the CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Post

Robot City series overview (spoiler free)Robot City series overview (spoiler free)

I thought it would be appropriate to write a little mini review of the entire Robot City series before starting on the individual books since I have read this series once before. I won’t go into any spoilers, just give a general feel for the series. Each novel begins with an introduction by Isaac Asimov which is a nice addition to each of the novels. As stated in the introduction for the first book, this series is the first time Asimov has allowed any other authors to write in the world he created. Essentially he had final say on anything that went into the books and was consulted to make sure the authors didn’t overstep their authority. The introductions themselves sometimes reveal minor plotline spoilers for the current book, but nothing major except for book six. I recommend reading the book six intro after you finish, but that’s up to you.

This series is really meant to be read as whole. It takes place approximately 20 years before Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov. I chose to read Robots and Empire before this series. The first book really gives you a glimpse at what might happen in the following books. Book one is full of questions, very few answers, and can be best described as an “introduction” like the first 20 minutes of a movie. I was hooked on the series after the first book. Each book is only about 200 pages with short chapters so it is easy to just pick it up and read a little bit without having to stop in the middle of a chapter. There is a general consistency in the writing of the various authors in all 6 of the novels comprising the series. It really doesn’t feel like you are adjusting to a new author for each book. Overall, the series is a worthwhile addition to the universe that Asimov created.

Read MoreRead More

The Lost King by Margaret WeisThe Lost King by Margaret Weis

The Lost King Cover

I am always open to suggestions when it comes to discovering new authors. By new, I mean to me, not new to writing. For example, I discovered Isaac Asimov a few years after his death, when he had already written over 400 books. Recently, one of my friends suggested I read the Star of the Guardians series by Margaret Weis. He had read it a long time ago, but was rereading the series again. I figured if it was good enough for him to read twice, I should give it a try. Weis offers an eloquent introduction to the series by first clarifying the genre her books fall into. Many fantasy readers might recognize her name as a co-author of many of the Dragonlance books.

If Fantasy is a romance of our dreams, then Galactic Fantasy is a romance of our future
…
Galactic Fantasy is certainly not science-fiction. Sci-fi often deals with the romance of plastic and chrysteel; our love and worship of technology.
…
I believe that man will reach the stars. When he does, the ‘science’ of how our spaceship gets from place to place will ultimately be less important than how we, as people, act when we get there. Galactic Fantasy explores how we deal with our own fears, ambitions and passions as we soar among the heavens—not the technicalities of getting there.

It is my understanding that George Lucas did not intend to write hard science fiction, but rather Galacitc Fantasy in Weis’s terms. Another word that has been used to describe Star Wars is “Space Opera.” I think either of these would be suitable descriptions.

Why do I mention Star Wars? As the first few chapters unfolded, I noticed quite a few familiar themes. I detected obvious influences from Star Wars and Dune very early on. For example, the Guardians seemed to be very similar to Jedi. They are an elite group, loyal to protecting their leaders. Their weapon, for example, is the bloodsword.  There is selective breeding for the “Blood Royal” kind of like in Dune, however it is combined with genetic research and with a slightly different goal. There are a few others that I won’t mention because I consider them to be spoilers. (more…)

Read MoreRead More

Brave New World by Aldous HuxleyBrave New World by Aldous Huxley

Book Cover

My wife was surprised that I had never read Brave New World. It seemed to her that this novel by Aldous Huxley was generally considered required reading in school. She ordered it for me along with 1984 by George Orwell, which by coincidence I haven’t read either. It seems that I somehow went to the wrong schools as a kid, and missed out on some classics. I’m trying to remedy this.

I wouldn’t really call Brave New World a sci-fi novel. It’s more of a criticism of utopian society. The setting is in London around 2540 AD, where society is broken down into castes. Human reproduction is done in a “hatchery” where babies are created in bottles and subjected to varying conditions in order to guide development into one of the five classes (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon). Aside from modifying biological factors, each child is “trained” with techniques ranging from aversion therapy to repeating phrases over and over when they sleep.

(more…)

Read MoreRead More