Every time I read this authors name I imagine fat, old Kirk shaking his fist and yelling, "Zaaaaahhhhhn".Anyway, I actually read this because Nathan was wondering if Zahn was similar at all to David Weber. I hadn't read any Zahn before (except the first 30 pages or so of a Star Wars novel, I just can't read Star Wars novels for some reason, can't do it.)He rec'ed this one so here we are.The Icarus Hunt is the story of a renegade space smuggler Han Solo Jordan McKell, who is hired by a mysterious stranger to take some kind of mysterious, sealed cargo to Earth from whatever planet they were on that I don't feel like looking up. Along the way they run into a variety of problems and are soon on the lam from an evil alien species whose economic future is threatened by the mysterious cargo. Mystery abounds.This was a perfectly enjoyable novel, well paced with engaging characters and a mystery at the heart of the story. I enjoyed it very much but the story ended with an enormous DEM that kind of ruined the end of the book for me. It wrapped up everything way too neatly and left me felling like the author just was writing along and suddenly thought, "Oh shit, I have to wrap this up in, like, 30 pages". Oh well.To finally answer the question that started all of this, if this book is in any way representative of Zahn's writing style (and since this is the only example I have I am going to assume, for purposes of this review, that it is) then he and Weber have almost nothing in common. The Weber books I have read have been big on technology and extremely lengthy explanations of exactly how every...single...god...damned...thing works in sometimes excruciating detail. Weber's characters are paper thin for the most part, with the exception of Honor Harrington herself, she is well developed and a very good character. Zahn, on the other hand, appears to have better developed characters and a better sense of pacing and dialog. He either writes in a more personal style or the first person POV comes off that way while Weber's style seems more structured. Zahn and Weber are not similar except possibly in quality, they are both solid but not spectacular authors with significant strengths and significant weaknesses.
I am a big fan of Timothy Zahn. He is (deservedly) best known for his Star Wars novels, which are excellent and probably his greatest works.However he has also written several phenomenal original works, of which Icarus Hunt is my favorite.Jordan McKell is a down on his luck independent shipper who isn't "all that independent, actually, not anymore." A small fry smuggler for an organization that bailed him out of his debts, McKell gets in further over his head when he accepts a side job to pilot a ship carrying a secret cargo dug up from an archeological site back to Earth. Related in first person, Jordan's story carries the reader along a struggle keep a thrown together crew a step ahead of parties interested in his cargo and that epitomize "any means necessary."A key element of Zahn's craft is his amazing intuition for how much detail to explain. This story is not about the specifics of the alien races encountered, or the mechanics of their method of space travel, etc. It's a suspense story of a group of characters we desperately want to know the fates of. But these things are necessary knowledge for understanding how events proceed. Zahn weaves just enough of the particulars that you feel like you're right there with them and know what they know. The fact that he does so seamlessly and without drawing attention to it or slowing the story down is a highlight of his writing, and this book in particular.Equal parts mystery and science fiction, Icarus Hunt grabs you at word one and keeps you going until the last puzzle piece clicks into place. It also holds up beautifully to repeat readings, where all the little things overlooked the first time through lock into place and enhance your ride through Jordan's journey.
What do You think about The Icarus Hunt (2000)?
My husband and two of my sisters-in-law love science fiction. Me, not so much. The Icarus Hunt is the sci-fi book for people who don't like sci-fi, much as the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich is the mystery series for people who hate mysteries.What Timothy Zahn has created is basically a gumshoe novel based in space. His characterization is wonderful, and the plot is more than satisfying. I've recommended this book to just about everyone I know.And, you sci-fi fans, my husband -- a certified sci-fi geek -- loved this novel, too.
—Ivonne Rovira
My younger brother, David, gave me this book. As I began to read it, I quickly realized why he did so. The protagonist, Jordan McKell, is amazingly similar to certain Traveller characters that my brother has played over the years. And also, let me say without spoiling it, that I was completely fooled as to the overall motivation of said protagonist. But when all was revealed in the final chapters, I knew why my brother had enjoyed this book so much.But before that final revelation/climax, I felt like I was reading a thinly disguised Star Wars novel. From the first description of the hyperspace design to the protagonist's partner (a large alien creature who seems smarter than his starship captain), I felt like I was reading an outline that had been rejected by Lucasfilm Licensing and sold as "generic" space opera. In many ways, it was "generic" space opera. Zahn does a solid job of conveying starship and personal combat. He even does an Agatha Christie-like job of shotgunning pellets of suspicion and innuendo at every member of the crew in order to keep one in suspense. However, I found the pacing to fall into a plodding walk at times and some of the intermediate obstacles to be painfully obvious and something I would have clicked past in a PC game.However, as much as I was taken unawares at the time of the climactic revelation, I felt cheated by the fact that there was not adequate foreshadowing to support the aforementioned revelation. I used Agatha Christie earlier as an example because the final unveiling felt a bit like the accusation directed at the Agatha Christie parody in the great murder mystery satire, Murder By Death. We simply weren't prepared for it. With a bit tighter pacing and just a little bit of character preparation for what happens at the conclusion, this would have been a 4-star book instead of merely an average read.
—Johnny
A pretty fun and fast-paced murder mystery/space chase thriller.The galaxy of the book is populated with not-very-alien aliens, much like Star Wars. But as much as I prefer biologically/behaviourally unique aliens in science fiction, the relative samey-ness of the world-building didn't really bother me, as the setting is really just an inconsequential backdrop for Zahn's mystery plot.I would have liked a little more character development, particularly for Ixil, who was the coolest and best character in the book (and one of the two main alien characters). Seriously, Ixil all the way. He deserves a book (or book series) about him. <3The twist at the end was pretty damn cool. There are actually a couple of twists in the last few chapters. The first is the solution to the mystery, which is surprising enough but admittedly not that exciting; but that's soon followed by an awesome twist about two of the characters that completely changes basically the whole book. I really enjoyed that.
—Tom
