Review: The Icarus Changeling by Timothy Zahn

When the middle of nowhere suddenly becomes interesting, that’s a bad sign....

[If this review isn’t enough, Declan Finn also reviewed this one.]

The planet of Alainn is not quite the back end of the Spiral’s nowhere, as Gregory Roarke and his Kadolian partner Selene can attest, but it has a lot of space that does qualify as “nowhere.” This includes the town of Bilswift, where the two have landed for their latest portal hunt. But they are not on the ground long before a local bureaucrat at the spaceport tries to chase them off to make room for an incoming Patth ship due to arrive some days hence.

Gregory does some quick work to get the Ruth “damaged” and in need of repair so that they can’t simply be chased off, and then the duo head into town to do some recon. They have barely entered Bilswift, however, when Selene scents one of her own kind: a ten or eleven year old boy named Tirano who is in the “employ” of the local fish merchants. Combine his plight with the Patth coming in, and things would be bad enough. But matters quickly get worse when bodies start turning up – including the body of the person who sold Tirano into slavery.

When “nowhere” gets interesting, something is wrong. And something is very wrong in Bilswift.

The Story

Since Gregory had a run-in with the person who “indentured” Tirano before her murder, both he and Selene are suspects in her demise, as is the boy. The intrepid crocketts manage to dodge the local badgewoman after finding Tirano hiding on the Ruth’s doorstep, huddling up to the hatch to avoid the persistent rain that marks Bilswift’s days. He also happens to be wearing a Patth robe that belonged to a fellow worker at the fish monger’s – a fellow worker he claims gave him the robe, but according to the badgewoman, this Patth has gone missing.

Gregory makes a quick investigation and discovers that the Patth robe has money in it. A lot of money in it. Tirano claims he didn’t take it, but as Selene points out to Gregory once the boy has left the room, she can’t use her sense of smell to tell if he’s lying.

The reason she can’t do this is because she does not have a reliable baseline for his emotions. Part of the reason for this is due to the fact that a Kadolian who isn’t raised ethically by an adult of his own species is at risk of becoming a “changeling,” a Kadolian who adapts to his environment and mimics those who do provide him with food and shelter. This means that the cues he uses to display emotion aren’t ones she would recognize. Gregory can read Selene’s emotions in her pupils but Tirano’s pupils are unreadable because he has only learned to indicate emotion from non-Kadolian species. While that might be troublesome on its own, it gets worse: Kadolian changelings can become criminals, sociopaths, or psychopaths.

With the bodies stacking up while Tirano pulls some disappearing acts, Gregory and Selene need to figure out who is doing the killing and why. They also need to contend with Selene’s protective instincts toward Tirano, which Gregory hasn’t seen before and which make him wonder how well he truly knows her. Selene’s never liked slavery or abuse, but would she really kill a slaver to try to free a child of her own race?

Or is the better and more bitter question why wouldn’t she?

The Characters

Selene is atypically assertive and aggressive in this sequel to The Icarus Job as she tries to do her best for the young Kadolian boy they have found. Whether it is maternal instincts or clannish ferocity is hard to tell, but in either case, she uncharacteristically leans a little too far into her emotions during her search for justice. No good deed goes unpunished, and Selene’s attempt to see good triumph over evil puts her, Gregory, and even the Icarus Project itself in serious jeopardy.

For his part, Gregory finds a lot of things in this “nowhere” town keep throwing wrenches into what the Icarus Group thinks they know at the same time it reveals a side of his partner that he didn’t realize she had. Worse, however, are the hints that Admiral Graym-Barker might not be in full control of the Project anymore. At a critical moment when their lives are on the line, the Project suddenly pulls something Roarke and Selene need very badly. Roarke is left wondering just how much he can trust the Project and what will happen if things go any further sideways.

In the middle of this swirling maelstrom of doubt and consternation stands Tirano, the Patth Expediter Huginn, and a strange Patth by the name of Galfvi. As if the heroes didn’t have enough enigmas to deal with, they have to figure out which one is the threat, which one is the liar, and just how far they can or can’t trust any of them. Can they solve the puzzles before it’s too late? Or will Bilswift claim two more victims before they can finish their mission and get off-world?

The World

Alainn and Bilswift are painted in all their exotic “nowhere” glory, making for a setting that is at once noir-lite and yet ruggedly rural. The space adventuring takes a backseat to a detective mystery as Roarke and Selene try to unravel who is the cat, who is the mouse, and how they got involved in this complex plot besides. The greater Spiral is left out until politics become involved, giving a reader a better understanding and appreciation of just what the galaxy is like in addition to how much the rich and powerful can twist the legal system to their advantage. The mystery of the Icari, the species that made the portals, also deepens and becomes more puzzling the longer the heroes dig into it.

Politics

There are no politics unrelated to the story in the book.

Content Warning

This is a murder mystery, so there are deaths, but all are sketched quite lightly. Slavery is shown and briefly described, leaving a variety of horror stories up to the imagination without going into detail. It is an easy PG-13 read.

Who is it for?

Zahn fans will definitely want to add The Icarus Changeling to their collection. Anyone itching for a murder mystery that blends noir elements with a rural setting will also want to pick this book up, as despite being a small town, Bilswift’s environment lends itself to certain typical noirish scenes. Readers hoping to sink their teeth into culture clashes and cultural misunderstandings will also like this novel, as the small town police department proves they have the mettle to match any bigger city PD and the Patth show a side of themselves no one has seen before. If readers want protagonists who truly care, they also can’t miss this book, as both Roarke and Selene demonstrate in their own ways just how much concern they have for people beyond the parameters of their job.

Why buy it?

The Icarus Changeling is Zahn at his best, the height of his craft and creativity. If you want something entertaining that will make you think and enjoy doing so, then buy this book today. You won’t regret it!