Review: The Icarus Job by Timothy Zahn

What do you do when the assassin you’re transporting is being hunted by the whole Spiral?

It starts with a barfight – a rather one-sided one. Gregory Roarke has to dodge the blows of a bounty hunter named Oberon, who is angry at him because Gregory freed a couple of aliens he was planning to sell into slavery as gladiators. Luckily, Gregory has help from another bounty hunter, one Sebastian Trent. Trent hired him to distract Oberon so that he could bring the vehemently disliked bounty hunter in.

After that is done, Trent sits down to drink with Roarke and admits that he is also looking to hire Gregory to help him on a hijacking job. Since his bounty hunting license got reactivated, the job is one that should be in Roarke’s wheelhouse. While Gregory is tempted by the offer, he ultimately turns it down, instead taking a call from mob enforcer Floyd. Formerly in the service of Luko Varsi, Floyd now serves his successor, Mr. Gaheen. Mr. Gaheen has a job for Gregory and Selene that requires them to talk to his own subordinate, one Mr. Cherno….

The Story

Floyd takes Gregory and Selene by a circuitous route to see Mr. Cherno, who has the details of Mr. Gaheen’s proposition: if they take a passenger in his employ to a job, then he will give them a portal. Not just any portal, either – the portal he wishes to give them is a Gemini, one of two connected portals. It only has one partner and does not connect to the wider network.

Selene and Gregory take a look at the device to confirm that it is the real deal, but Gregory quickly realizes something important: the portal is the same one he saw the Patth take from under the Icarus Group’s nose. Furthermore, Trent was talking about running a hijacking operation. Does that mean he stole this portal for Cherno? Or did Cherno get his hands on it some other way?

It almost doesn’t matter, since they cannot allow this opportunity to pass. Despite the concern of the admiral in charge of Icarus, Gregory takes the job from Cherno. It requires a trip back to the planet where he and Selene had to leave the Ruth, followed by a jaunt to another world to pick up their passenger, during which time Trent contacts Gregory again to see if he would be interested in that hijacking job. Suspicious of a trap, Roarke ignores the message.

Once he arrives to pick up the passenger, however, Gregory starts regretting agreeing to the mobster’s deal. Floyd warned him that he wouldn’t like it, and now Roarke knows why: the lovely lady they have to transport is named Piper, and she’s an assassin. Meaning he and Selene have been called upon to be accessories after the fact to a murder. Only Piper isn’t the woman who comes aboard the Ruth. That is a different woman named Nikki. Same job, same person hiring her, similar clothes…. But what is she hiding? And why does every bounty hunter in the Spiral suddenly want her, dead or alive?

The Characters

Gregory and Selene return in a more relaxed position this time, as they seek to unravel the puzzles that they have been handed without first being made prisoners aboard their own ship. Not only do they have more time to shine, this relatively quiet beginning gives them time to show off their intelligence in relaxing interludes. Dealing with an assassin who will shoot to kill if threatened and has a cold demeanor about her work means the duo are also on edge for an entirely different reason this time, as while they are not prisoners, the person they are dealing with is deadly.

Nikki herself is an interesting character. She is cold-blooded but not without honor. While she kills as a job, she only kills the target, not those close to him in some way; she considers such butchery contemptible. But being with two moral people like Gregory and Selene still manages to throw her for a loop, cracking her professional facade in ways she did not expect. This makes her much more intriguing than the average assassin presented so often in media these days.

The World

This time readers get an archaeological treasure hunt while the story builds upon the known bounty hunting and heretofore unseen assassin laws of the Icarus series. The criminal empire that Varsi ran receives more screen time, too, as it has started shifting and changing now that the boss is dead. Sometimes straight crime pays less well than crime with a more legitimate sheen. There is also some interesting speculation about just who built the strange portals and where they went, as well as why the original portal was set for one direction while the others were not. It is a mystery the heroes will have to solve if they want to get out of this mess alive!

Politics

None.

Content Warning

There are deaths but none are described graphically. There is a mention made of gladiatorial slavery, but other than that, nothing disturbing is in the book.

Who is it for?

Fans of Timothy Zahn who want a new material to read will, of course, want this novel, as will thriller fans. Anyone wishing for more worlds where archaeological expeditions are thoughtfully considered and looked at in a creative light will also enjoy this book. Mystery enthusiasts and thriller fans will also like the story for the heroes’ answers to various conundrums, including their creative way of getting out of an impromptu siege. In fact, if a reader is actively seeking heroes and heroines who think outside the box, then the entire Icarus series but particularly this book will be a must-read!

Why buy it?

It is creative, it is fun, and it takes a reader through a twisting web of possibilities without putting a single thread out of place. Who could resist purchasing a book that has so many good things in abundance?