Review: The Icarus Plot, by Timothy Zahn

Today’s book review is of a book that has not yet been released: Timothy Zahn’s The Icarus Plot.

Zahn is the man who single-handedly revived the Star Wars franchise with his 1991 release Heir to the Empire. But he has multiple series and worlds that have nothing to do with film franchises, and he’s returning to one with The Icarus Plot. It’s a surprisingly tight thriller, where the tension revolves around the simple question: Who trusts who?

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The Story

Six years ago, the freighter Icarus disappeared with all hands aboard. Five years ago, bounty hunter Gregory Rourke and his partner Selene were hunting the Icarus’ captain Jordan McKell when they were both ambushed. Now Rourke and Selene are trailblazers, surveying unknown worlds. Now they’re hired by a mysterious pair who want them to return to bounty hunting. The target? Another member of the Icarus. For Rourke, it looks like payback time.

But Rourke is about to find himself hip deep in a plot with more players than he can possibly realize. His employers are untrustworthy. Other bounty hunters are in on the chase. One of the worst drug lords in the spiral arm of the galaxy has added his own bounty. The woman Rourke is hunting is playing a game of her own, and she has her own allies.

When I first heard about this book at at Baen panel, Toni Weisskopf described it at a sci-fi caper novel. While it may be the best genre description for the book, it is a serious understatement. This is one long Mission Impossible scenario, only several groups are running their own long cons on everyone else. Can Rourke discover the truth in an endless stream of lies? Can he find out who to trust before he gets stabbed in the back? If he survives, can he manage his revenge?

The Icarus Plot is everything readers have come to expect from Timothy Zahn. If there were any justice in the world, someone would have labeled him and Kevin J Anderson SciFi Grandmasters twenty years ago.

The tone of the narration is not quite SciFi noir, but close. The writing is smooth and effortless, serving multiple purposes at once. The opening involves four pages of thought, observations, cultural notes, and analysis in order to head off a bar fight, and it’s all entertainingly readable.

The next 350 pages are pure Hitchcockian thriller, only in science fiction. There are no Weber-tonnage of missiles. There are no grand shootouts or fistfights. There’s only the ever-looming threat of total annihilation if Rourke makes even the slightest slipup.

That is Timothy Zahn.

(A quick note: When looking up the image of The Icarus Plot, I tripped over a Zahn novel from 2000 called The Icarus Hunt. Apparently, this is a sequel, but I could not tell from reading The Icarus Plot. You can always tell a sequel is well-written when it doesn’t even feel like a retread.)

The Characters

Gregory Rourke is like many Timothy Zahn characters: he makes deductions like Sherlock Holmes, reasons like a spy, and thinks his way out of situations just as often (if not more than) as he fights. He has a collection of sayings from his father that I heard in the voice of James Garner from Maverick (the TV western, not the Top Gun sequel).

Add some of the multi-dimensional chess playing one would see in Leverage, and you have a sense of Rourke’s character.

And of course, the writing is… let me give you an example.

Her eyes’ vertical pupils widened visibly, despite the bright sunlight beating down on us. Her nostrils flared, then contracted almost shut, then flared again. Surprised and upset. A wonderful combination to come home to.

Zahn is one of the few people I know who can fit in character description and have a character moment for observer and the observed (because how many folks casually read people with micro-expressions?).

Oh, and those lines about Maverick?

As my father used to say, it doesn’t take much to morph a gift horse into a white elephant.

When there’s a bad penny you can’t get rid of, at least you’re never completely broke.

The hand doesn’t have to be quicker than the eye if the hand’s out of sight.

Rourke’s partner Selene is interesting. His relationship with her is more on par with Han Solo and Chewbacca. She’s an alien bloodhound who can read emotions through scent, and the depth of the sense is put to use in innovative ways that I would expect from Zahn.

Rourke’s employers at the start of the novel are Geri and Freki, who feel like one of the better fictional thug duos since Diamonds Are Forever’s Kidd and Wint… or maybe an evil Penn and Teller.

The World

The Icarus Plot isn’t heavy on worldbuilding. There’s just enough to move the plot along. The interesting elements of the worldbuilding come in part from the business aspects. Unlike some of Zahn’s work on the Quadrail series (I was fond of his commando chipmunks), there aren’t many alien cultural aspects explored in The Icarus Plot. Though looking at one alien race, the Patthaaunutth (brought to you by the man who made Thrawn’s full name Mitth'raw'nuruodo) makes one think of the bureaucracy of The Screwtape Letters.

Another interesting element is the pharmaceutical angle of planetary exploration, where alien seeds can be tapped for hidden potential. The theory is simple: newly discovered plants made into drugs couldn’t be made illegal overnight, if at all. It was touched upon several times in the novel, and I expected it to be If there’s another sequel, I expect this to be explored a little more.

The Politics

There are no modern politics here. The politics are strictly that of the world.

Content Warning

There is no harsh language. There’s no sex. The violence is minimal (again, Zahn’s characters prefer to think their way out than shoot).

Who is it for?

Anyone who has ever been interested in noir science fiction and espionage should read this. Take the espionage of John le Carre, the deduction of Sherlock Holmes, the twisty nature of The Sting, and you have The Icarus Plot.

Why buy it?

It’s a science fiction spy thriller written by one of the best authors in the business. Why wouldn’t you buy it?

The Icarus Plot will be released on July 5, 2022.