The Icarus Hunt

Rating:
Summary: Pix and Pax: You'll Like the Furballs
Review: Ixil, McKell's alien partner, alone is worth reading The Icarus Hunt for. McKell's sardonic devil-may-care narrative was a riot, even though I'm not fan of first person tales. Typical Zahn, ingenious, entertaining, hard sf. He never asks you to believe the improbable and always keeps you reading. Go for it.

Rating:
Summary: Zahn can WRITE science fiction
Review: The Icaras Hunt is one of the most enjoyable novels I have read in a while. With so much subterfuge it looks like a cold war spy novel, and a fully developed univerese, it is one heck of a book. The politics of economics, with the iron monopoly of the Patth, is a subject that is not just glossed over. The power that the Patth possese is very real, and relevent to us in our modern world. Of course this book is not here to preach, but to entertain, and it does succeed in this. The plot is well crafted, and the suspense is maintained through to the last page. The ending is almost cliche, but not bad enough to cause the book to disapoint. The first person perspective that some readers dislike is to me a major plus. I love being able to see inside a characters soul, their thoughts and motivations are very important, especially in understanding the ending. What is revealed on the final pages colors the entire book. I am almost tempted to reread the whole thing to get the full impact. I often hesitate to give a book 5/5 stars, as that implies perfection, but not this one. This is a perfect book, fleshing out a strange new universe, populating it with character the reader cares about, and then taking us on the ride of our lives. Good job Zahn.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Sci-Fi
Review: I have never been a big science fiction reader, until I picked up the Icaras Hunt. It was my first Timothy Zahn novel, and I loved it. The book flows in a way that drags you in, making you feel like it is more science than fiction. The plot is exciting and the characters well developed. I strongly reccomend this book to anybody who likes to avoid the unrealistic side of science fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Great fun. definitely an enjoyment.
Review: i was attracted to this books because of zahn's wonderful success on his starwars novels.
this book was no disappointment. the content was refreshing and the plot very well paced.
Jordan mckell(the hero) is one space pilot you would wanna meet!

Rating:
Summary: At least I got threw it.
Review: The entire book could have been half the size if it wasn't in first person. This way we wouldn't have to listen to Jorden's babbling in his mind. I nearly put it down several times because of this. As far as the ending, It's ok to have twists and turns like in "The dark beyond the stars" but this ending had no hint of this through the entire book. It looked like Zahn ran out of steam and couldn't figure out how to end it. I did enjoy the friendship and slight humor between Jorden and Ixil.

Rating:
Summary: Politically correct jargon ruins the reading
Review: Mr Zahn draws a plausable plot with reasonable attention to the characters. Unfortunately he seems to feel compelled to lay on a heavy dose of p.c., for example "crewmen' becomes "crewers"-- reminds me of the same people who gave us "servepersons". What not just tell a tale; is there really such a pressing need to make us all more "sensitive"?

Rating:
Summary: Good read, even if mindcandy
Review: Zahn did a good job reworking the cliche of hardboiled detective in the scifi milieu. Although springing surprises at the end is generally bad form and smacks of laziness on the author's part...it can be forgiven in this case. Not literature quality like Iain M. Banks...but definitely worth buying.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD FUN
Review: I usually don't like books written in the first-person. For one thing, you generally can figure that the main character makes it (they usu. do anyway) through alive, if he/she is telling you the story in the first place. But this was a good story all around. I liked the setting, the characterization, the pace. Pretty much everything I was looking for in a space opera book without all the entanglements of an established universe to cope with. Give it a try.

Rating:
Summary: A really good book
Review: This is not a Star Wars look-alike,(which is good), but closer to a detective novel set in space--somewhere in the distant future. I, for one, did not figure out who-dun-it until the very end, but some of the hidden plot twists should be able to be guessed as you read. Only dissatisfying note was the romance part--I won't give away the ending by saying why this was so, but the author definitely should have included more romance to the plot. (Also a problem with other of Zahn's books that I have read). Overall, though, I definitely recommend the book for anyone who has read any sci-fi (and even if you haven't).

Rating:
Summary: zahn is a great as ever
Review: This book is yet another great zahn book. great characters, great plot, and enough twists to keep you guessing at the end, not to mention his last great twist. an amazing book i just couldn't put down. i highly recommend it.