Book Review: The Icarus Needle, by Timothy Zhan

Time to go full Kobayashi Maru

With the Icarus novels, Timothy Zahn apparently decided that Leverage and Mission: Impossible were just playing on easy mode… and Le Carre was only medium difficulty.

In The Icarus Needle, Zahn has gone to full Kobayashi Maru.

The Story

Gregory Rourke and his partner, the Kadolian named Seline, have been working for the Icarus group for a few years, looking for the Icarus gates—long lost technology developed by an ancient civilization. It’s the only way to break the transportation monopoly of the competition—the Paath.

Unfortunately, all that has changed. The human part of the Icarus group has taken over, and started a purge of everyone else. The new General in charge was responsible for pulling Rourke’s backup in The Icarus Changeling, and wants Rourke to fall in line, take orders without question… because Rourke has played so well with others. But Rourke’s solutions in previous encounters have led to one too many Paath victories.

To smooth over the transition to the new status quo, they’ve hired a renowned fixer, Nicholas Rourke—Gregory’s father. (When I thought that Rourke’s father would show up in the series, I always believed he would be a punchline to the series, not a main character. I still want him played by James Garner.)

The General has a new mission for Rourke and Seline: go down to a planet and seek out the codex of gate addresses Rourke surmised back in The Icarus Twin. The General has a plan that includes a one-way trip for Selene.

Now, Rourke and Seline have to circumvent their own allies, in a plan that amounts to a suicide mission. And that’s just the first hundred pages.

If they survive that, there’s just one other problem: the locals used to work for the ancient aliens Rourke calls the Icari … and the former employers would like to become the masters. The key to their plan: using Seline.

And all that is before the Paath show up.

Once again, I find I cannot say enough good things about one of Zahn’s Icarus novels. Every Icarus book is a smart, snappy thrill ride with no slow moments, or time to breathe. While I am a fast reader, I generally do not consume 400-page novels in under four hours, as I did here. Each Icarus novel has more twists than a bent corkscrew designed by MC Escher, and they all move at the speed of a Larry Correia Monster Hunter novel.

Normally, Rourke has to tangle with an 8-sided chessboard—be it with multiple branches of organized crime, the Paath, law enforcement, environmental factors and the guest star of the week (sometimes an assassin, sometimes a con man, etc). Now, he has a new side to worry about: his own.

I guess Zahn thought Rourke didn’t have enough problems. It gets bad enough that Rourke actually has to take up arms and open fire—something he has largely avoided up to this point in the series.

On top of all that, The Icarus Needle brings multiple plot threads to a head. The mystery of the Icari has been built up throughout the series, and many of them come together here, tying together multiple threads. Once again, Zahn shows off that he has mastered the art of playing perfectly fair with the reader. Unlike Sherlock Holmes, the reader sees everything Rourke sees, making the conclusions self-evident and obvious … but only after Rourke explains it.

The conclusion of the book is truly unexpected, and seriously changes the board and the players in this game.

The Icarus Coda is the next and final book in the series, and I can only imagine what twists Zahn has in store for us next.

The Characters

One of the nice things with Zahn is that he doesn’t believe in dumb characters. No one here is stupid. Seline knows how Rourke’s mind works (sideways, with WD40). Even among the Paath, there are people who are at least Rourke’s equal, and they have more resources at their disposal.

The fun part of The Icarus Needle is watching Rourke and Seline play off of each other, their enemies, and the competition.

As usual, Gregory Rourke feels like a spy who has been raised by Bret Maverick. Gregory Rourke never gets lost in the wilderness of mirrors, since he grew up there. And putting him up against his own father truly makes this two chess players who know their moves from the beginning.

Seline is truly Rourke’s partner, and if she’s not his equal, she can certainly keep up with him.

We also see the return of the Paath Director Naask and his minion, the expeditor Huginn (Muginn appears later). They are truly enjoyable to watch as everyone spars with each other, and one never knows which way the characters are going to jump next. I haven’t seen a relationship like this, with characters this smart … maybe ever. The alliances seems to shift like sands in an earthquake. It is a joy to watch competitors team up against an external threat, all the while, everyone is playing their own game. And while Naask and the Paath are still the competition, The Icarus Needle makes it clear that they are not exactly “the enemy.” But what else can we expect from the man who created Grand Admiral Thrawn?

The World

Usual, there is just enough world-building to make the plot work, building upon the layers of we’ve seen in previous novels. This time, Zahn is continuing to build on multiple worlds at once: there’s Rourke’s day-to-day existence, the new world being landed on today, and the world of the Icari, thousands of years ago, in an effort to piece together why the Icarus Gate network fell apart in the first place.

I may have to reread this series again just to take notes.

Politics

The only politics of this book are the interpersonal.

Content Warning

It may be PG. At worst.

Who is it for?

This is for anyone who likes the brilliance of Sherlock Holmes, the spycraft of John Le Carre, the action of an Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the complexity of only the best caper novels.

Why buy it?

This series Timothy Zahn at his best. Unlike certain authors who get lazier and more long-winded with success, coasting on their prior reputation, Zahn just keeps getting better as an author. If there is justice in this world, Zahn will be made an official grandmaster of science fiction, just for the Icarus series alone.