Please recommend: Books similar to the The Icarus Hunt

[Dave Berk]

A friend recommended The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn. I tried it and was enchanted, it's kind of a (good) Alistair Maclean novel set in space.


The summary of the novel (Taken from an amazon review):

"The Icarus Hunt"'s main character is Jordan McKell, a star-freighter pilot who plays the role of a poor yet honest private contractor, considering that in reality he is a smuggler working for a huge crime organization. Things couldn't get worse he supposed. Or so he thought...
When he takes a job flying a strangely put-together antique ship called the 'Icarus' with a ragtag crew, little does he know that he has just landed himself in the middle of a huge conspiracy. Jordan is immediately thrust into events spiraling out of control: one of the crew is murdered, his employer seems to have disappeared, an unknown saboteur is on board, and the 'Icarus' is being wanted by the oppressive Patth who have monopolized all trade in the galaxy.
It's up to Jordan and his mechanic partner Ixil, a Kalixiri with his two ferret 'outhunters' Pix and Pax, to figure out what's going on while struggling to stay alive. The hunt for the 'Icarus' is on!


So, first, I recommend this book to anyone who han't read it yet. And, second, anybody know of a similar novel?

[Marseille]

I've been waiting for a lot of Zahn's old work to make it into ebook format, but so far little luck. I haven't read The Icarus Hunt, but I can make a recommendation based on the author and the description you posted: Angelmass.

It's multi-threaded, but a couple of the threads are smaller characters getting caught up in a larger conspiracy. Scifi, space. I loved it.

Frankly, I'd recommend everything I'd ever read by Zahn. Even if you're not a Star Wars fan or the type who reads the more licensedy type of scifi, Zahn's original Thrawn trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command) really stands on its own. It's not quite the type of novels mentioned above -- it's more about a larger character than smaller ones, but it's fantastic reading. It was the first thing of his I ever read and I've been a loyal fan ever since.

[Dave Berk]

Thanks for the recs. Will check. I have read some of his other works, (The Cobra Trilogy, Cobra Alliance, The Blackcollar Trilogy) and while they were rather dissimilar to The Icarus Hunt they were very good. From the little response this topic generated I guess we're probably his only fans on the site .

[WillAdams]

No, I'm a big fan of Timothy Zahn, and wish that he'd write more original fiction in the vein of _Icarus Hunt_ --- I'd be glad to see that become a series --- it's a very good book w/o a lot of equivalencies.

William

[Marseille]

I just found some of his old stuff at baen --and bean loves ebooks.

Any recommendation between the cobras and the two blackcollars?

Sorry to hijack

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by David Marseilles

I just found some of his old stuff at baen --and bean loves ebooks.

Any recommendation between the cobras and the two blackcollars?

I think I marginally preferred the Cobra books, but both are good reads.

[Dave Berk]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I think I marginally preferred the Cobra books, but both are good reads.

Agreed. The last Blackcollar book is kind of weak IMO.

[MichaelJLucasWV]

i LOVED Icarus Hunt. one of my very favorite reads. have read it once and listened to it on audiobook about five times now. (and i dont care for repeat reads very often at all) but anyway, ive been looking for more of the same for a while, and cant seem to find it. Alan Dean Foster (some of it anyway) has some fun stuff that, while may not be similiar in the storyline sense, seemed to have that "thing" in it that i loved about Icarus. Maybe it isnt what your looking for, but i loved icarus and i loved midworld by foster. i loved Enders Game and Ender's Shadow by orson scott card. Hell, now that i'm thinking about it, those may not be very good examples of the same themes and such from Icarus, but like i said, those books left me wanting more, and scrambling to see if there were sequels. I'm glad that someone else likes Icarus as much as i did.

[Ravensknight]

As has been stated, Icarus Hunt reminded me of Alistair Maclean. It was so good.
I recommend his Quaddrail books, starting with Night Train to Rigel. Not quite as 'actiony' as IH, but a scifi mystery, and so far there are 4 books in the series...