A very good yarn, with some twists you don't necessarily see coming.

Noir in space? Your standard down on his luck guy, struggling to get along in space, comes across something. He has various entanglements with local and not so local crime figures to try and sort out. However,
all is most definitely not what it seems as you get much further into the book.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2006/12... ( )

An enjoyable space opera romp. Smoothly written, with interesting details. A cool SF book I enjoyed, even though it was a bit bloated and repetitive.

Its a space opera type book set in a vast alien/human civilization. The main characters, Jordan McKell - Human, and Ixil -Alien, are gypsy traders - they have their own ship, but not state of the art. A powerful alien race owns the fastest star drive and won't share the technology.

They are approached to fly a mystery ship the Icarus Hunt to Earth with a crew that is also hired one at a time. The ship has a sealed cargo and no one knows what is in it.

They take up the job, and of course there are murders and accidents on board. They spend their time trying to find out who their secret on-board enemy is. When they land to refuel, it seems the ports are also after the ship, with bogus tips being called in about smuggling. There are also thugs who are stalking and attacking the crew when they are out of the ship.

The main characters also have ties to the criminal underworld, so very few are who they seem. Eventually the mystery is solved, with another twist by the main characters and all ends well.

The bloated and repetitive part is they keep going to different ports and the same thing (attacking) keeps happening. It could have been tightened up.

The worlds and aliens were interesting. The main characters were well done. Ixil is described as being like a tall iguana, but I kept thinking Wookie. He has two small ferret like creatures that have a neural connection to him, and they go where he can't, and check things out. Their images are then dumped into his mind. They spend their non-roaming time living on Ixil's shoulders. They are called Pix and Pax and were cool. The other characters were ok, but many were just sketches. ( )

While not exceptional in any way, The Icarus Hunt is a very good, solid novel. The story is good, and the universe is interesting. The only real weakness is its length, as it is a fairly short novel. ( )

A starship captain is asked in a bar to ferry a ship to Earth. When he arrives at the ship there is a crew, but no owner. Together they get under way, but all to soon they find that there is a traitor amongst them. What is the cargo in the sealed bay. Is it a new stardrive that can break the stranglehold of the aliens on space travel?

Good read. Good suspense. ( )