Lit Timothy Zahn's best non-Star Wars novels

I recently found Cobra for free on the Kindle Store and was wondering which of his other novels is best?

 

The Icarus Hunt

 

It sounds good! But why is it among his best?

 

I've only read The Icarus Hunt but that was one of the best science fiction novels I've read. It's futuristic but not extreme, so there are other planets but not a plethora of crazy species and stuff. Actually, it's a tad like Firefly. It also was not predictable (at least not to me).

 

I haven't read much beyond Zahn's Star Wars work, but what have read and acquired a copy of, the Conquerors Trilogy, is excellent.

 

Need to find the last two books of the Conqueror's Trilogy. The first book was amazing.

 

I've only read book 1 in the Dragonback series (out of the library) but I liked it - more than the couple of Cobra books I've read out of the library. That's pretty much it as far as non-SW Zahn works go for me.

 

I read Conquerors back in the day. Entire trilogy needs to be read to appreciate the story, as, if I recall correctly, the second book is the events of the first book from the side of the Attackers (which provides some MASSIVE paradigm shifts), and the third book serves to bring both perspectives together and move forward. While I don't remember all of the details, the premise has certainly stuck with me and I definitely bring it up from time to time as an example of a certain type of scenario. Good stuff!

 

Well, having not read any of the others, I can't compare. But it's Han and Chewie by another name, so lots of Star Wars fans love it, in a film noir in space. Definitely recommend it.

 

I haven't yet looked at the Honorverse prequel trilogy, Manticore Rising, as book 3 is due March next year, but Zahn's other short story contributions to that have all been good reads.

 

Whatever you do, DO NOT seek spoilers for The Icarus Hunt. It must be read unspoiled.

 

Yeah, it's like a space adventure mystery. I love the fusion of sci-fi and mystery, but knowing anything about what happens kinda craps all over the mystery part.

The Conquerors Trilogy is also a pretty great sci-fi trilogy. I should reread that sometime. I liked the construction, as Taalcon points out, of a series about a first-contact war by presenting such strongly split perspectives. You're set up for it to be a more straightforward alien-war storyline from the first book, but then you get a big reversal of POV to really see both sides of the conflict instead of just having it all from the perspective of humans working it out.

I'll also note Zahn's Cobra books (which I looked up and found he's released a bunch more of in the past decade). It's been so long that I don't remember much about them, but I do remember enjoying them. They're about cyborg soldiers in peacetime getting recruited to colonize another planet, and then space opera stuff happens.

Man, I need to reread Zahn.

 

I guess this is as good a place as any to wish Timothy Zahn a Belated Happy Birthday!

 

The Icarus Hunt is a fantastic read. Cobra series is a bit more young-adulty and didn't really impress me that much.

 

I remember reading through some of Zahn's older books when I still visited libraries (ugh, I feel old). Let's see, one was called Angelmass (which ended up being kind of... strange), another one called... I forget honestly, something about humanity colonizing a supposedly worthless world as all the other better ones had been taken (Spinneret?).

And relatively recently (in the last five years) i was following his Quadrail novels too (four books, most of them decent). I really got to get around to reading all those other books mentioned (like the Conquerors trilogy mentioned), I just don't have the time for long series anymore (and I'm lazy and don't have quite that much time or money or interest to figure out the timeline, and not like my Barnes and Noble bookstore carries everything, and I don't live near an library anymore).

And Happy Birthday to Zahn, I'm somewhat looking forward to his new Star Wars book (good to see another one from him).