The Icarus Hunt, by Timothy Zahn

As you can tell from the short amount of time between this review and the last, The Icarus Hunt is a quick read.

The book builds on Zahn's strengths, primarily putting his characters into a series of situations where their actions get them out of seemingly impossible problems. Each character is pretty well defined, although there really isn't any character growth that happens. The Icarus Hunt is more of a space opera than serious literature, but it's fun space opera.

The basic story is that a smuggler named Jordan McKell is approached for a seemingly easy job, piloting a ship to Earth. Along the way, he learns that he and his new crew (all handpicked by the ship's owner) and the ship are being hunted all along the spiral arm. The unraveling of why, and solving a murder aboard the ship, are all tied together throughout the book.

One of the bad parts of the story is the amount of personal information the narrator keeps to himself. It's told in the first person, yet there are critical secrets the reader isn't told about until close to the end of the book. This is basically done simply for dramatic effect, and isn't a technique I particularly like.

But, it's a fun read nevertheless, and recommended. If you liked any of Zahn's other books, you'll like this one, too.