Timothy Zahn – Derelict Space Sheep

Protocol

by Derelict Space Sheep on March 27, 2021 in 42 Word Retrospectives • 0 Comments

Protocol by Timothy Zahn (Analog, September 2002) [Novelette] A seemingly effortless piece of SF world-building. Colonists cut off on a frontier settlement must comport themselves by unfathomable alien rules… at pain of death. But what happens if the rituals stop working? Unsatisfyingly, the story poses but doesn’t answer this question.

Deadman Switch

by Derelict Space Sheep on March 7, 2021 in 42 Word Retrospectives • 0 Comments

Deadman Switch by Timothy Zahn (Baen, 1988) Zahn melds SF concept (navigation requires a recently deceased pilot; spaceships carry two death-row felons) to moral quandary (one ‘zombie’ pilot has been wrongly convicted). The novel goes through several phase shifts exploring the wider value of maintaining a small human focus.

Star Wars: Thrawn – Alliances

by Derelict Space Sheep on September 25, 2019 in 42 Word Retrospectives • 0 Comments

Star Wars: Thrawn – Alliances by Timothy Zahn (Century, 2018) Zahn’s big picture storytelling doesn’t amount to much but Thrawn remains good value in the moment – a military virtuoso with Sherlockian powers of observation and deduction. Here the chronologically removed but intertwined narratives pair him with both Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader.

Cobra Traitor

by Derelict Space Sheep on February 26, 2018 in 42 Word Reviews • 0 Comments

Cobra Traitor (Cobra Rebellion, Book 3) by Timothy Zahn (Baen, 2018) Zahn brings another Cobra trilogy to an end, various storylines dovetailing into a slow-dawning frown of ‘So what?’. Characters and scenarios that are made to feel compelling in the moment prove upon reflection to be the effervescent froth of a fizzy drink.

Pawn

by Derelict Space Sheep on September 17, 2017 in 42 Word Reviews • 0 Comments

Pawn by Timothy Zahn (Tor, 2017) Timothy Zahn has taken an intriguing single-novel idea — several factions of aliens trying to wrest control of a spaceship from each other — turned it into a series and done his utmost not to include any of it in the first book. Clickbait.

Star Wars: Thrawn

by Derelict Space Sheep on June 5, 2017 in 42 Word Reviews • 0 Comments

Star Wars: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn (Century, 2017) Grand Admiral Thrawn must rank as one of the all-time favourite Star Wars characters (including those from the films). Redacted by Disney to accommodate Episode VII, the Chiss strategist has been reinstated in this much-welcomed origin story charting his rise to prominence.

Cloak

by Derelict Space Sheep on January 31, 2017 in 42 Word Reviews • 0 Comments

Cloak by Timothy Zahn (Silence in the Library, 2014) Cloak features prototype invisibility cloaks, but is primarily a foray into the intrigue/thriller genre as SF doyen Zahn envisages how these might be used to steal and deploy a nuclear weapon. Ultimately the intricacies prove more interesting to Zahn than his readers.

42 Word Review: Cobra Outlaw

by Derelict Space Sheep on March 29, 2016 in 42 Word Reviews • 0 Comments

Cobra Outlaw (Cobra Rebellion, Book 2) by Timothy Zahn (Baen, 2015) Zahn’s mix of military action and political intrigue remains engaging, but his latest Cobra trilogy would (back in the day) have been one long book; the wait between instalments makes for a certain disorientation, especially given the multiple plotlines running in parallel.

42 Word Review: A Call to Duty by David Weber and Timothy Zahn

by Derelict Space Sheep on December 5, 2014 in 42 Word Reviews • 0 Comments

A Call to Duty (Book 1 of Manticore Ascendant) by David Weber and Timothy Zahn (Baen, 2014) A slow-cooking goulash of military procedure and political machinations, peppered with technical detail, bland in characterisation. The navy personnel are homogenous and one-dimensional, the protagonist a fully fledged square. In doling out lashings of Honorverse minutiae, Weber and Zahn fail to entertain.