I picked this book up rather randomly because I like Zahn’s style based on a couple other readings, and I wasn’t disappointed here. This is pure spaceship science fiction, not too hard and not too soft, almost like an elaborate Star Trek episode. Well, a ten-hour long Star Trek episode, since the level of detail in the book is quite high and film/TV would necessarily chop out most of the plot. The story is essentially an elaborate murder mystery chase told in first person from the perspective of a starship captain who doesn’t know what his cargo is or why at least one entity is trying to sabotage the ship. The captain explains his thought processes in detail every step of the way, and unlike throughout other stories I never found myself wondering he didn’t make a certain (obvious) observation or take a certain course of action. In a manner of speaking, I “trusted” the characters.

Zahn’s style is matter-of-fact and completely plot driven; he doesn’t try to be poetic or describe anyone’s feelings in magnificently flowing metaphoric prose, like "crystalline dewdrops clutching perilously to the thin serrated knife-edge of a trumpet-like fern vibrating in the face of a quiet yet forceful breeze…" to describe someone’s feelings, of course. No, nothing like that. I don’t even know what that’s saying, and I wrote it, for… Tom Robbins’ sake.

Some elements in the world/universe the story creates are a bit silly, like a race of aliens who communicate semi-telepathically with ferret-like creatures (I picture woodchucks) that sit on their shoulders and can run off to provide an extra couple sets of senses. But the silliness wears off… The characters become real and vivid, and it’s a charming little story, continually finding new and unpredictable threads and slowly, surely and neatly tying them all together.