Night Train to Rigel (Quadrail) - Softcover

Zahn, Timothy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0765346443 ISBN 13: 9780765346445

Publisher: Tor Science Fiction, 2006

Synopsis

HUMANITY'S LAST HOPE

It begins when a man delivers a message for former government agent Frank Compton--only to fall dead at his feet. The message is a summons from the Spiders, the exotic and mysterious creatures who run the Quadrail, an incredible transportation system connecting civilizations across the galaxy. The Spiders believe that someone or something is preparing to attack their entire network and the worlds it serves, by smuggling battleships through the Quadrail--something that should be impossible to do. Compton, with the aid of a beautiful but enigmatic agent of the Spiders, is their last hope.

Because nobody else has been able to find the elusive enemy who seeks to enslave the entire galaxy...and Earth is its next target.

About this title

About the Author

Timothy Zahn is the New York Times best-sellling and Hugo award-winning author of nearly thirty original science fiction novels, among them Dragon and Herdsman, the fourth book of his Young Adult "Dragonback" series. He is also the author of Heir to the Empire, the all-time bestselling Star Wars novel, and the recent Star Wars: Outbound Flight. He and his family live in coastal Oregon.

From Publishers Weekly

Hang on! Hugo-winner Zahn (Cascade Point) takes off on a rip-roaring interstellar train ride with hard-boiled hero Frank Compton, recently fired from Earth's Western Alliance Intelligence for whistle-blowing on the costly Yandro colony boondoggle, a U.N. scheme to make humanity a real interstellar power. From Earth's mean streets, Compton hops the Quadrail, a mysterious galactic system run by the alien Spiders, who give him four months to defuse an interstellar war being engineered by the gestalt entity the Modhri. With Bayta, "The Girl" sent by the Spiders to recruit him, Compton blasts his way through layers of subterfuge and teams of unpronounceable alien baddies. Seeing a new chunk of the truth fall into place about every hundred pages, Compton carries comic-strip action to dizzying extremes in this highballing romp. Situations predictable from tough-guy PI fiction and characters straight out of Dick Tracy (even though some wear chipmunk fur and others inhabit telepathic coral colonies) make this night train a juicily familiar joyride.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0765346443
• ISBN 13: 9780765346445
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 336