So I’ve been meaning to write about this for a long time but wanted to finish the book (Night Train to Rigel by Timothy Zahn) so I could include it. Back in 2016 our company (Alicia’s Anime) attended Ring of Fire Con. It was a lot of fun, especially since we don’t do a lot of shows primarily featuring fantasy and sci-fi since anime and video games are our biggest focus (although Star Wars is a big exception).

Anyway, ROFCon was a lot of fun (as it was this year), and one of the coolest things about it was that one of the guests was author Timothy Zahn. Most of you will probably recognize him as the author of the beloved Star Wars: Heir to the Empire series (now part of Star Wars Legends) and the new Thrawn novels. But he also has a lot of other great work as well.

I was lucky enough to meet and talk to Timothy for a while. I’ve met a lot of people in the industry, and he was definitely among the nicest and most down to earth. One funny part of the experience was that I had to fill out my address when purchasing a book since it had sold out over the course of the con… what makes it funny is that my then 2 year old daughter was with me, and at the time was going through one of her wild and silly stages. Timothy was kind enough to keep an eye on her for me so I could get my form filled out and was very good with her, even asking her about her favorite Star Wars characters. (She cosplayed Rey that weekend and was obsessed with BB-8).

I was also excited to buy Timothy’s novel Night Train to Rigel, which I really enjoyed. I’ve always loved his writing style so I was excited to finally pick up some work of his that is outside the SW universe. I was not disappointed. It had been a while since I’d read Timothy’s work, but I was instantly drawn back in by his smooth style and vivid descriptions. The story is the first book in the Quadrail series and follows protagonist Frank Compton on his journey on an interstellar sort of train through the galaxy which is operated by an odd sort of aliens known as the Spiders, and his part in preventing a major conspiracy. I won’t get into anything more story-wise to avoid spoilers, but I must say that I loved how the story had a familiar earthly detective sort of feel (mainly thanks to Frank) yet also takes you into an amazing deep and rich galaxy. It’s a fun read that I highly recommend and I can’t wait to start the next story in the series, The Third Lynx!

-Clint