umans and their five planets have just become the 12th species to be invited to join an interstellar empire connected through the Quadrail, an interstellar train system run by a race of alien called the Spiders. Frank Compton, a former Earth intelligence agent, was fired when he uncovered political corruption relating to human colonization of Yandro, a planet in the Rigel system that qualified humans to join the empire. After a meeting with a new client in Manhattan, Compton is met by a young man suffering from gunshot wounds who, just before dying, gives him a Quadrail ticket to Yandro.
Compton immediately leaves for the Terran Quadrail station located outside Jupiter orbit. On the way, he notices a young woman who may be following him. At the station, the Spiders take his luggage for inspection, and do not return it to him. Aboard the train, filled with members of the various alien races in the empire, Compton falls asleep and awakes to find his train car empty and the train stopping at an unknown station. The Spiders meet with Compton and offer him a job investigating a potential threat to Quadrail security that could result in the destruction of a heavily defended station. Compton agrees, not mentioning that he has just accepted another job back on Earth. A human agent of the Spiders named Bayta—the woman who was following him—is provided to assist him.
As Compton and Bayta travel in a first-class Quadrail cabin while seeking clues regarding this unknown potential threat, they encounter indications that diverse interests appear to be working to deter their investigation. Compton discovers two Halkas breaking into a baggage holding area, and they attempt to kill him during questioning with station authorities. He meets up with his former boss and another colleague, who appear to be on a questionable mission. He is abducted and nearly murdered by a group of gun-loving Bellidos. He finds nerve gas implanted in his luggage handle that could only have been put there by the Spiders. Bayta, who, when in range, can communicate mentally with the Spiders, appears to be withholding information from him.
The investigation eventually takes Compton and Bayta to a new resort on the icy Halkan moon Modhra, where a unique coral that appears to have addictive qualities grows under the ice in the frozen oceans. His investigations there find a far more insidious threat to mankind and the other alien species. To defeat this threat, Compton must learn which side the various aliens are on, and what it is that the Spiders are not telling him.
Interesting but flawed
In many aspects, Night Train to Rigel is a very successful science-fiction adventure novel. The very alien Spiders and their interstellar train system is an interesting idea, and well realized. The story is fairly well paced, and reasonably well thought out, although veteran readers of Zahn may find it has a number of similarities to his earlier novel, The Icarus Hunt. The secret of the Modhri coral, and the threat it presents to all sentient species, is an interesting revelation, and there are several more such surprises in the denouement.
But there are some serious flaws in this novel that deter it from greatness. First and foremost is the decision by Zahn to start the narrative just after his viewpoint character has accepted a job, and then have the character hide the nature and terms of the job, and the identity of the employer, until very late in the novel. There is nothing more annoying than an author who has his viewpoint character hide information useful to a reader's understanding of what's going on. In this case, it makes much of the narrative vague and confusing, while missing an excellent chance at enhancing the characterization of Zahn's protagonist as he seeks to avoid conflict of interest in his work for two disparate employers.
A second flaw relates to the relationship between Compton and Bayta. After seeking to find out more about her early in their strained relationship, he inexplicably stops trying, and Bayta's development as a character stops, until an unrealistic change in the denouement. If Zahn had managed to develop Compton and Bayta to their full potential as characters, this would have been a very fine novel indeed.
