Customer Reviews

The Domino Pattern

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Wow! I just finished "The Domino Pattern" by Timothy Zahn. This is the fourth book in the Quadrail series that began with "Night Train to Rigel". I love science fiction, spy novels, and detective fiction and somehow Zahn has combined all three genres into one with this series. Unlike the previous three books in the series, the action in "Domino" took place almost entirely on the train. Think murder mystery with Frank Compton playing the part of Hercule Poirot and the other passengers on the train played by various and assorted aliens and you get some idea of the story. But read it! (Only after reading the first three, of course.) I am already looking forward to the next installment. Bravo Mr. Zahn.

Six weeks on a Quadrail train? And it's the express train!

First some good news... Frank is kind of warming up to Bayta.
but the bad news... he is reluctant to get too close.

The good news... this series is going to go on for a while, unless Zahn pulls something out of his hat.

The really bad news... Something wicked this way comes and things are going to get tough.

This definitely has a "Murder on the Orient Express" feel to it, but the situation is very complicated. There are some red herrings here and there. I think Zahn does pretty well with this level of mystery.

There is a feeling for a good part of the book that this is a hiatus from the war with the Modhri. But there are some surprises here. Just a few.. uh huh.

I do recommend that the reader should have read one of more of the previous 3 books. There are a lot of things that we who have read all of the books are accustomed to that might seem like they are pulled out of a hat to accomplish something or change a result, if you were a little unfamiliar with the previous events.

Its a very good read, and as I was thinking it could be Hugo material.

I finished The Domino Pattern two days ago, and I still get excited thinking about it! I start thinking about the book, get ready to go read some more, and then remember with a real sense of let down...oh yeah, I finished it... This was my favorite installment in the Frank Compton series so far. I loved the murder mystery plot, and wow, the ending is CHILLING! ENJOY!

The Domino Pattern (2009) is the fourth SF novel in the Quadrail series, following Odd Girl Out. In the previous volume, Compton got Rebekah free from the Modhri. He then told the Chahwyn what he knew of their secrets. The Elder asked that Compton keep a secret from Bayta.

In this novel, Frank Compton is a former agent of Western Alliance Intelligence. Now he works for the Chahwyn, who created the Spiders and the whole Quadrail system. He is their chief operative against the Modhri.

Bayta is a hybrid of human and Chahwyn. She is telepathic on the spider wavelength and can communicate with them undetectably. So she is Compton's liaison with the Spiders.

Whitman Kennrick is an employee of Pelloran Medical Systems, escorting some aliens back home from a meeting. His charges are four Shorshians and four Filiaelians from the contact team negotiating the licensing of genetic manipulation techniques.

Witherspoon is a human doctor and passenger on the superexpress. He also works for Pelloran Medical Systems.

In this story, Compton and Bayta are taking the superexpress train to the other side of the galaxy. They have business within Filiaelian space. They are both concerned about being on the train for six weeks, although the other options would only take longer. Who knows how many Modhri Eyes and Walkers would be aboard.

Compton notices a human shepherding some Fillies into the train and wonders who he is. He doesn't have an opportunity to learn the man's name until two weeks later. Bayta awakens him with word that there has been a poisoning on the train.

Since the Spiders have very thorough sensing equipment in every station, no passengers should have been able to smuggle any poison aboard the train. Compton learns that the victim is a Shorshian, who are very susceptible to even slight amounts of poison. After reaching the dispensary, he notices Kennrick approaching.

Compton catches up with Kennrick and asks him who he is. He learns that Kennrick had been involved in a Westali case long ago. Then he learns that the Shorshian is one of Kennrick's charges.

Compton has problems discovering what poison had been used. At first the victim was unconscious and then died on the table. His closest kin refuses to let the doctors desecrate the body by taking samples.

After the second poisoning, Compton gets some samples and determines that the poison is cadmium. Although the Spider sensors would detect the pure metal, it is possible that the killer had removed the metal from a finished product. Yet Compton doesn't really know where it came from and such information is necessary to determine the identity of the killer.

Compton gets the Spiders to open a filtration unit in the compartment to check for cadmium in the atmosphere. Meanwhile, he tries to learn whether the victims could have ingested the cadmium in their food. In so far as he can determine, that method could not have been used.

Compton and Witherspoon answer an emergency call and are ambushed. Both are knocked unconscious. Later, Compton has the doctor make a thorough inventory of his medical bag contents and discovers that a hypodermic syringe is missing.

This tale takes Compton and Bayta into a different form of conspiracy. A Modhri mind is also aboard and even asks Compton to allow it to help in the investigation. Compton finds his plans changing many times during the trip.

Compton is forced to tell Bayta about the defender Spiders, but Bayta already knows about them. Now she is angry with Compton for not telling her before. And he is mad with the Chahwyn for asking him to not mention it to her.

The situation is much worst than they expected. The next installment in this series should be released sometime soon. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Zahn fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of train excursions, alien societies, and human ingenuity. For anyone who is not familiar with this series, the initial volume is Night Train to Rigel.

-Arthur W. Jordin

First off, since this is the fourth book in the series you need to make sure you have read the other three. This book starts off, as others have said, with a very definite "Murder on the Orient Express" feel to it. Zahn has always included a level of mystery and plot-twist in his stories, and the Quadrail series has only upped that ante, with this one being the most "mystery" about it. With six weeks stuck on a train our main characters have no choice but to try and figure out what's going on.

And while the real story of the murders is excellent (and the thing causing it bad enough), it is with a bit of "taking a breather" feeling that you read the first part of the story. However, towards the end Zahn drops the hammer on us poor, unsuspecting readers, and the tension level shoots through the roof. By the end of the book there are a few more issues facing the main characters that are truly worthy of spine-chilling and skin-tingling. I literally could not set down the book once I hit the home stretch and by the time I finished and put it down, I wanted to curse Timothy Zahn.

So here it is: curse you, Timothy Zahn! Curse you for making such awesome stories and then making us wait in such utter suspense for the next one!

Highly recommended for fans of Sci-Fi, mysteries, good thrillers, or just about anybody who likes reading.

This book is more a mnemonic exercise than a structured novel. The plot is "Murder On The Orient Express" in space where every alien and technology is strictly ad hoc. Without a context every element of the mystery must be explicit and in tedious detail and inchoate narrative. In the end, the motivation, the method and the perp are so arbitrary that as a mystery it is a cheat and as science fiction it is a bore.

Zahn ought to be embarrassed.

I won't go in to a long re-hash of the book. IMO this was by far the best of the series including the initial offering. I almost quit the series after the last book, but decided to take one more shot at it. This one was a very interesting, well paced who-dunnit. Unlike some of the other books, this one gives a chance to flesh-out some of the other characters besides Frank & Bayta. I was also getting a little tired of the Modhri, it's still there, but in a more limited and palatable role. Highly recommended.

Timothy Zahn's Quadrail series provides enjoyable popcorn reading. In the first three novels, Zahn seems to promise a train-bound murder-mystery, only to take the action off the train, returning just in time to wrap-up.

With The Domino Pattern, Zahn fulfills on this long-promised train-murder-mystery, delivering a focused, tightly-paced story. The Domino Pattern is a solid tribute to Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. As does Dame Agatha, Zahn keeps the reader close to his his detective, taking us along for a ride. And an enjoyable ride it is.

The Domino Pattern is my favorite Quadrail entry so far, to no little degree because Zahn capably captures one of my favorite genres. He would have earned my fifth star if he had invoked the surprise I felt at the end of Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. But that particular twist would better suit a final chapter rather than a middle act.

For both sci-fi fans and mystery buffs, The Domino Pattern delivers.

This is the fourth story of a series. The author set up the ending to indicate a future book on the saga of a detective and his assistant working to protect the greatest transportation system of the galaxy; A clearly written but intricate plot line.
Great sci-fi and much fun to read!

I like Timothy Zahn as an author. But The Domino Patternwas a little hard for me to get into right away.
It is a "Murder on the Orient Express" in outer space. If you like Who dunits with plots and hidden subplots, you will like this.
Just stay in there and get past that what was to me a slow start.