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4th out of 44 books
—
14 voters
Judgment at Proteus (Quadrail #5)
by
Timothy Zahn (Goodreads Author)
The climactic novel of the star-spanning Quadrail space opera
InTimothy Zahn's Judgment at Proteus, theQuadrail that connects the twelve civilizations of our galaxy has been the flashpoint of a battle for dominance fought mostly unnoticed by humankind. But Frank Compton of Earth, aided by the enigmatic woman Bayta, has fought on the front lines, using every bit of his huma...more
InTimothy Zahn's Judgment at Proteus, theQuadrail that connects the twelve civilizations of our galaxy has been the flashpoint of a battle for dominance fought mostly unnoticed by humankind. But Frank Compton of Earth, aided by the enigmatic woman Bayta, has fought on the front lines, using every bit of his huma...more
416 pages
Published
June 5th 2012
by Tor Books
(first published January 1st 2012)
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My hipster friends turn up their noses at science fiction. They're missing out. Timothy Zahn's stories have enthralled me for years, and Judgment at Proteus is a fitting end to the absurdly enjoyable Quadrail series. I've really grown to like Compton and Bayta, and I'm glad they went out with a bang. That's a bit of a spoiler, but not too much. Enjoy.
I have been a Timothy Zahn fan since the first moment I picked up Heir to the Empire, the first of his Star Wars novels. So when I got the chance to read Judgment at Proteus, I was overjoyed. The Quadrail series finale does not disappoint. The Quadrail is an intergalactic train of sorts that connects the twelve civilizations of our galaxy. The story is an amalgamation of spy novel that happens along with a railway murder mystery as told by a Noir detective in a sci-fi setting. That seems like a...more
Judgement at Proteus by Timothy Zahn
This is the final book of a five book series and I’m not sure it is the best because it is a better book or because it ties up everything so neatly. Frank Compton, galactic troubleshooter is back with his assorted sidekicks from all four previous books. He makes some startling discoveries and has to closely look at his alliances and enemies.
Frank is an engaging character who shows signs of being an somewhat inept James Bond combined with a somewhat more slick...more
This is the final book of a five book series and I’m not sure it is the best because it is a better book or because it ties up everything so neatly. Frank Compton, galactic troubleshooter is back with his assorted sidekicks from all four previous books. He makes some startling discoveries and has to closely look at his alliances and enemies.
Frank is an engaging character who shows signs of being an somewhat inept James Bond combined with a somewhat more slick...more
Fifth and last in the Quadrail / Frank Compton space opera series about Frank Compton and Bayta and their battle to prevent a galactic takeover.
My Take
Frank is so naughty---I love it---he reckons getting Doug and Ty used to table scraps and it not being appreciated is just one more reason to do it.
Zahn is not loathe to spring traps, create setups, and twist things around. I want to go back to the beginning of the series and read it all the way through in one sitting!
More dead bodies. More traps....more
My Take
Frank is so naughty---I love it---he reckons getting Doug and Ty used to table scraps and it not being appreciated is just one more reason to do it.
Zahn is not loathe to spring traps, create setups, and twist things around. I want to go back to the beginning of the series and read it all the way through in one sitting!
More dead bodies. More traps....more
To quote the book cover Judgment at Proteus is “The climactic finale of the epic Quadrail series”. The quote is very true. This is book five in the series and I would not recommend it as a stand-alone. There is a lot of back-story you need to know in each of the books, a lot of history between the characters, and a very dense complex story line that weaves the action together in all of the books.
I think this is Space Opera at its best. Timothy Zahn has written a great story with wonderful charac...more
I think this is Space Opera at its best. Timothy Zahn has written a great story with wonderful charac...more
What’s worse than an alien hive-mind entity that plants itself in unsuspecting individuals and wants to rule the galaxy? Try the super-race that designed it and will turn it into a weapon to ensure galactic domination.
Judgment at Proteus is the final instalment in Timothy Zahn’s Quadrail series. The Quadrail is an interstellar train travelling a light-year a minute to connect far-flung solar systems, and Humans are one of the smaller (and newer) groups of life-forms that use it. But it’s a human...more
Judgment at Proteus is the final instalment in Timothy Zahn’s Quadrail series. The Quadrail is an interstellar train travelling a light-year a minute to connect far-flung solar systems, and Humans are one of the smaller (and newer) groups of life-forms that use it. But it’s a human...more
I suppose a book has to be given five stars in certain circumstances. Such as when your husband gets up a 4am, and instead of sensibly going back to sleep, you turn the light on and pick up the book because there are only 60 pages left. Or when you are so close to finishing that you carry on reading and are subsequently late for work, even though you work from home and your commute takes about five seconds, and technically nobody could see if you were sat at your desk reading (I would never even...more
A satisfying ending to a great scifi series. Zahn had me at "trains in space" and I stayed for the exciting adventures of Compton, Bayta, and other great characters (McMicking!).
At a recent convention Zahn said that the Quadrail series was originally planned for six books but the publisher decided to end it at five. Fortunately this decision was made with enough time for Zahn to wrap up the series. He said the book had some pacing problems because of this, but he was glad to be able to end it ra...more
At a recent convention Zahn said that the Quadrail series was originally planned for six books but the publisher decided to end it at five. Fortunately this decision was made with enough time for Zahn to wrap up the series. He said the book had some pacing problems because of this, but he was glad to be able to end it ra...more
Judgment at Proteus is the fifth and final book in Timothy Zahn's Quadrail series. While a complete story in it's own right, it draws on and ties up some many things from previous books it's extremely ill-advised to start here - go back to the beginning if you're new to the series (Night Train to Rigel).
** This review will not contain spoilers for Judgment at Proteus, but will have MAJOR ones for earlier books in the series. **
Over the course of the previous four books ex-military expert from Ea...more
** This review will not contain spoilers for Judgment at Proteus, but will have MAJOR ones for earlier books in the series. **
Over the course of the previous four books ex-military expert from Ea...more
Last book in a series I read for the Endeavour Award. I might actually like this series more if I read it from the beginning and not just the last two books. A galaxy wide hidden conflict between an interlocking set of psychic aliens with the humans to the rescue kind of. But some of the conceits I found bothersome - all the explaining - clearly outside the advice of the Evil Overlord List. The side references to human historical movies (especially Casablanca), whatever. Still, the ideas were go...more
Great conclusion to the Quadrail series. Nicely wraps things up with Frank, Bayta, the Modhri and the Shonkla'raa and ties together things from all the books in the series. Sadly I had forgotten some of the details in the other books but enough was written about them to jog my memory. It did make me want to go back and reread them all now that they're all out without the delay in between the books I experienced.
As with the whole series, I really liked the combo of old style detective story mixe...more
As with the whole series, I really liked the combo of old style detective story mixe...more
This is not his best series, but it's a reasonably entertaining read. It's not the sort of book where the reader can figure out what's going on ahead of time, because the main character never tells everything he knows. But at least, there is an in-plot reason for that to be the case, what with telepathic group minds and unknowing alien spies and all. I enjoy seeing what he came up with this time as the secret plans unfold.
Conclusion of space-train-thriller series with mind-control aliens and politics and plots and betrayals and -- ooh, everything. I've been hoping the author wasn't going to string out the story too far, and maybe it could have been three books instead of five, but no complaints; this is a satisfying finale. Unless you think too hard about all the tech constraints that are supposed to make the plot make sense. Don't do that.
At the end of Book 4, when Zahn introduces the return of the badguys, I had no idea how he was going to wrap it all up.
He does simply by having the bad guys be small in number [which totally makes sense], it just wasn't made obvious in Book 4, so my mind immediately jumped to huge, galaxy spanning numbers.
Anyway, this was just one "I see your plan and have planned for your plan" scenario after another.
I thoroughly enjoyed the plot once I got into the story but am glad Zahn wrapped things up. C...more
He does simply by having the bad guys be small in number [which totally makes sense], it just wasn't made obvious in Book 4, so my mind immediately jumped to huge, galaxy spanning numbers.
Anyway, this was just one "I see your plan and have planned for your plan" scenario after another.
I thoroughly enjoyed the plot once I got into the story but am glad Zahn wrapped things up. C...more
This is the fifth, and final, book of the series. I've noted through the years that he writes well, but doesn't always finish strong. It is still an enjoyable book (I give most books three stars unless they force me to go up or down from three). My biggest complaint is the hero's dialog seemed to be the same in every scene, and there was a lot of dialog. I still recommend the series (including this book).
It had been a while since I'd read the fourth book in this quintilogy, so the beginning was a little difficult because there were a lot of references to it as the book got going. The middle and end of the book picked up though, and a it was a decent finish to this five book series.
What Zahn promised in the first book, Night Train to Rigel, he delivers in Judgement at Proteus. A phenomenal conclusion to a roller-coaster ride of a series.
A great wrap to the series, save the bit abrupt and jarring very end. As always, Zahn's plot and twists left high satisfaction.
Timothy Zahn brings his five-part Quadrail saga into the last stop on the line. His characters are fallible but smart, his pacing is excellent, and he consistently manages to hook me in pretty short order.
Not everything always goes as main character Frank Compton plans, but he manages to "live to tell the tale."
If you haven't read anything by Timothy Zahn, you're just plan missing out. He consistently makes me wonder, "What's gonna happen next?", and always delivers a satisfying read.
August 1...more
Not everything always goes as main character Frank Compton plans, but he manages to "live to tell the tale."
If you haven't read anything by Timothy Zahn, you're just plan missing out. He consistently makes me wonder, "What's gonna happen next?", and always delivers a satisfying read.
August 1...more
OK, if there's a plot twist Zahn didn't think of, then I'm not smart enough to see it either. What a whirlwind!
Best in the series. Nonstop Indian-Jones-saving-the-universe action. Very good end to an enjoyable series.
Decent conclusion to Zahn's Quadrail series. Not his best work, but good, clean, sci-fi.
Fifth and final in this series. Pretty good, some interesting sci-fi ideas. But too many fights where our hero gets bailed out by a deus ex machina.
Terrific, another believeable science thriller. Excellent mystery.
A fitting end to the Quadrail series.
Good wrap-up to a fun series.
This is one of my favorite series, the style is just classic detective sci-fi, it's so well done. There were a few things that were done to wrap up the series in this book that were both questionable and cool, but nothing that takes away from the greatness of the series for me overall.
This was a great series, never let me down for a moment, stayed smart a nd quickly paced though all the book. This book was no let down either great way to finish.
Satisfying finish to the series.
Pretty decent to the conclusion, although it felt like everything wrapped up pretty simply.
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Timothy Zahn attended Michigan State University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1973. He then moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and achieved an M.S. degree in physics in 1975. While he was pursuing a doctorate in physics, his adviser became ill and died. Zahn never completed the doctorate. In 1975 he had begun writing science fiction as a hobby, and he bec...more
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“I had a plan, all right, ... I was also pretty sure no one on my list of allies was going to like it.”
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