Publishing date: 25.03.2025 (DD/MM/YYYY)
Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon original Stories for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

TLDR: A fun little escape story. 3 stars

This was a silly little romp. Summarizing this book means spoiling the entire fun, but it is in essence an escape story condensed into 30 ish pages.

Since this is a short story I must warn that there is little to no character growth and depth, and the plot is very much focused on the escape part. If you find yourself saying "it is too short" or "not enough time to develop x and y" I think you should hold off. This falls into the usual "pit traps" that a lot of short stories do and is slightly unavoidable.

I did, however, have a good time with it. It entertained me for as long as it could and did a good job at it.

Audience is a little hard to pinpoint as the plot might feel a little juvenile to adults and a little too complex for younger readers. Young adult to new adult is where I sit. Of course, sci-fi short story fans might enjoy this, but it is my first time with one so I have nothing to compare it to.

3 stars. Entertaining, nothing spectacular. Single sitting read, which is always fun

I found "Trap Line" by Timothy Zahn to be an enjoyable and comfortably short story. We get pulled into the plot right away as we join Assistant Chief Engineer Toby Collier while he is getting ready to send his soul on an instantaneous journey to a spaceship light years away in order to perform repairs. However, things quickly go wrong. It turns out that Toby is not only a good engineer but also demonstrates that he has what it takes to be a great diplomat as well, as he finds himself trapped in a life-and-death first contact scenario even further away from home than he anticipated, without any guarantee of a return trip home.... This was a very enjoyable read!

I thank Timothy Zahn and Amazon Original Stories for kindly sharing a temporary electronic review copy of this work.

"Had he died?
With an effort, he fought back the emotion. He was an engineer, this was an engineering problem, and he would not surrender to unthinking terrors of the night."
- Timothy Zahn, Trap Line
Pub day: 3/25
#GIFTED from Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley
Genre: Short story, sci-fi, YA

Trap Line is a short story that you must treat as such and not quibble over the lack of details. I found it almost like a fable in its simplicity, execution, and message. I really liked it! While it has some complex concepts, I could prob read it to my 8 yr old.

It's sci-fi with space travel and the separation of consciousness and body. It's very fun!

This was okay. The idea behind it is quite interesting, but this short story is just not long enough to explore it as deeply as it deserves. This has been a common gripe of mine with many short stories I've read in the past, because as soon as you need to incorporate any amount of world-building in your story, it quickly starts feeling rushed. There have been SFF short stories that I thought were perfectly suited to the short format, others where I liked the short-form version but would also have loved the long-form version, and those that desperately needed more time to establish its characters and worlds. Unfortunately, Trap Line is firmly in the latter category.

Has a cool sci-fi atmosphere to it, but the story felt a little disjointed to me

(I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

Short and sweet sci-fi from Timothy Zahn. Humanity is late to it, but has finally solved interstellar travel—using clones. On a work trip, Toby falls into an interstellar trap with other aliens, but uses his smarts to work out a plan that benefits everyone.

An impressively compact and enjoyable story, good for a few diverting hours. Thanks to Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley.

It was amazing and engaging.
I was instantly sucked in by the atmosphere and writing style.
The characters were all very well developed .
The writing is exceptional and I was hooked after the first sentence.

One thing I liked about this is that it presented a unique method of interstellar travel. I’ve read similar before, but the main character getting his mind/soul trapped is something new, so points for creativity.

Unfortunately, the main flaw for this story is that it was too short. It left the plot overly simplistic and the world undeveloped.

The story has potential if it were to be expanded, but as it currently stands, I cannot rate it higher than a 3/5.

Trap Line is a short sci fi story about an engineer who is astral projecting when he encounters a new race of aliens and becomes stuck with them.

Trap Line might be better enjoyed by people looking for very niche science fiction. I read my fair share of sci fi but I struggle a bit when it is not accessible and easy to follow so I wouldn’t recommend if you’re dabbling in the genre. I also prefer character driven fiction and this had almost no exploration of the main character. The author is clearly very inventive and I think the overall concept is clever and imaginative.

Trap Line is a short story by American author Timothy Zahn. Engineer Toby Collier is sending his astral to meld with a replicate on the Pathmaker on Ganymede to diagnose a transmitter problem and effect a repair: fairly routine. But something goes amiss and his astral is caught in a trap room with ten bird-like aliens he soon learns are Hyfisks.

The trap facility is run by a family of insectoid beings: father, mother and daughter, whose pet ursk (resembling a cat/iguana) can see and hear captured aliens and alerts them to new arrivals. Escape is prevented by the deep chasm that surrounds the captives. With no prospect of rescue, Toby decides to find a way out before his earth-based team remove his body’s life support.

In making an escape plan with the Hyfisks that involves riding the cat/iguana and improvising precision tools, Toby discovers a problem that challenges the insectoid family. Can he formulate a win-win-win solution? A very enjoyable sci-fi take on astral travel.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories.

Trap Line is an Amazon short by Timothy Zahn, disappointingly I didn’t enjoy this short story. Too much at the hard science for my taste.

A short story with a moral. Set in the far off future, Toby monitors space vehicles and projects from his tech office, sending his conciousness into a drone when repairs or course corrections are needed, then returning back to his Earth bound body. Until the day that he doesn't return to Earth. He's landed in a jail with alien soldiers as his bunk mates. An original plot line that starts with a rude awakening.

Timothy Zahn is best known for his traditional science fiction, having a huge fan base that guarantees an audience, even when he surprises us with alien soldiers talking to a man they cannot see. The book is short on pages, but not on story. 5 easy stars.

Fun short story about a human and some aliens caught in a trap and how they work together to get out of it. Neat scifi twist to it.

My thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories for the e-ARC copy. This has not affected my review at all, which are my own thoughts.

In Trap Line, Zahn presents us with the common story of a human-alien species contact, except how the contact comes to be is nothing but typical. Toby, our protagonist, is ready to send his consciousness to a far-off place among the stars to meld with his clone and repair a ship. But, midway, some other place catches him, jailing him with other aliens. These are the Hyfisks, and, in human language, they look like eagles. They're also a crew of soldiers, stranded on the same trap-place while they were traveling to their ships to fight and defend their home and people.

Because this is a short-story, I'm gonna attribute to that the fact that the science part of it all is quite watered down, possibly because of the limiting length as I've mentioned, or whether due to the author wanting to cater to a broader audience that could, otherwise, get bored by the science expert lingo. This is as an aspect that, as an avid science fiction reader I would have liked to see more develop and less avoided. But, from an objective perspective, it does not downgrade the story at all. So, as I said, it is quite approachable both to the general public that's interested in dipping heir toes into the sci-fi genre, and to a more seasoned audience that's familiarized with it.

Because of the short length, the characters are constricted to not big changes about themselves, but they are able to overcome conflicts that arise, struggle to execute the solutions they've come up with and, eventually, change their situations, maybe. And that's something I also look for in shorter formats like this; if your characters are not going to change, at least make them struggle to fulfill their goals and make sure to change their situations, for better or for worse. If not, even a page-long story is a waste of space, for me. Maybe others like a more direct development and don't care that conflict is almost non-existent. That's fine.

Last but not least, the characters. Since Toby is the main character and the one the narrator most closely follows, he's the one we get to know the most as he navigates his new residence and companions, at the same time that he tries to get out of there and get back to his mission. The Hyfisks, on their part, are quite interesting as an alien species, with their eagle-like looks and the few aspects of their culture that we get to learn alongside Toby. A group of them are trapped with him, but we only know of two: Irion, their leader, and Cinosk, technological expert. And, for a short story, these are all the ones we need to know. Irion is as interesting as an alien soldier can get, embracing the communication with Toby, human being the aliens for them (the Hyfisks) and always procuring both parts get on equal level.

I don't want to say much more about the short story, just let people read it, enjoy it, and see how these characters fair with their fate and try to change it.

Overall, I'd describe "Trap Line" as a bold attempt at approaching the human-alien first contact from a different angle than the usual, with resolute characters and an immersive prose. A good discovery while looking around Netgalley's shelves that will stay with me for a while.

This is a very quick read and also my first non-Star Wars by Timothy Zahn. I thought it was so amazing I wished it was a full length novel!

Timothy Zahn es un escritor conocido principalmente por sus aportaciones al universo Star Wars y otras novelizaciones de diversos mundos cinematográficos, pero también tiene producción “propia”, por llamarla de alguna manera.


Trap Line es una novela corta con mucho aire a ciencia ficción clásica, desde un protagonista caracterizado por ser ingeniero a un buenismo que nos retrotrae a la edad dorada del género. Pero Zahn sabe que el público actual no está dispuesto a aguantar soflamas científicas, así que simplifica hasta el extremo la parte más tecnológica del primer contacto, de una forma tan radical que parece que estemos ante una novela de fantasía en vez de ciencia ficción. Al menos hay aliens y nos ofrece una historia de primer contacto simplificada y agradable, pero que pasa sin pena ni gloria, quizá por esa falta de complicación. Es posible que la longitud de la obra tampoco ofreciera al autor más oportunidades de explayarse.

Los aliens son demasiado humanos, no hay problemas de comunicación, todos parecen entenderse en el mismo marco de referencia a pesar de ser especies que nunca antes habían entrado en contacto… Es un poco frustrante si lo que buscas es algo de ciencia ficción no digo ya desafiante, sino algo verosímil.


Creo que Trap Line pasará desapercibida dentro del maremágnum de novedades editoriales que inundan nuestras librerías.

This is my first non-Star Wars Timothy Zahn and it was incredibly good and engaging in its shorter page count, so it certainly won’t be my last.

Thanks to Amazon Original Stories and Netgalley for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for my Advanced Reader's Copy of this book.

What a great novella! Ever since the reading Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, I have eagerly awaited and read what has come next. As long as you like short books and sci fi, then you will like this book.

What a great sci-fi short story!!
Humor, action, adventure. Would have loved to see it as a novel 🥳

Trap Line: A Short Story by Timothy Zahn is a great cozy fantasy. Toby, an engineer, gets abducted by an alien race, intending to sell him for profit. With the help of another imprisoned alien group, he is determined to escape.

I had the good fortune to read and listen to the eARC and ALC simultaneously. The story was amazing, and the narration provided by Greg D. Barnett, provided a unique, distinctive voices to all of the characters and an engaging delivery.

Thank you, Brilliance Publishing | Amazon Original Stories, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 5 stars
Audio Release Date: Mar 25 2025
Print Pub Date: Mar 25 2025

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