Trap Line

by Timothy Zahn

An engineer’s groundbreaking solo mission is rudely interrupted when he stumbles into an interstellar trap. The New York Times bestselling author of the Thrawn trilogy is back with a wholly original short story of first contact.

En route to far-off stars, Toby’s consciousness has a crucial mission: inhabit his clone long enough to repair a spaceship, then zip back to Earth. He’s done it a million times, more or less. OK, twelve times. It should only take a few hours.

Until he wakes up in jail. And he’s not alone.

His fellow prisoners: a cadre of alien soldiers. His prison: an ethereal boundary that will imprison their spirits until their bodies die. His jailers can’t even see him. But their pet cat (er, iguana cat?) can—and it’s got a serious case of the zoomies.

With humanity’s place in the odd and ever-widening universe riding on Toby’s choices, it’s time to saddle up for a ghostly game of cat and mouse.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Audiobook, Novella, Ebooks, Aliens

32 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 25, 2025

About the author

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 became a professional writer. He and his wife Anna live in Bandon, Oregon. They have a son, Corwin Zahn.

Reviews

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t. Nowhere in the math, nowhere in the tests or simulations, nowhere in his own personal experience had he ever wound up conscious but without a body. Something had gone inexplicably and horribly wrong."

This is Toby Collier’s current predicament. He works for Far Jump Operations. There is little detail on that but what we are told is that people like Toby can move out of their “mortal shell” and be transferred to another body somewhere across the galaxy where there is some work to be done or some repairs to be made. In that new body, Toby, would have all of his memories and the ability to control whatever body he is placed in. But, here, Toby finds himself without a body at all and trapped in a place to which he was never intended to be sent.

He meets aliens that are in the same difficult situation. How they solve it is a “lesson” in inter-species cooperation and bodes well for our path to the stars.

A small idea by Zahn has his usual virtues in a compact form. 3.5

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ad Hoc short story read April 2025

Another enjoyable (free ? ) short story that is very unique in its story line.

Humans have developed inter stellar travel but we can’t survive it, so clones are sent and upon arrival, the original of the clone, after much practise will send their soul /being /consciousness across the light years to meld with the cloned body, do whatever needs doing and then zap back to their original body on earth.

Whilst only a few well trained specific individuals can do this, it is working well, until the day that Toby does not make it as far as his clone but appears as a spirit on an alien ship, where it transpires he has accidentally been captured.
How does he get out of this mess and who are the other alien consciousnesses (phew)that are in the prison with him.

Well written and a fun short ish story from Timothy Zahn.

[Nancy Yager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trap Line by Timothy Zahn is a compelling Sci-Fi and Fantasy read. While I did not understand the physics involved, the author transports us through time and introduces us to different beings. The overall lesson of this short story is that we can learn from each other without destroying humanity. Problem solving always saves the day and it usually comes from average people.

Timothy Zahn restores your belief in humanity again. Spend an hour with Zahn (this is a short story) and you find profound answers within yourself. All you need is a team. This is my first read from Zahn and am looking forward to reading more.

Thank you to Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories for the Advanced Readers Copy. All opinions are my own because I have first amendment rights as a free American.

[Dead Inside · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a short story about an Iguana cat. I enjoyed.

[Krystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Narrated by Greg D. Barnett
Presented by Brilliance Publishing

This was too short!

I rather enjoyed this, actually! I liked all of the aliens immediately, and the setting was great.

I actually had no idea this was a short story (sometimes I don't pay attention to those details when I request things on NetGalley) so when it ended I was waiting for it to move on to the next part of the story! There was definitely enough here to build a series out of.

The narration was brilliant, differentiating all the characters, enunciating clearly and keeping the pace nice and even. A very enjoyable listen.

An excellent short story, and as my first experience of Zahn it certainly whet the appetite!

With thanks to NetGalley for an audio ARC

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

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/ Brilliance Publishing.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conceptually interesting, but too sappy.

[Cherlynn | cherreading · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard for me to enjoy a story that I barely understand. Admittedly, not that I made much of an effort since the book lost me right at the beginning and I just wanted to get it over and done with. I didn't find this compelling or engaging or memorable and had zero emotional investment.

Thank you to Amazon Original Stories for the Netgalley ARC.

[The Bibliophile Doctor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trap Line
A Short Story
by Timothy Zahn

Narrated by Greg D. Barnett
audiobook rating : 3.5 stars
Book rating : 3.5 stars

The audiobook was good and it felt quite good to listen to Barnett's narration.


Trap line by Timothy Zahn is a wonderful sci-fi short story by Amazon original.

It reminded me so much of Project Hail Mary, although I wouldn't say there are similarities between the two, only one being both are sci fi.

Trap line is smart and engaging read and I wanted it to be a full blown novel as I would have enjoyed it, I'm sure of it. The story starts with an engineer who travels through his subconscious travelling miles away to repair and restore things. It has been mostly a successful mission always but this one time when he is trapped in an interstellar prison along with other aliens.

He has to rely on these aliens to get away from the prison, how he does that is what this story is about.

I personally enjoyed it, only thing is the length of the book. I would really prefer if it had been a novel.

Thank you Netgalley and Amazon original stories for this wonderful short story.

[Lucia · Rating 3 out of 5]

An engineer's consciousness gets trapped while performing an interstellar jump, how will he get free if he doesn’t have a body?

The premise was interesting and the worldbuilding was well done, we’re given enough information to get immersed in this universe without taking away from the action, exactly what a short story needs.

I enjoyed the problem-solving aspect of the story but I found the main character's reasoning a bit simplistic at times. Also the characterization of the aliens and their culture was a bit too human-like, these aliens have traditional human families and pets!

Apart from that this was an enjoyable short story.

Thanks to Amazon Original Stories via NetGalley for providing an eARC

[Erika Sarutobi · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

RTC

[Paul Willweber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing earth-shattering, but a fun little story.

[Tammie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Mireya · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first time I’m reading something from Timothy Zahn, but I decided to give this short story a try and I really enjoyed this short read that I listened to during a short morning walk. The story involves an engineer, Toby, getting stuck in an interstellar ramp while astral projecting across the galaxy as a way to extend their reach beyond Earth. There, he meets with a group of bird like species from across the galaxy who are also trapped and have to work together to escape. The science was for the most part understandable, but some of it did fly over my head, but I got the basic version enough to understand what was going on. There was plenty of creativity to solve the problems presented. Toby was a likable character, and I enjoyed the bird creatures, as well as the beings that trapped them there. Overall, the story displays how humanity is capable of good in the universe through cultural exchange and can help other species. The ending was fitting, but took me a bit to somewhat understand. Highly recommend.

*I received an ARC from Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories. All opinions are my own.*

[Russell Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim since I was in the mood for something short and I hadn't read a sci-fi story in a bit.

The story follows a human engineer in a future where we can traverse space with Farjump technology, but only after a few extra steps. Nothing sentient/organic can survive the jump, so a replicate (clone) has to be grown on the ship after the jump and a human can astral jump to possess their clone.

Unfortunately, our engineer MC's astral spirit gets snagged by a trap in space and he finds himself in a sprit-prison of sorts with the spirits of some aliens. The story follows the characters as they plan their escape.

It was a pretty nice setup, though I felt like the overly simple characterizations let it down. I thought it was a little odd that the astral spirit trap was run by a small family of insectoid aliens who had an overly human type of family dynamic. And our MC was overly nice in that he wanted to escape without harming the livelihood of this insect family...even though they are the equivalent of interstellar human traffickers.

The story was okay, if not the most enthralling. If it had another 10 pages in length, I might have lost interest. I've never read this author before and this story doesn't exactly motivate me to find his other works. Maybe serendipity will lead me to one eventually, anyway.

[Nicole Zimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

As humanity is expanding with a technology that allows one to project their consciousness into a clone somewhere else in the galaxy, Tobey's consciousness gets caught in a trap and he has to find a way to escape with the other "astrals" stuck with him.
As a big Star Wars fan (especially of the books) I am familiar with Timothy Zahn's work and love what he can do. It was fun to see this world for a little bit. It felt like getting to play around with a sci-fi idea and have fun.
For me, it was a perfect science fiction listen. I work outside and listen to audiobooks often hiking the trails at the park where I work, coming in at around an hour it, was like listening to a Twilight Zone of black mirror episode (though one with a happy ending). While I love long epic stories, sometimes it's fun to just have a classic ridiculous space adventure with a plucky human saving the day.

[Ursula Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised and delighted to see a short story from Timothy Zahn on Kindle Unlimited. As a huge fan of his Star Wars novels, I wanted to read some of his new work. This was an intriguing short story about a traveler who is caught in trap and how he works together with some aliens with a unique solution to the problem that helps everyone involved. Greg D. Barnett does a fantastic job on the audiobook version with a lively narration. Still hoping for more Grand Admiral Thrawn books in Star Wars, he is missed.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cute short story with some interesting concepts. I haven’t read Zahn before but enjoyed his writing and found all the characters in this story to be fleshed out and fun to follow. His characterization of alien species was interesting! I’d recommend this work broadly to fans of sci-fi and short stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for a copy of this eARC. All opinions are my own.

[Ben A · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Tiffany Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and sweet “first contact“ sci fi along the lines of Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary. Definitely left me wanting more because it very nicely sets up a rich broader universe that the humans are just starting to step in to.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful.

Bear with me. I can't help but think this is Toy Story + Waystation.

Brilliant concept for first contact.

This is my first Timothy Zahn, though he has been on my radar for some time. I'm quite excited to read more - his Star Wars novels look excellent.

[Jeffrey Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great Zahn story

I have been a big Zahn fan since The Thrawn Trilogy and read some of his non Star Wars books as well. No one writes a sci fi story like Zahn, and this story is another testimony to that. Would love to see this tie into other short stories with a big book Trilogy. I recommend this book to any Zahn or sci fi fan.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me

This wasn't bad or anything, or a poor story or badly written, I just didn't find myself enjoying it. Good length for s short story though.

[Poiboy · Rating 1 out of 5]

That was a bit painful. I almost believe that Zahn used AI to write this. A good idea with a lazy execution.

[Shannon Griffiths · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall 3 ⭐️

This book was good. I wasn’t pulled in but I also didn’t not want to read it. I liked the conclusion of the book and it did make me smile from the scheming

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first space-themed sci-fi, chosen for ‘Z’, and lo and behold—it got me: premise, characters, even the iguana cat—and only at the end did I learn who wrote Star Wars!

[Kaileigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[Marlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

What Toby Collier comes to appreciate when his ‘astral’ manifests in an alien trap instead of aboard the Terran FarJump ship Janus out in the far flung galaxy is something attributed to poet William Butler Yeats centuries before Toby was born, that “There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t yet met.”

Certainly neither Toby, nor anyone from Earth, has ever met anyone similar to the vaguely avian-like Hyfisk, the soldiers with whom Toby is trapped in a small, family-operated space ship in the middle of the great, wide galaxy that all of them were traversing.

The family, Porpou, his wife, their daughter Ibbi and her ‘iguana cat’ Bisqitty, make their living by trapping astrals like Toby and the Hyfisks and reporting them to the ‘Overmasters’, whoever or whatever THEY are. For the family, it’s a living – if not necessarily a luxurious or even steady one.

But the trap is a roadblock for the astrals, an interruption that will lead to Toby’s death when he doesn’t complete his job out on the far reaches of human-discovered space and return in a reasonable time frame. Because his bosses will cut their losses along with the life-support of his physical body.

The Hyfisks’ situation is more dire – they are soldiers on the way to defend an important colony from an aggressive enemy. Not that they also won’t die when their life support is cut, but their duty is more important to them than their individual lives.

Except that they have been stuck in that trap long enough to give up. Toby, freshly trapped, hasn’t. And is determined not to. He’s also an engineer rather than a soldier, and he hasn’t yet met a puzzle that he’s not going to at least attempt to solve.

The Hyfisk can’t solve the problem with the knowledge they have. Toby, on the other hand, brings fresh – if non-corporeal – eyes and mind to the same problem and figures out that if they share their knowledge, they can escape. If they trust each other enough.

And if they can get the iguana cat to cooperate – which might be the most difficult part of the whole thing. Her name isn’t pronounced ‘BisKITTY’ for nothing.

Escape Rating A-: Trap Line turned out to be a whole lot of fun and I’m very glad I listened to/read it. Even though I initially picked it up because I was having a difficult time getting into anything. Monday’s book seriously did a number on my concentration, but this little story turned out to be the cure.

I picked this up through Kindle Unlimited – a subscription I get happier about all the time. It was fun, it was quick, the audio narrator did a great job portraying Toby AND the Hyfisks and it all just made for the reading pick-me-up I was desperate for.

For an SF story, Trap Line was surprisingly cozy. It’s a small cast in an even smaller setting, just ten Hyfisks, three insectoid aliens, an iguana cat, and Toby. It’s also small in length, but it sets itself well AND gives the reader just enough to get why and how Toby and Irion, the commander of the Hyfisks, manage to come to (mostly) trust each other in this “enemy of my enemy is my friend’ scenario. Particularly as Toby and the humans aren’t aware of the Overmasters enough to BE their enemy – at least not yet – AND Toby manages to convince Irion that the trap-keeping family are not really an enemy to either of them. They’re all just trying to get by – like everyone else.

That this is also a story about the cleverness of humans and the inventiveness of our species instead of any attempt to win by domination or violence – and not just because it wouldn’t work in this situation AT ALL – made this a whole lot of fun, with a comforting layer of competence over the whole thing.

It broke my reading slump – and I’m incredibly grateful for that!

Even though Toby, the Hyfisks, and Porpou have no ability to communicate all together (Toby and the Hyfisks can communicate because they’re all astrals), they still manage to concoct a mutually beneficial plan that has the wonderful added benefit of sticking it to the Overmasters for all of them without the Overmasters being aware that they’ve been shafted. Toby, the Hyfisks and Porpou have made friends, even if they haven’t managed to share a single word in ANY language – and their quiet rebellion makes for a glorious – and friendly – ending to this delightful short story.

Originally published at Reading Reality

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

If ever there was an opposite of hard sci fi, this would be it. Unfortunately, not in a good way. I felt like I was listening to an 8th grade English assignment to write a story with an uplifting message. Everything is oversimplified, the worldbuilding is illogical, and once again we have a great white savior plot (or in this case, the great human savior) that provides the tired message that humanity is superior to aliens due to some inherent creativity or though creation process. Don't let the ponderously heavy messages hit you on your way out.

Story: Toby is an astronaut whose job it is to transfer his astral form into a clone in a far off location of space where it would be unsafe otherwise for humans. But something goes wrong on a routine mission and he finds his astral form captured by an alien family just trying to make ends meet by capturing other aliens. There he meets another race of bird-like creatures similarly trapped. Turns out they astral project into machines the way he projects into biology - could they work together to get out of the prison without hurting the alien family whose income is provided by capturing aliens for the evil Overmasters to study?

First, this is a short story and goes very fast. So there is no lengthy set up - just Toby getting captured immediately. Then, because he is a chipper, friendly, and optimistic kind of guy, he talks to the bird aliens and refuses to give up trying to escape (they already gave up). We get POVs from the alien family father and little daughter as well as the bird-like aliens who all talk like nuclear 50s family type of humans. Of course, the alien family is worried they aren't capturing enough astral souls and so money is tight and they might have to move (and disappoint his little daughter and her pet 'cat'). It's a Norman Rockwell painting in space and is ridiculous.

Honestly, the whole thing was ludicrous. The bird aliens understand EVERYTHING about the situation despite never having seen the family aliens before, everyone trusts the other, out hero wants to help out the family aliens despite them imprisoning/killing every creature they capture, and the deus ex machina of abilities for this astral projection is stupefying. Basically, we have aliens who are human but with a costume.

The narrator did a fine job with what he had. Such as it was. The ending was silly and pat. Reviewed from an advance audio copy provided by the publisher.