Steele, Allen M. Angel of Europa. Subterranean Press, 2011.
Allen M. Steele’s standalone novella, Angel of Europa, is a straightforward whodunit. On a mission to explore the ice-covered oceans of Europa, Otto wakes after almost being sucked out of the airlock. He has been awakened from a medical coma early because the ship’s captain needs him to investigate the recent deaths of two crew members in a deep-sea submersible. Steele is always good with near-future technology, and his tight plotting would make a good half-hour of television. 4 stars. ( )

Allen Steele is a fantastic storyteller.

I suppose I shouldn't really stop right there. This novelette is a very neatly plotted mystery that takes place in orbit around, and on the surface of, Europa. The International Jupiter Expedition has arrived at Jupiter already having suffered one casualty: their arbitrator, Otto Danzig, was nearly killed in an unexplained airlock accident, and has been in medical hibernation since they crossed Mars orbit. Now, though, the expedition has a worse problem: The bathyscaphe lowered into the Europan ocean has suffered an accident, the two scientists aboard have both been killed. Only the pilot, Evangeline Chatelain, survived and returned to the ship. She reports that a huge undersea creature rammed the bathyscaphe and breached the hull of the observation cabin, forcing her to jettison it in order to escape alive herself.

The problem is that no one believes her.

Captain Diaz orders Danzig awakened, even though he is not yet fully healed, because the expedition needs its arbitrator to conduct an impartial investigation and resolve the question of what happened in the bathyscaphe. Still weak, not completely recovered and moreover just emerged from months of hibernation, Danzig quickly discovers that he'll need to go down to the Europa surface, and take Chatelain with him, Does the giant sea creature exist, and why has no one else seen any sign of it? What about the complicated relationship between Chatelain and the two scientists--both of whom were her ex-lovers?

Then Danzig makes the decision that makes everyone--including him--fear for his safety. He's going into the ocean in the remaining bathyscaphe--with Chatelain as his pilot.

This is very nicely done, with tight plotting and characters nicely developed in the small space of this novelette.

Highly recommended.

I received this book from a friend. ( )

The premise: ganked from publisher's website: In the early years of the 22nd century, an international space expedition is exploring the moons of Jupiter. Tragedy strikes when a bathyscaphe lowered into the global ocean beneath Europa’s frozen surface is lost, costing the lives of two scientists. The lone survivor: the bathyscaphe’s pilot, a woman whose haunting beauty and sexual hunger led both men to have affairs with her.

She claims that her craft was attacked by an enormous creature prowling the frigid waters beneath the ice. Other expedition members doubt her story. They believe the creature doesn’t exist, and that she’s lying in order to hide the fact that she deliberately killed her former lovers.

It’s up to another crewman—the survivor of a freak accident aboard the expedition ship -- to determine the truth. Is this murder…or one of the greatest discoveries of all time?

My Rating: Worth Reading, with Reservations

Reservation: a wee bit pricey, especially if you're not familiar with the author's work. I think for fans of Steele, it's an enjoyable read. It's certainly not something I'd start with if you've never read his work at all, but then again, why would you order a special limited edition of a book of an author you've never read? I wouldn't pay Subterranean's prices for a newbie! But as a collector of Steele's work, this is a nice little edition to my library, and it's an enjoyable tale. It treads the line of predictability and backs away from it nicely, and it's got me hankering to get back to reading some of Steele's longer works again.

Spoilers, yay or nay?: Considering that the above premise tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the story, save for the ending, I won't spoil you any further. After all, it's a short book. The full review is at my blog, which is linked below, if you're interested. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. :)

REVIEW: Allen Steele's ANGEL OF EUROPA

Happy Reading! ( )