Steele, Allen: Angel of Europa
Angel of Europa (2011)
Written by: Allen Steele
Genre: Novella/Science Fiction
Pages: 90 (Hardcover)
Why I Read It: Because I'm a fan of Allen Steele's work, and he's become one of those authors whose work I don't want to pass up, especially if there's a special release through Subterranean Press. And because it's so short, it was easy to slide into my TBR pile to read right away.
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?
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.
So there's very little to say here, because it's such a short, concise little story that's smooth reading for the most part. In fact, I only made one note, and that was on page 31 where we learn that Evangeline has a well-tanned stomach. This threw me for a moment, because I started wondering how long they'd been in space (in which case, the girl can't be sunbathing), but maybe there's tanning beds on the ship? Maybe? Well, you're right, that does seem like a reasonable expense on such a venture, so I'm not sure why Evangeline has such a well-tanned stomach.
It was interesting to read along and just wonder what the truth of the matter would be as well. Would Evangeline be a villain or an innocent? Honestly, neither outcome settled well for me, because it all felt too simple and too pat. Steele doesn't give us a straight answer to the mystery, there's a few nice twists and turns that keep the plot from being overly simple and obvious, which is nice, and the Faust references tie in nicely too.
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.
Cover Commentary: You know, it's funny. The cover's so dark in coloring I didn't pay much attention to the images, until I was looking for a good .jpg to use for this review, and I noticed the monster drawn in the lower right-hand corner. Which made me go, "There's a monster on the cover?!?!?!" and lo and behold, when I picked up my copy, there it was! That's fun. In truth, the art is perfectly fine but does nothing for me, and it's not something that'd grab my attention in stores. That being said, considering I tend to despite Subterranean's cover art as a general rule, I'm thrilled beyond belief with this one! :)
Next up: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008 by John Scalzi