"The Frozen Sky"--The Frozen Sky--The Frozen Sky 2: Betrayed by Jeff Carlson

Note: Another Jeff Carlson short story that became a novel--"Interrupt"--is discussed here.

Jeff Carlson passed away in 2017 at the height of his career, making his biggest splash in writing the best-selling Plague series, one of which was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick award.

Around the same time, he began this series in the pages of Writers of the Future. with a lengthy novelette/novella.  Apparently, these are not accomplishment enough to rate a mention in the SF Encyclopedia, which is still growing, perhaps outpaced by the field.

The tale tilts at a break-neck speed. I thought I'd reviewed it, but apparently not. It was the tale of a woman who dives into Jupiter's moon of Europa where a shell of ice covers a deeper sea where life may exist, being warmed by tidal forces. And, lo, life does exist--a rather violent race of beings controlled by matriarchs. These "sunfish" are armored on top and tentacled on the bottom. Carlson's version of Europa is Steven Baxter's "Cilia-of-Gold" on amphetamines.

What my memory serves is that "The Frozen Sky" was a little too fast. While energy excites, it comes at the expense of variety. Like the movie Speed, it becomes less thought than non-stop adventure, but some enjoy that. According to an interview, the novelette/novella version sold 40,000 copies before he converted it into a novel--the story's success urging him to do so.

Starship Sofa has an audio version of the tale here.

The novels adjusted for this a little, expanding a little on the characters--Betrayed takes us deeper into the alien psyche as well--but the novels still gallop. After an extensive timeline of future history, Betrayed leaps into danger.

Showing fear can lead our space-suited heroine, Vonnie, into being attacked. And so she is. She takes what she's learned and begins to probe deeper into their understanding and cultural ways. After grappling with and befriending one, she slowly introduces foreign concepts into the minds of these creatures as one species tries to understand the another. However, a misunderstanding brings an attack on the small crew and the mechs they have protecting them. Do they defend themselves, perhaps leading to genocide, or try to reason with the hive-mind creatures?

As the series has progressed, it seems to have become less about a exploration hard SF concepts and more about female rule with a few interesting comments about such a society.

As you can see, this comes "highly recommended" by Seanan McGuire, but there is some complexity here. If you like this sort of discussion, it might be worth exploring the series although I have yet to read the others to see where it goes. I may yet do so.

While Carlson didn't quite become a major player in the field--which could be debated that he might have been had he continued--he is fun and supplies some food for thought.