HuckleBuck411
An intense read where two women from a ship on a mission to begin exploiting the planet Shroud are forced down in a specialized exploration pod to the surface of the planet when an explosive accident occurs aboard ship. Shroud, with a crushing gravity, has a thick, poisonous atmosphere creating a completely corrosive and lightless environment on the surface. However, there is a form of monstrous intelligent life in the dark on Shroud. The long-shot chance for the women's survival requires that they walk their pod across half the planet to a space elevator that the exposition had driven down into the polar region of Shroud. Needless to say, their journey is a harrowing one constantly dogged/escorted by some of the strange lifeforms on the planet. Though the women are unable to communicate in any meaningful way with the aliens, the aliens, on the other hand are learning much as they study the pod on its long journey. This was an entertaining read about a very emotionless, unprincipled human future where the species' main goal is to continue to move out into the galaxy stripping planets of resources and setting up colonies and outposts, even when other lifeforms exist on the worlds they exploit, and where individual humans are also nothing more than resources that are kept on ice if and until they are needed. My only criticism of the story is toward the ending where the human crews above Shroud seem to have no clue what is going on and make some very obvious mistakes even after observing what has been happening on the surface of Shroud.
An intense read where two women from a ship on a mission to begin exploiting the planet Shroud are forced down in a specialized exploration pod to the surface of the planet when an explosive accident occurs aboard ship. Shroud, with a crushing gravity, has a thick, poisonous atmosphere creating a completely corrosive and lightless environment on the surface. However, there is a form of monstrous intelligent life in the dark on Shroud. The long-shot chance for the women's survival requires that they walk their pod across half the planet to a space elevator that the exposition had driven down into the polar region of Shroud. Needless to say, their journey is a harrowing one constantly dogged/escorted by some of the strange lifeforms on the planet. Though the women are unable to communicate in any meaningful way with the aliens, the aliens, on the other hand are learning much as they study the pod on its long journey. This was an entertaining read about a very emotionless, unprincipled human future where the species' main goal is to continue to move out into the galaxy stripping planets of resources and setting up colonies and outposts, even when other lifeforms exist on the worlds they exploit, and where individual humans are also nothing more than resources that are kept on ice if and until they are needed. My only criticism of the story is toward the ending where the human crews above Shroud seem to have no clue what is going on and make some very obvious mistakes even after observing what has been happening on the surface of Shroud.