The Life Below

This second volume of this series follows the crew of the Pontus as they travel to the moon Europa. My feelings about this book are somewhat conflicted so I will try to explain with minimal spoilers:

/\ : The main characters were excellent. While they were thrown into an utterly bizarre situation, the characters were utterly believable and they reacted in very believable ways. Both of the main characters were well meaning, which let me cheer them on and fear for them when they were in danger.

/\ : There was something about the writing style that just kept me reading - I so wanted to find out what happened next.

/\ : There was a mystery that I really wanted to solve.

/\ : I really appreciated the Persian phrases, references to Naw Ruz and Persian food (the best food imho).

\/ : There was very little description of place. For a book that was based largely on a space craft I have no idea what the darn thing looks like inside or out. It was initially referred to as a “capsule” so I imagined something Apollo or Space X Dragon style. Then there were references to multiple rooms, bedrooms, lounges and mezzanine floors. Of course when they were docking or landing I really wanted to know what it looked like from outside - but I haven't a clue. I tried to ignore it but I'm a very visual reader and it almost gave me a headache mentally redrawing the ship every chapter.

\/ : The technology just doesn't make sense. One example that bothered me was when they floated into the Habitation Module and their “feet land with a thunk”. Apparently this is an artificial gravity area with “a soaring atrium surrounded by six wraparound levels of living space”...“created by turning the module into an ever-rotating centrifuge”...but they just floated into it...this should mean that they would see the whole place whipping around them at high speed while they floated in the middle before falling to their deaths “with a thunk”. OK, ignore that, mentally rewrite it as there is an area that matches the spin to the presumed wheel or arm that the Habitation area is based in and their feet touched down in there. It was really hard to keep this mental rewrite going while they happily dashed in and out throughout the novel. There are many other examples, but I'm griping too much already.

\/ : The ending really felt that there should be a book 3, but I see no evidence that there is one coming. Which is a shame as despite the flaws, I really loved the story and the characters.