Thursday, February 23, 2017

Europa's Survivors, by Marianne J. Dyson

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(Hard SF) Despite the cancer that’s killing her, young Cassie heads to Europa to join a research team. (16,750 words; Time: 55m)

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ Needs Improvement

"Europa's Survivors," by (edited by Trevor Quachri), appeared in issue 03-04|17, published on by .

Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)

This story suffers from purple prose, unnatural dialogue, narrated emotions (aka “telling not showing”), and endless infodumps.

Challenges to disbelief are frequent: e.g. Sending a terminal-cancer patient on a space mission. A lander that’s mean to crash through the ice. Needing a cane in Europa’s one-eighth gravity. The microbes being studied were living inside pump #3 and nowhere else. AIs that only communicate by meowing, etc.

The ending is awful for a hard SF story: the alien bacteria magically cure radiation sickness and cancer.

Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 03-04|17)
Marianne J. Dyson Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline

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