Beneath

Beneath was an extremely enjoyable read. While NASA and SETI search for extraterrestrial life, many debate what that life might look like. Recent exploration has been centered on the search for water on other planets assuming that where there is water, there may also be life. If that's the case, any life found is likely to be carbon based and simple cellular.

Jeremy Robinson's latest book, Beneath, starts with a chance discovery of a meteor that points to the possibility of microbial life on Europa, the 6th moon of Jupiter. This discovery is the precipitating event that launches an expedition into space. Traveling deeper into the black than any humans in history, the team makes its way to the surface of Europa.

The story is as plausible as it is entertaining. No liberties have been taken at expense of the story. The technology used to launch the mission is based firmly in credible science. No magical transported technology or phaser guns. This isn't a fast and lose sci-fi adventure. Robinson does an artful job of crafting a credible and suspenseful adventure story that happens to be set in space.

But with all of the action, adventure, mystery and technology, what still impresses me the most is the crafting of the characters. The characters are ultimately what pulled me most into the story. The more fantastic the story, the more interesting the characters need to be. Beneath contains a twisting plot that takes the reader on an adventure. But the characters are the ones you care about. You want them to survive, succeed, to find the answers to the questions that the story poses.

As I have come to expect from Robinson's work, Beneath follows through on all of these points. Beneath is exciting and enjoyable book that was difficult to put down!

Story description isn't appearing. So, here it is!

Three thousand years after a chunk of iron the size of Khufu's pyramid collides with Europa, Jupiter's sixth moon, an asteroid borne of the collision crashes into Earth's Arctic ice shelf carrying extraterrestrial microbial life. The first man to come into contact with the microbes hears voices—and then dies.

After determining the meteorite originated from Europa, the Global Exploratory Corporation sends oceanographer and biologist, Kathy Connelly, and her crew to the moon aboard the Surveyor, an experimental spacecraft. They are charged with the task of melting through miles of ice to the hidden ocean beneath, where the search for alien microorganisms begins. But a startling discovery awaits them on the surface of Europa.

Life.

Vast fields of red, plant-like organisms fill the cracks crisscrossing the moon's surface, surviving on nutrients welling up from the waters below. Intoxicated by thoughts of what might lie beneath, Connelly and her crew activate the Thermal Exploratory System and melt through the ice—toward a world that does not want to be found, toward a force that will do anything to make sure they never leave.

They search for life. They find death.