Frozen Sky: Betrayed (the Europa Series Book 2)

"Betrayed (Frozen Sky #2) by Jeff Carlson" starts off a few months after the end of "The Frozen Sky: A Novel (Frozen Sky #1)". The sunfish and the human scientists are still exploring their tentative relationship, and how it will work out is still very much in doubt. A habitat module has been constructed just under the ice where humans and sunfish can meet face to “face” and negotiate. Alexis Vonderach (Vonnie) is locked in a fight for dominance with the sunfish they call “Tom”, which is necessary for any sunfish discussion. She and Tom begin to start a dialog about the sunfish acting as guides and ambassadors for the scientists in exchange for food and protection. This is halted abruptly when ice tremors start and possibly endanger the sunfish. If the tremors are caused by human machinery on the surface, the sunfish will consider this an act of aggression, and any treaty will be impossible.Jeff Carlson has done a masterful job of creating an intriguing story on many levels. There is the clash of competing interests between the various governments and commercial interests on earth, as political alliances are considered between former enemies. The scientists on Europa are tasked with following out the orders from their governments on Earth. There are many of them who are agents of their government's intelligence services, with agendas of their own. There is one scientist in the group that is openly working against forming an alliance with the sunfish in order to promote the commercial exploitation of Europa and the sunfish for the profit of that company. He is on the secretly on the payroll of that company.Because of various deaths and disasters in the European Space Agency group (ESA), who originally discovered the sunfish, they have joined forces with the Brazilian team, who are all military. The Brazilians are heavily armed, and prepared to destroy the sunfish if they feel that is necessary to protect the human camps on Europa. As the distance between the Earth and Europa increases, the communication delay between them increases, forcing the scientists to rely on possibly out-dated instructions from their governments, or the government’s A.I. proxies on Europa.Each scientist on Europa has their own agenda to follow. Only Vonnie, the person who discovered the sunfish, seems to have any interest in forging a treaty for the benefits of both parties.The parallel between the distrust the humans and starfish have for each other is not hard to miss. The sunfish history and culture is slowly revealed as Vonnie learns more about them. There are other groups of sunfish under the ice, and the two groups of sunfish must come to their own agreement. The sunfish have their own political battles to fight.Jeff Carlson has written an adventure story that is an impressive addition to the literature of First Contact, communication, and cooperation with an alien species. You will be enthralled with this book and will not be able to put it down.

Cross-posted from Papyrus Independent Author Reviews.How do you maintain a truce with a harsh alien species with which you can barely communicate? And how much more fragile is that truce when all your decisions are made by a distant bureaucracy riddled with self-interest and political agendas? One betrayal could start an inter-species war."Betrayed" is the sequel to "The Frozen Sky" by Jeff Carlson, an author who has had a number of novels which seem to be a mixture of self-published and traditionally published works. "The Frozen Sky" was a terrific read, so I was quite eager to see what he did with the sequel. Both novels are set of Europa, a moon of Jupiter. It's not the first time that I've seen this moon as a focus of first-encounter fiction. The story revolves around discovery of and interactions with a species of life-form on Europa known as the Sunfish. The environment in which the story takes place is rich, plausible and fascinating.In this novel, the plot covers a crisis point in the ongoing truce between Humankind and Sunfish. It does not attempt to build up the situation over days or weeks, nor does the crisis endure over a long period. Instead the entire story fits within a matter of a day or so, and as such, is a tense, action-packed sequence. What develops, does so very quickly leaving the onus on the reader to keep pace with several intelligent scientists and engineers as they interpret the actions of the Sunfish and attempt to avert a war. It was a thrill ride that I thoroughly enjoyed.Vonnie, the engineer and main character of the first novel returns in this novel as an ambassador for the Europa mission, working directly with the Sunfish. She has become a controversial celebrity back on earth and we see her developing some political smarts whilst trying to stay true to her mission of developing a truce with the Sunfish species. As a reader we essentially inhabit Vonnie over the course of the story and everything is related from her perspective. Her self-doubts and internal conflicts are exposed which allows us to see more than just a tough and determined heroine. I'm not one for too much romance, especially if it feels "bolted on". However, romance is introduced through Vonnie in a way that added to my appreciation of her character. Her feelings towards Koebsch and Ben added nuance to the story without dominating it.The writing matched the pace of the story well. I didn't sense any awkwardness or gaffs in the prose and the atmosphere remained consistently tense and exciting throughout. The concepts presented seem well-researched from my inexpert perspective. I read this feeling like the Europa mission was a possibility in our future and the attempts to understand an alien discourse also felt plausible.I would highly recommend both of Carlson's novels "The Frozen Sky" and "Betrayed". There's plenty of action, an icy subterranean world to explore, artificial intelligence, a completely novel species to meet and the old favourites of politics, petty rivalries and deceit. What's not to love?

Carlson nails it yet again, I'm now a serious fan of his work.This shorter book continues the story of Vonnie's engagement with the mysterious sunfish on Jupiter's frozen moon. This harsh environment is filled with a sense of isolation, and sets the atmosphere for a dangerous struggle to survive in this remote desolate landscape. FS2 spends some time fleshing out the Sunfish race going into more detail of their behavioural, hierarchical and social activities. This adds so much to create a truly believable lifeform, none of the standard bipedal human like aliens here. This doesn't slow down the pace of the book at all, and I found myself tearing through it, eager to see what would happen to Vonnie and the rest, making life risking choices on gut feel alone.Great book, can’t wait for FS3.

After the tour de force of a first book, this will disappoint. The action is still relentless, the characters develop, but the book is short and half of it dedicated to recapping what's happened before. It's all worth it because the third book is as good as the first one and the 4th is to follow.

I was looking forward to reading this sequel to the story and I was not disappointed. The story just keeps getting better. This was a shorter volume but still packed quite a punch. Looking forward to the next instalment.

Carrying on were we left off in book one. I different twist on first contact stories but saying that still really enjoyable fast paced story.

This story just gets better and better. A shorter book than the first but it sets the scene nicely for a block buster final book. I for one cannot wait!!