Europa Journal

Castle's debut couples an ambitious premise with deliberately humorous prose. In 2168, the Earth colony on the Jovian moon Europa is rocked by an apparent explanation of one of the 20th century's unsolved mysteries. In 1945, five American military planes disappeared in the notorious Bermuda Triangle, as did another plane sent in search of them. Dr. Joan Bort accesses an underwater pyramid on Europa and discovers the corpse of one of the missing pilots, along with a journal describing the pilot's encounters with intelligent aliens. The over-the-top story is leavened with self-awareness: "Larry had seen little grey men inside a giant spaceship, crash-landed on an alien planet, and had his hand cut off by a giant samurai-like mountain gorilla. Why couldn't this vision before him be an angel?" There is also some amusing world-building, as when the discovery of orca-size life in Europa's oceans leads to merchandising plush toys. Unfortunately, the story's payoff isn't a match for Castle's creativity. (July)