Europa

De: Greig Beck

Narrado por: Sean Mangan

The first mission to Europa – Jupiter's enigmatic moon – has landed, and humanity’s darkest fears are about to awaken.

For years, mankind has speculated that this frozen world harbours a hidden ocean twice the size of all Earth’s oceans combined – an ocean potentially teeming with life.

Driven by this tantalising mystery, they venture forth to unlock its secrets. But what they discover in the abyssal depths is far beyond anything they could have imagined.

Nearly 400 million miles from Earth, their search for life has succeeded. But in their triumph, they overlook the most terrifying truth: what they have found is something far older and more horrifying than they ever could have conceived. Something has been trapped in the dark for eons – watching, and waiting, for them.

Now, the crew stands at the threshold of unimaginable terror, realising too late that Hell, in its purest form, is cold.

©2025 Greig Beck (P)2025 Bolinda Publishing

Fast paced and believable

Story was good, interesting complex environment. Characters well developed, and believable. A couple of small errors in the “hard science” but not significant to hurt the plot line. Hardest part for me was the narration which was “over the top” in stentorian tones and slowness…but after a while I could mostly ignore that part of the presentation. Overall, a very good (if chilling) story of near future space exploration and first contact. I like this author and would recommend his works. Well done!

I prefer Arcadian stories!

This was mildly suspenseful and interesting and was somewhat saved by the ending. But then the epilog was dumb beyond words. I will have to read any future Beck books as this narrator drove me crazy with his pronunciations. Laaaaugh. Craaaaft. Shaaaaft. I found it very distracting. Others might not notice or care. Anyway, I look forward to the next Alex Hunter novel.

Disappointment from Greg Beck

I chose this book because of its author and his history of excellent writing. This book is the exception —it’s long tedious and the plot is ridiculous. One gets the impression Beck has been paid by the word and he’ll write a long book per his contract. I hope his next writing goes back to his previous standards.

cliched storyline, formulaic, cheesy dialogue

great sci-fi for nerdy teens. When will someone write new intelligent sci-fi ala Solaris, Dune, Snow Crash!?!

Is the narrator using AI?

The story is entertaining, even though the twist at the end is predictable from very early on.
My main issue is with the narration. Sean Mangan is fine and I've listened to many books narrated by him in the past. This one bothered me, though. He mispronounces common words like "skeletal" and often reads number in a non-realistic way (Two Forty degrees instead of Two Hundred Forty or Two Hundred and Forty).
It makes me wonder if the narrator is utilizing AI voice technology to generate the narration in a synthesized version of his voice.
It's not an accusation. Just a concern as I assume that he is a native English speaker and has heard other humans speak before.