Europa Journal by Jack Castle
Genres: Science Fantasy Fiction, Fantasy Fiction
Published by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing on 2016 May 15
Format: eBook
Pages: 240

Europa Journal by Jack Castle is a science fantasy adventure story set in our future. The story centers around “Mac” O’Bryant and her crew as they struggle to survive on an alien world after crashing their intrastellar spacecraft. The first chapter is excellent and did well at hooking me into the story to find out more. How the characters got into this mess. How they’re going to get out of it. The first chapter makes a big promise of an action packed science fiction adventure. However that promise sets the reader up for a feeling of disappointment when the story goes outside their expectations.

The first portion of the book fulfills the expectation that the first chapter of the story sets up, a story about the characters coping with survival in alien environment. They encounter alien beings and struggle to understand the world they’re now living on, faintly reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs or E.E. “Doc” Smith. However, later in the story the flavor changes. Some mystical and magical components appear in the setting and the solution to the challenges the story sets up is a mystical one. The promised science fiction is fulfilled by a mystical ending. This may leave some readers feeling “cheated” out of the story they expected. To some degree I think the change it intended to fulfill one of the themes of the story, the idea that there are parts of our universe that is outside our knowledge of science. For me it was vaguely disappointing instead of strengthening the theme.

The principal characters (Mac, Leo, Tae) are distinct.  They have enough depth to motive me to care about them and hope that they achieve their goals. Some of the supporting roles lean on stereotypes too heavily, such as the over-zealous soldier. I have some of the same difficulty with the non-human beings in the story as they lean heavily on stereotypical physical characteristics. The setting is none-the-less an interesting one — it just demands a little more depth and perhaps more time to explore it.

If you’re looking for a fantastical fiction story with plenty of pulp-style action and some homages to modern popular science fiction, you may enjoy this book. The ideas are interesting and I’ll be curious to see if Jack Castle’s next story exploits the ideas he has more fully. I’m lukewarm about this story but I want to see more from the author.