To paraphrase Sun Ra, space is STILL the place.
A review of Visions III: Inside The Kuiper Belt, the SF anthology published by Lillicat Publishers, appears in the latest issue of Perihelion Science Fiction, an online hard SF magazine, in Carol Kean’s review column. Ms. Kean discusses each of the stories in the anthology, singling out her favorites. Of my own story, she had the following to say:
“Another rich guy entertains his buddies in “White Whale of Europa” by Mark Mellon.
Snarky dialogue between a medic, Sibyl X, and her two-headed snake, Sylla, reveal the antics of the Lord Autocrator, D’Souza, who seems to be a leonine mix of The Donald and a mad scientist. Thanks to Jupiter’s radiation, Europa’s sea holds nothing but bacteria—until D’Souza’s lab gets hold of a “phyloplankton swarm, evolved from indigenous bacteria, each microscopic blob striated with multiple strands of DNA, constantly replicating itself and drawing nourishment from the very radiation that simultaneously tears it into pieces.” D’Souza’s engineered “whales” provide the sport and trophies these fat, rich spacers have been missing. These Autocrators miss a lot of things, though, and underlings who are smarter than their masters carry the story to a startling conclusion.”
Thanks to Carol Kean for the nice review, also to antho editor Carrol Fix for bringing this to my attention, and to SF/F fans everywhere for providing me and other aspiring genre writers with an audience.