Burning the Ice [Hardcover]

There were a few science things here and there, but it was mostly an excellent story, with an interesting alien.

A few tweaky things, like a colony filled with cloned chemists who couldn't get any base stock for food production out of an oil refinery. The refinery wasn't explained either, nor the source of the oil on this nearly lifeless icebound planet.

There was an odd bit about the colonists needing to hold back on terraforming, raising the planet's temperature. If the alien is 5 kilometers down, living on undersea lavaflows and vents that raise water temp to 200 degrees C, how is it going to be harmed by raising the surface temperature?

Strange discrepancies start to pop up, like one of Manda's waldos losing contact but still responding to signals, and when she takes proof of the crèche-born's presence to her elder siblings, they summarily erase it, explaining that their presence has been known but covered up in hopes they would leave. Next she's packing and off to check on that unresponsive waldo, and at the drill site she gets a minute of contact  and a glimpse of native life!  before all is black again. She and Jim, a sonar specialist she rapidly becomes close to, suspect outside interference.

Now she wants to take a trip down for herself, in an old underwater vessel. From a pariah she becomes a hero, inspiring hope in the wake of tragedy. Under the ice Manda and Jim find that the crèche-born's control is much greater and more dangerous than they ever believed. Manda has to get back to warn the others, but even if that is possible, will it be in time?

It does take a while to get moving; the first hundred pages are mostly angsty exposition and overexploration of the culture. In many ways it reselmbles a society based entirely on a high-school social culture, full of cliques, grudges, "coup" (owed favors, particularly political) that forms a barter system and family power, and petty jealousies. Manda is very excluded, and perhaps Mixon spends too much time showing us just how much. But the emotional troubles are real, painful to read, and after the cave-in and death she and her family seem more real. Though often at odds, they are all painted sympathetically, not an easy task. Family loyalty is a recurring theme; it may not be the strongest bond, but it is the most permanent. I didn't get quite enough sense of how old everyone was, though, not until near the end.

Once the story does pick up, it takes off and never lets up. Throughout the explorations and ruminations is a strong undercurrent of confusion, distress, and haste, never settling into idleness. The feelings for Jim aren't as throughly explored, just because everyone's distracted by too much going on in the meantime. All of the people seem credible, each with their own faults and distictions and hearts. Even the schizophrentic crèche-born. Many things just plain don't make sense for a while, but all is slowly revealed, settling down to a satisfying conclusion. I highly recommend.

This is a sequel to Proxies, but I'd have never known. I didn't need to read it to understand the story. This could possibly be mined for a sequel, years down the line (dealing with renewed contact from Earth, and the alien?), but anything sooner would be a stretch. I for one look forward to any effort in this direction.