(review excerpt) Gibson’s astronauts are living in a near-future where space travel is commonplace. They have jobs to do. And those jobs are made increasingly difficult due to the circumstances they find themselves in. This is where Gibson truly shines: he places the characters not only in physical danger, but also in conflict with one another, and with themselves. As is often the way in stories set in the confines of spaceships, a string of technical failures lead to the crew complement shrinking one by one. Gibson uses the voyage to Europa to build tension, providing the reader with a steady trickle of information and ending chapters at just the right points. Strained relationships and suspense are high and the book moves at a blistering pace.

Without giving anything away, when Cassie and the crew of the Veles venture beneath the ice of the moon, Europa Deep leaves behind the verisimilitude of science fact and tells a science fiction story full of fantasy wonder. There are also lovely nods to other sf novels.