This is a short-story sized novella I was able to read in a few days in short sessions over breakfast mostly. The Frozen Sky is a science fiction story that plays on Europa, the Jupiter moon that is covered with ice and presumably has a liquid ocean deep beneath the ice. The story speculates about what might happen when humanity encounters the first intelligent extraterrestrial species. Hint: A lot can go very wrong.
The Frozen Sky, for being such a story story, was very fractured and too difficult to follow. Carlson could have easily worked this to be three of four times as long, put more care into a structure that was easier to follow and less confusing. There was also much he could have elaborated on.
To put it into art or painting terms: The Frozen Sky might be a sketch with pencil of paper of a painting that is yet to be. Not enough for me.
Rating: *