This is an interesting story. It is one of a rare breed of Christmas stories which actually features the birth of Christ. Obviously this is something that is avoided, especially in science fiction, for fear of offence. However, as a Christian, I actually rather enjoy this sort of thing as long as a certain level of respect in involved.

In this story, Benny is responding to an old friend (she has a lot of these dotted around the universe) who has gone incommunicado and along with a mutual friend, they discover that horrible things have happened on the colony where she lived and worked.

The conceit is that the colony was set up to research the origins of the Christmas Star which heralded the birth of Jesus. It's a fun angle to take on the appearance of the star and is extrapolated into some interesting ideas which I'd actually have enjoyed reading more of. As it is, though, the story become a bit more secular with robotic reindeer and a war being fought with Christmas theming.

The fact it ends up being partly the result of dodgy 'holodeck' tech and alien radiation is a bit of a letdown but overall, this is a really enjoyable Christmas story.