The Moon Children: BlueInk Review (starred review)

STARRED REVIEW

The Moon Children

Kim Catanzarite
Forster Publishing, 318 pages, (paperback) $18, 9781735952291 (Reviewed: October 2024)

This fourth installment of Kim Catanzarite’s immersive Jovian Universe series continues the science fiction story of a family of highly evolved, non-violent aliens from Jupiter who settled on Earth and have (mostly) saved the planet from human-caused war and environmental devastation.

The first novel lays out the dynamics of this epic narrative: The wealthy, privileged Jovian family uses its advanced technological knowledge to create a successful aerospace company in small- town Pennsylvania that works with NASA and the U.S. government. As the infighting Jovians battle for power, the story also includes their human (and half-human) friends and family members and the clones they create that serve them. The family’s first human-alien hybrid, Evander Peterman, eventually becomes U.S. president, but in the third novel, he disappears after leaving office to find his daughter, who has been taken to the Jovians’ home planet.

This installment opens with a new alien menace called the Moon Children, who attack a scientific research team led by the Jovian family. The novel then switches to various characters around the world and outer space who must work their way back to Pennsylvania to fight these creatures and Edmund, the Jovian who brought them to Earth. Edmund is a rival of Caroline, Jovian leader on Earth. As the story unfolds, Peterman reappears and a parallel universe without the Jovians is revealed, among other developments.

Catanzarite’s engaging dialogue and skilled interweaving of complex interplanetary plot threads keep readers breathlessly flipping pages. The author has created such compelling and believable worlds and situations throughout the series that following this intricate storyline isn't a struggle. The Moon Children works as a standalone; however, reading the other novels will create a deeper emotional investment in these characters—their heroism and flaws alike.

Spoiler alert: although this novel races to what promises to be a thrilling series finale, it actually concludes on a cliffhanger; Catanzarite is working on the fifth and final installment. Fans will be waiting with bated breath.

Also available as an ebook.