The moon race began in earnest when Yuri Gagarin launched off the pad in April 1961. It ended really quickly when he collided with an alien spaceship and exploded, leading to a full nuclear launch by the Soviets which failed in the presence of the spaceship and which turned everything between Berlin and Moscow into a radioactive hellscape. When American, Soviet, and alien forces collide attempting to pick up a piece of the alien spacecraft, Sgt Kyle McCoy stumbles into making first contact and leads to a new age in human history. Unfortunately, his twin brother Connor has gotten in trouble with the mob, and figures that faking Kyle’s identity to go to an international conference will be as good an escape route as any. Kyle forgot to mention, though, that said conference is on the moon, and no one was expecting outright shenanigans there. Soon, both brothers are internationally wanted men, fleeing mobsters, flesh-eating mutants, and Vice President Nixon. The Luna Missile Crisis is a unique SF/alt-history title that examines both the best and worst of humanity, ending in frustration with a brief bit of hope.

I’ve previously read Bruno and Castle before, in their Black Badge collab that features an undead bounty hunter roaming the Old West and taking out forces like werewolves and vampires. Luna Missile Crisis is quite the genre shift, although there are similarities with nonhuman intelligences and otherworldly energy. LMC takes place in the late sixties, in which humanity has not only landed a man on the moon, but built an international base there, as well as quarries. A little deal has been struck with the aliens: in exchange for help repairing their ship, they’re willing to share some tech with humanity, tech that will lead us to other worlds before we’ve even invented the TCP/IP protocol. The alien arrival has essentially ended the Cold War, and even created a bipartisan presidency, with Nixon seconding his former rival. That’s not to say everything is hunky-dory, given that many humans are alarmed about the aliens, especially their influence on Earth governments — hence the aforementioned shenanigans. As far as SF goes, this is deeply on the ‘soft’ side: the aliens can communicate with humans telepathically, or at least once they have some practice, so the real issues in xenocommunication are reduced to much easier cross-culture problems. The alt-history side is developed well enough, though I’m not sure why the author felt it necessary to kill off LBJ and replace him with Nixon: granted, an alternate history where LBJ’s odiousness never touches the presidency is one I’m happy to read about, but it’s not as if Nixon’s presence is necessary. There’s a little nod to the history that might have been — the Earth-Luna ships are named Apollo, and Captain Neil Armstrong is the commander of that service. More interesting are the psuedo-horror elements, especially present when one of the McCoys crash-lands in the Dead Curtain, the hellscape created by the Soviet nuclear backfire. 

All told, this was a fun little novel, with a nice mix of various elements — humor, horror, SF interest, etc — but its ending was disappointing despite the hope spot.

Coming up this week….I accidentally read a romance, so look forward to some mood whiplash, and I’m currently two more SF titles