Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Tor
Published: 2017
Reviewer Rating: 
Reviewer: SJ Higbee
I saw the wonderful retro cover on Netgalley and couldn’t resist, particularly as I have read and enjoyed the first four books in the Coyote series – see my review of Spindrift.
It was an age of miracles. It was an era of wonder. It was a time of troubles. It was all these things and more… except there were no heroes. Naturally, one had to be created.
Curt Newton has spent most of his life hidden from the rest of humankind, being raised by a robot, an android, and the disembodied brain of a renowned scientist. This unlikely trio of guardians has kept his existence a closely guarded secret since the murder of Curt’s parents. Curt’s innate curiosity and nose for trouble inadvertently lead him into a plot to destabilize the Solar Coalition. There’s only one way to uncover the evil mastermind—Curt must become Captain Future. With the permission of the Edmond Hamilton estate, Allen Steele revives the exciting adventures of Captain Future.
So did this homage to the past pulp fiction series, Captain Future, manage to deliver an adventure that would grip modern readers? Oh yes. It did take me a chapter to get used to the passages telling me what was going on, along with a sizable chunk of the back-story. The modern way of imparting this information would be through the characters’ actions, thought and speech within the story, rather than the author giving blocks of this information. There is nothing inherently wrong with this way of writing, but it does feel rather old fashioned, which in this context is spot on.
Once I got accustomed to this writing style–the style I grew up with–I was able to become immersed in the adventure, sit back and enjoy the ride. I really liked the main protagonist, Curt Newman aka Captain Future, who is brought up by an eerily smart construction robot, an android and his parents’ mentor whose brain is trapped in a metallic casing. Not surprisingly, Curt finds mixing with ordinary people, especially attractive women, rather a challenge. I’m fairly sure that the original books would not have given this weakness a mention. Raised all his life to search out and take revenge on the man who ordered the brutal murder of his parents, Curt tracks him down–only to find himself caught up in the machinations of another plot. A plot with the potential to destabilize the whole Solar System…
I enjoyed the fact that humanity has been altered genetically to cope with the hostile conditions on the other planets and moons. Steele has created a coherent civilization off-planet with a variety of space-faring craft.
Curt and his odd team have a variety of cool gizmos, courtesy of the inventive genius of Brains. One of these inventions is a cloaking device, but before you get the idea that Curt can simply press a button and prowl around nicely hidden from his potential attackers, the catch is the field that bends light sufficiently to keep him hidden means that when cloaked, he is blind. So while this invention can be handy, it also has major practical drawbacks. I really enjoyed these details that helped to increase the stakes and ensure that when Curt went into action as Captain Future, he wasn’t the type of invulnerable superhero we have become accustomed to seeing in comics and cinemas. Overall, this is a enjoyable space opera adventure, with plenty of action, some nice touches of humor and some plot twists I didn’t see coming.
While I obtained the arc of Avengers of the Moon from the publisher via NetGalley, this has in no way influenced my unbiased review.
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