Read Time: 3 Minutes
If you’re in the mood for a bit of sci-fi silliness in your romantic comedy, then “Applesauce and Moonbeams” by Carol A. Stickland might be just what you’re looking for. Set at some indeterminate point in humanity’s future where we have colonised the moon, telepaths are real, and getting ticketed by the fashion police is a very real possibility, this lightly romantic science fiction romp tickled me.
We follow the unfortunate telepathic psychiatrist, David Lumen, who gets his mind shunted into the body of cat while he is on the run, fearing for his life. The cat, along with its owner, Pippin Applegate, are on their way back to the Lunar settlement.
The Applegates are fruit barons on the moon. With crops of apples and other hybrid fruits grown to feed the residents of the settlement while providing both oxygen and a healthy bank balance for the Applegates. David lucked out by landing inside Jonathan, the excessively spoiled cat belonging to the CEO and Pippin’s mother, Evie Applegate.
The world of the future is a bit of an odd one. A sort of decadence has taken over where people get surgeries to fit a particular aesthetic. Like if you’re a “fifty” you might have a certain body type and look about you, while “Oughts” might be super-slim and incredibly attractive. To live in the upper echelons in the Lunar city you have to adhere to strict requirements. Your hair two millimetres too long? That’s a ticket. Bit dishevelled from waking to find a comatose man lying on top of you after a long flight from earth? Wear a bag over your head lest people be offended.
What follows is a silly and mildly suspenseful romp as David navigates being a cat while trying to get his original body back. The problem is the goon that kicked his mind out of his body has other ideas. Meanwhile, someone is trying to bump off Pippin, when all she wants to do is paint and not be forced by Evie to inherit the apple business.
The mind-transferred-into-a-cat plot device was quirky but does not last the whole book. While it is fun while David tries to learn to be a cat while also teaching the cat about its owner, I think a whole book on that could have been too much. Fortunately, and not really a spoiler, David gets a body back, it’s just not his own. It makes hunting down the person who put him in the situation easier, though it’s not without some unexpected side-effects.
The narrator, Jeffrey Machado, was easy to listen to and suited the story well, and even did cat impressions as needed. No noticeable production issues or repeated lines, so good quality narration down the line.
Overall, this is a fun and silly romantic sci-fi comedy. It’s light on the “science” part of sci-f, so if that’s not quite your thing then you don’t need to worry. No intimate knowledge of extra-dimensional warp drive engineering is required to enjoy this story. It’s also rather light on the romance too. The blurb says “room temperature” heat level, so if romance isn’t quite your thing, then you’re safe here too. Nothing spicy – just a fun, easy ride for anyone craving light-hearted laughs and a touch of sci-fi silliness.