Wandering the Texas Book Festival is always interesting.  This author, dressed in his space traveling attire, presented a captivating pitch for his series.  The series is already well established and ready for the reader to enter into the adventure.

With characters that you can immediately make a connection with, this book had me reading almost continuously to find out what was happening.   Considering the complex issues addressed in the book, the author uses language so that even us non-entomologists or non-horticulturists can understand what is happening.

The quirky humor and interactions between the characters can almost stand alone as a great read.  I highly recommend this series and can’t wait to get my hands on the next one.

Find out more about this series and author by CLICKING HERE!

SUMMARY

Monsters evolved on the terraformed worlds. Meet the people who study them.

A century ago, the Institute for Organic Expansion launched unmanned spacecraft loaded with spores, seeds and eggs to 51 Earth-like planets to begin the terraforming process. It worked, mostly. Now, Interstellar Ecologists stabilize these young, planetary ecosystems to strengthen mankind’s place in a lifeless galaxy.

Captain Catalina Mondragon is the greatest captain to ever serve the Institute, and the first to admit she’s nothing without her crew of ecologists. When Catalina’s entomologist is eaten by a huge, burrowing insect on one of the Seeded Worlds, she treks halfway across the galaxy to find a replacement who can stop these monsters. But the only bug-guy good enough is Catalina’s ex-boyfriend, Roman Jupiter, who has the infuriating habit of falling for a different woman on every planet he visits.

Catalina is nothing if not professional, so she re-enlists Roman Jupiter and tells the Institute she’s going back to Epsilon-V. Despite being their most decorated captain, despite growing up working for the Institute, despite her worlds-famous father who wrote the Charter, they tell her to forget about the giant bugs and the man they ate. Catalina’s faith in the Institute is shaken. She doesn’t understand why they don’t want her to go back to Epsilon-V, but she can’t turn her back on the mission they give her either, a planet of starving colonists.

Interstellar Spring is a humorous space opera about love in all of its forms: be it for the brave people who try to do what they believe in, or the wondrous flora and fauna who really run the worlds around us.

J. Darris Mitchell is an Austin native obsessed with bringing biodiversity back to the city. He lives with his darling wife, his amazing son, a flock of chickens, a lazy cat, and a backyard brimming with wildflowers and insects.