Joker Moon is the third of the Wild Cards Mosaic I have read. It is, I believe, the most recent of the ones I have read. I still like Mississippi Roll the best, and this the least. Mississippi Roll works well because the action is concentrated aboard the steam ship. Three Kings has a strong storyline which, fortuitously, closely mirrored reality. Joker Moon is unfortunately all over the place, from India in the Fifties to, obviously, the Moon. And the central character, Theodorus, is your typical Elon Musk over-indulged brat. Okay, you're going to feel sorry for anyone who turns into a snail-centaur. But he's still a brat.
That said, there are plenty of more appealing characters. I liked the all the astro- and cosmonauts. I liked Tiago, who attracts trash like a semi-human recycling centre. Even Aarti the Moon Maid, a female Indian mirror of Theodorus has more going for her than, well, than Theodorus.
The main attraction of the Wild Cards series is to enjoy the collaboration of multiple genre writers (11 of them in this case), each developing their theme and characters. There was no poor or inferior writing in Joker Moon. Some was exceptional. I particularly enjoyed the sections done by Michael Cassutt and Leo Kendren.
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