When the Moon Hits Your Eye
Ratings24
Average rating3.9
The moon has turned into cheese.
Now humanity has to deal with it.
For some it’s an opportunity. For others it’s a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now... something absolutely impossible.
Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and terminal patients at the end of their lives -- over the length of an entire lunar cycle, each get their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to pray, to laugh and to grieve. All in a kaleidoscopic novel that goes all the places you’d expect, and then to so many places you wouldn’t.
It’s a wild moonage daydream. Ride this rocket.
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For a while John Scalzi was one of my favorite sci-fi authors. Anytime a new book a pre-order was automatic. However I was mostly underwhelmed by his last two novels The Kaiju Preservation Society and Starter Villain. Both had fun sounding premises and both didn't end up being as fun as their premise.
So here comes this book about the moon turning to cheese. In the afterword Scalzi mentions how its the final book in what he sort of considers a loose trilogy of unrelated books. I was staring to think that maybe I'd be more selective of which novels by Mr. Scalzi I'd pre-order in the future.
Thankfully this was a book that ended up being as fun as the premise. If you're looking for a hard sci-fi novel, well you must not have read a John Scalzi novel before. The science is hand wavy at best. But that' not the point.
I'm not generally a fan of short stories. This book is almost that, but not quite. Some characters we meet once and never again. The book explores a lot of ideas, characters and parts of the US with the question of "how would they react if the moon turned to cheese?". It's a silly premise and question, but somehow it leads to some really interesting vignettes that worked well together into a novel length story.
Despite my somewhat low expectations and a style of story telling I generally don't enjoy, Mr. Scalzi somehow pulled it off.
Wil Wheaton does his usual good job with narrations. This book has far less snark than other books by Mr. Scalzi but I still think Wil is always a great fit for his novels.
What if, all of a sudden, the Moon turned into cheese? We have all heard the story about the Moon being made of cheese, but what if one day it suddenly was? When the Moon is suddenly a large cheesy globe in the sky, the people of Earth are thrown into a situation they never expected to find themselves. For some it causes existential crises. For others it helps them realize their biggest goals. And for a few, it creates a bit of an annoyance for their normal day. When the Moon becomes cheese, many will ask how or why it happened, but most will ask “What kind of cheese?”
First of all, I really loved this book. It was a lot of fun to read. Much like ‘The Kaiju Preservation Society' and ‘Starter Villain', Scalzi took a crazy premise and threw a great cast of characters into the situation and showed us how they would react. This book had a little bit of everything: Comedy, Romance, Suspense, and Sci-Fi. Following the different characters around in this wacky situation left me wanting to read more about all of them. The different formats throughout the book were great with the story. I enjoyed it all the way through and I would highly recommend this to anyone wanting a fun read.
* Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.
