Candy goals are made from cheese
Who am I to dis a Brie
I cheddar the world and a Feta cheese
All people’s searching for Stilton
(Candy Desires are Product of Cheese – parody music from the Web, to the tune of the Eurythmics music Candy Desires Are Product of This)
Award successful John Scalzi has a diverse profession thus far. He’s written about outdated navy troopers in a Heinlein/Starship Troopers sort of house opera approach (Old Man’s Struggle and related books), parodied Star Trek (Redshirts) and James Bond (Starter Villain), imagined a future with Godzilla/Kaiju monsters (The Kaiju Preservation Society) and now this.
From the writer: “Sooner or later, all of the sudden and with out clarification, the moon turns right into a ball of cheese.
For some, it’s a chance. For others, it’s time to query their life selections. How can the world keep the identical within the face of such absurdity and uncertainty?
Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and financial institution executives, professors and presidents, youngsters and sufferers on the finish of their lives – over the size of a lunar cycle, every will get their second within the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to surprise and to hope, to chortle and to grieve. All in a narrative that goes all of the locations you’d count on, and to many others you possibly can by no means anticipate. For the folks of the earth, this could possibly be the top – or the start of an entire new world.”
Scalzi manages to take a really, very foolish thought – specifically that the moon is definitely made from cheese – and run with it. There’s as a lot science as the concept can maintain (clue: not that a lot) however the premise is there actually to explain, with some humour, the results on the residents of America. There additionally simply occurs to be an egotistical billionaire (surprise who Scalzi could possibly be pondering of?) and a President who wants issues saved easy. (who’d a thought it?)
On this guide what Scalzi does greatest – and is superb at – is take an inconceivable, absurd scenario and inform us about how individuals are affected by it. (In his afterword he refers to this as “On a regular basis folks coping with an especially excessive idea scenario, in up to date time.”) And this, I believe, is Scalzi’s superpower, for when he writes of his numerous vary of characters – from highschool college students, small companies, and small city churchgoers to NASA, the Banks and the politicians – he makes every vignette really feel actual, and that’s a tricky line to comply with in such a ridiculous scenario.
There are moments right here that simply made me assume that regardless of the catastrophe, their responses can be the identical. I used to be left questioning what number of of them really ended their story nonetheless, as we’re simply left to surprise on the finish of the novel.
Briefly, although, When The Moon Hits Your Eye is a science fiction story that doesn’t take itself too significantly, and but has one thing significant to say. In it usually folks may be good, empathy may be invaluable and villains get what they deserve. To my thoughts, it’s all relatively Frank Capra-esque however with a science-fictional angle, somewhat bit just like the movie Don’t Look Up (2021) maybe, however with extra SF.
I do know that some will see this guide as ‘too foolish’ (ideas of Monty Python right here), while others like me will admire the way in which Scalzi has managed to make such an thought readable. I discovered that it was a much-needed tonic in these current occasions, to remind us that even when issues appear unhealthy, they don’t seem to be endlessly, and that even when issues are powerful there are good issues taking place. Even after we assume we’re on the worst, we should always nonetheless have the ability to love and chortle. When The Moon Hits Your Eye made me do this.
© 2025 Mark Yon
Hardback | Tor Books
WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE by John Scalzi
March 2025 | 336 pages
ISBN: 978 152 9082 913
Evaluation copy courtesy of the writer, Tor Books
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