When the Moon Hits Your Eye - Rambling Readers

Published by Tor Books.

(2 reviews)

t's a whole new moooooon.

One day soon, suddenly and without explanation, the moon as we know it is replaced with an orb of cheese with the exact same mass. Through the length of an entire lunar cycle, from new moon to a spectacular and possibly final solar eclipse, we follow multiple characters -- schoolkids and scientists, billionaires and workers, preachers and politicians -- as they confront the strange new world they live in, and the absurd, impossible moon that now hangs above all their lives.

1 edition

DigitalRob reviewed When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

That's Amore... Or Is It Asiago? A Review of John Scalzi's When the Moon Hits Your Eye

4 stars

John Scalzi asks a truly out-of-this-world question in "When the Moon Hits Your Eye": What if our lunar neighbor suddenly decided it identified as cheese? One ordinary day (or night, rather), the moon doesn't just look like a big pizza pie – it is one, or at least, a giant ball of an indeterminate, yet distinctly cheesy, substance. Told through a series of "Day X" vignettes, the novel chronicles the immediate, chaotic, and often hilarious human response to this dairy-ing cosmic shift, from bewildered museum directors tasting moon rocks to White House officials scrambling to explain why Earth's only natural satellite is now, well, Edam.

Initially, the book feels like a collection of snapshots, showcasing how different corners of society react to the 'Cheesening'. We meet astronauts grounded while a Musk-like billionaire attempts a gouda-awful (and ill-fated) lunar landing, rival cheese shop employees finding love amidst the madness (a storyline …

John Scalzi asks a truly out-of-this-world question in "When the Moon Hits Your Eye": What if our lunar neighbor suddenly decided it identified as cheese? One ordinary day (or night, rather), the moon doesn't just look like a big pizza pie – it is one, or at least, a giant ball of an indeterminate, yet distinctly cheesy, substance. Told through a series of "Day X" vignettes, the novel chronicles the immediate, chaotic, and often hilarious human response to this dairy-ing cosmic shift, from bewildered museum directors tasting moon rocks to White House officials scrambling to explain why Earth's only natural satellite is now, well, Edam.

Initially, the book feels like a collection of snapshots, showcasing how different corners of society react to the 'Cheesening'. We meet astronauts grounded while a Musk-like billionaire attempts a gouda-awful (and ill-fated) lunar landing, rival cheese shop employees finding love amidst the madness (a storyline that is brie-lliant), a non-fiction author whose career skyrockets thanks to a timely chapter, and even a pastor grappling with questions of faith when divine handiwork seemingly gets replaced by provolone. While these individual stories are engaging, the real genius is how Scalzi begins to weave these threads together in the latter half, proving that even in the face of planetary absurdity, our lives are interconnected.

While perhaps not reaching the sharpest cheddar levels of some of Scalzi's other works, "When the Moon Hits Your Eye" delivers a thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking experience. Standout chapters like "Day 21" offer poignant reflections on faith and the importance of living life to the fullest, even when the fromage hits the fan. "Day 23" provides a beautiful, self-contained lesson on finding personal satisfaction in a world gone mad. Scalzi uses the absurd premise to poke fun at everything from politics and billionaires to conspiracy theories and media frenzies, all while reminding us that how we react—with fear, faith, opportunism, or love—is what truly defines us, even when facing an impending curd-tastrophe.

Ultimately, "When the Moon Hits Your Eye" is a fun, witty, and surprisingly heartfelt look at humanity under bizarre pressure. It manages to be both a light-hearted romp and a commentary on our times, culminating in a conclusion that flips the script once more, leaving us to ponder the nature of belief and memory. For a read that will make you laugh, think, and possibly crave a cheese platter, this book earns a solid 4 out of 5 stars. It's nacho average sci-fi novel!

–This review was partially drafted by A.I. (Gemini) with a fairly lengthy prompt containing my opinions and the notes I took while reading. Much of the review is rewording of the prompt I entered and my notes. –

norb reviewed When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

Not The Book I Expected, But Maybe The One I Needed

5 stars

Content warning Spoilers throughout. You've been warned!

Wow! I really, really liked this book. It was not at all what I expected. The entire premise is just absurd. I expected the story to also be just as absurd, but it ... wasn't.

Scalzi has approached this book, like his last two, from a point of realism. The premise is, of course, absolutely insane. The moon becomes "cheese" (an organic matrix I think is the way book NASA states it). That is impossible! But the book characters also know it is impossible!

The entire structure of this isn't much of a story. It's more a rumination on what might the moon turning to cheese really be like? How might people react? What might some real consequences be? Each chapter is a day of the lunar cycle, and they focus on different people. There are some repeat characters and some mentions of characters across chapters, but really the Cheese Moon (Of course Scalzi gives us a "real" name for it - Caseus) is the main character.

About 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through, there is a real bit of danger that comes kind of out of nowhere. And from then on the book becomes a series of explorations of death, of relationships, and of consequences.

And then there's the end. I marked this for spoilers, so here's the spoiler. The moon just turns back to normal at the end of the lunar cycle. No explanation given - just like none was given for why it changed in the first place. It was really a huge Steven King moment for me (an ending that is just kind of like ... well I don't know where to go next so yeah it was insert easy way out). And for a minute I was like "Oh no Scalzi... not you too!"

But then, the last two chapters. One 10 years out and one I think 100 years out, I didn't do the math... those two, very short chapters are what sold me. Those two chapters made the ending have a point. They showed us one of our major flaws, which is that hindsight is never 20/20. History is never what we think it is. And, given enough time and enough misinformation and enough humanity - we will forget the truth. We will make it something else. And that was a powerful ending to the dumbest premise ever turned into a full novel.