Blogs: EN - Wannabekingpin; LT - Vakaris

Dipped back into my TBR of the more recently released and found When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi. About… Well, what if the moon was cheese?

About the Book: The moon has turned into cheese. No. The moon has turned into… Cheese-like substance. The moon is cheese! The moment this hilarity wears off, floodgates of problems break open. A new kind of moon rock lover emerges, the kind willing to pay insane money to eat a piece of the moon. Wouldn’t you? Conspiracies on the rampage, because if the moon is now cheese, what else?? And then there’s the literal disasters. Cheese reflects a lot more light than the moon as we know it. Our sun is very likely melting it too, and where will the goops go? Yeah, Earth will get the fondue treatment, and it won’t be pretty… Unless someone can find the source of this madness and put an end to it. Truly, this has to be a nightmare, right?

My Opinion: Due to ever-shifting points of view, it felt like an anthology, and I do like those, so it worked for me, but do keep it in mind if short-story collections, even if entirely related to make one whole book are not for you. Sadly, though, despite enjoying how it was told, I can’t say I loved the story itself all that much. It’s funny, witty, and outright absurd in that self-aware kind of way. But, with the constant swing-back to the knowledge that such an impossible event as the moon turning into literal cheese, like in a cartoon, would warrant the end of the world, kept taking me out of the fun of it. What was a nightmarish joke kept turning into just a nightmare, no longer a joke, and then back to just being a joke. Ever changing narrators provided no solid character to rely on either, as even the repeated ones didn’t get enough development. As I said, it reads like a collection of short tales, but one that’s a bit mediocre, maybe a bit better than mid due to how well Scalzi actually writes. One in which you’re just there for the ride, and not memories.

A solid 4 out of 5, I recognize this is a good book that’s not for me. In compare, something like the Kaiju tale by Scalzi felt far more structurally sound, providing the reader (yes, me) with a steadier ground to stand on.