Book Review: When the Moon Hits Your Eye - John Scalzi

Neal Stephenson's "Seveneves" is one of those massive, crushing, momentous, century-spanning and era-defining hard sci-fi novels. It starts with the immortal line "The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason." Classic! It dives into a world plagued with Kessler syndrome and the grimly inevitable consequences for the future of humanity.

Scalzi's latest book is cheesy homage - fromage if you will - to that giant of literature. It asks an equally important question.

What if, without warning and for no apparent reason, the moon turned into cheese?

That's it. That's the novel.

It is gloriously silly - but no less reverent to humanity. Rather than focus on one single story, the book floats around a dozen different people. We sample the plebeian to the rock-star, President to hausfrau. Everyone gets to bathe in the moonlight (cheeselight?) of the story. And what a story! As with any good slice of sci-fi, it is light on the technobabble and high on the everyday drama.

Yes, there are obvious parallels to the shared emotional trauma of Covid, but it doesn't dominate as a theme. And, of course, the fractured nature of our shared reality is likely to be the focus of most literature for the foreseeable future. Scalzi instinctively understands what makes sci-fi absurd and how to gently squeeze the humour out of it. Because sci-fi is intrinsically funny. It's about us playing a massive game of "what if" and seeing where it takes us.

The laughter is offset with just the right amount of heartbreak. The moon turning in to cheese isn't all fun and games. No one gets off scot-free, but all the villains get their just desserts. It is impossible to read without a smile on your cheeks and a lump in your throat.

As with his two most recent books - The Kaiju Preservation Society and Starter Villain - these are stand-alone novels. There's no massive trilogy to commit to reading and no prior knowledge is assumed.

If you've read Neal Stephenson, Andy Weir, and Mary Robinette Kowal, you'll probably get a little bit more out of it than the casual reader. It is fully of fun little sci-fi references and tropes, all expertly shaken out for a daft laugh.

The book is released in March 2025. Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy - the rest of you will have to pre-order.