An off-the-books colony has vanished. Only one woman has the martial and intellectual skills to save the day. With her trusty alien companion she's in a race against time to save the galaxy!

The plot is a little thin, and has a slightly annoying habit of jumping forward and then giving retroexposition in "flashback". Some of the prose is gorgeous - "All you need for an avalanche of chaos is one inebriated snowball." - but it is used sparingly. That gives it a rather cold and utilitarian feel - which matches the alien surroundings our protagonist finds herself in.

I also found the humour to be a bit repetitive - the alien doesn't quite get that you shouldn't talk aloud about human's sexual habits - but the story is well-paced and keeps the intrigue high without delving too deeply into convoluted political machinations.

It doesn't really add much to the science fiction pantheon in terms of Big Ideas, but it is rather good fun.

Thanks to Pan Macmillan for the advance copy, the book is out in September this year and can be pre-ordered now.

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.

The good news is - I have an advance reader copy. So I get to revel in it now!

I appreciate that you might not consider that much of an upside. But sucks to be you, I guess?

Scalzi's writing reminds me why I love to read. It is fast, funny, and filled with righteous ire. The plot is... look, it's identical to Scalzi's other books. "Who? Me? A nerdy guy is called on to save the world? But all I have is my nerdy references and a healthy dose of meta-awareness!"

Much like his last book "The Kaiju Preservation Society" this is a brilliant and funny novel with a delightfully sideways look at the tropes of super-villains. It perfectly explains why villains always have cats on their laps.

I suppose my one criticism is its over-use of "show, don't tell". You know that movie trope where the entire conflict could have been avoided if the characters just explained things to each other - but inexplicably don't? I felt that frustration throughout the entire book. So many chapters were literally just "I could tell you what's going on in a 5 minute chat - but it'll be more dramatic if I just remain enigmatic!" That's fine once or twice, but it gets old fast.

I get that having long passages of exposition don't make for a dramatic or engaging chapter - but it could have used a flashback, or an eavesdropped conversation, or anything other than literally have a character say "I'll let you figure that out yourself."

But, it's a fun popcorny ride. You can't fault Scalzi's zingers and crowd-pleasers. Nor should you - or else he might set his cats on you...

Many thanks to NetGalley for the preview copy.

Yes, it is an exercise in nerdy wish fulfilment. But who among us wouldn't have rather spent the last two years being chased by giant scary monsters rather than cowering away from a microscopic virus?

It a joyful piece of bubble-gum sci-fi. It plays well with tropes and, much like Redshirts, gives the reader exactly what they need.

It isn't very subtle. But then, these are not subtle times. The goodies are good, the baddies suitably menacing. It drifts towards the science side of science-fiction. Lots of geologists and physicists expositioning on what makes a Kaiju tick.

In a way, it's a shame that the book's title gives away the first-quarter twist - it would have been nice to have been as shocked as the protagonist. It's also suffused with mid-pandemic terror which, again, I could have done without - having just lived through it! But those are minor complaints.

If you want to sit down on a beach with a good slice of sci-fi - and have a thorough good time escaping from reality - this is perfect. And you'll get to say how much you enjoyed the book compared to the inevitable Netflix series.