Now humanity has to deal with it.
For some it’s an opportunity. For others it’s a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now... something absolutely impossible.
Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and terminal patients at the end of their lives -- over the length of an entire lunar cycle, each get their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to pray, to laugh and to grieve. All in a kaleidoscopic novel that goes all the places you’d expect, and then to so many places you wouldn’t.
It’s a wild moonage daydream. Ride this rocket."
When the Moon Hits Your Eye explores the age-old question we've always wondered and joked about: what if the moon was made of cheese? Okay, maybe you haven't always wondered that, but I'm sure we've all at least heard a joke about that once or twice in our lives, and honestly, I welcomed the opportunity to explore it.
In When the Moon Hits Your Eye, the moon, inexplicably and unpredictably, turns to cheese one day. No one knows why, no one knows how, and no one has any idea what to do about it or what it means for humanity–or even what type of cheese it is. All anybody knows is that it's a big globe of cheese up there and the universe no longer acts in any form of a predictable manner, which throws everything else into question about the universe.
I'm generally not someone who is drawn to books that lean in an overtly more humorous nature (for instance, as much as I want to love Pratchett and do love every quote I hear from his books, I have a hard time actually sitting through and reading them through), but I found the premise for this one so enticing that I just had to see what Scalzi would do with this topic. I found the result to be one that has a fantastic blend of humor, commentary, a bit of drama here and there, and a lot more in between that really focused more on what the world would do if something as ridiculous as the moon turning to cheese actually happened.
This book is basically a slew of connected chapters that each visits a different person. Oftentimes we are already familiar with the subject of a chapter because they've been mentioned in a previous chapter, or they are in some way connected to something that's come before, and altogether it felt very much like a series of vignettes. I think my favorite part was that this book travels across people of all different jobs and locations, from astronauts who can no longer fly to the moon because the moon is, well, cheese, to a retired philosopher professor in the middle of the country to the President's reaction and so much more.
It was genuinely fun and quite fascinating to see all the different types of reactions that. may occur as a result of such an event. Fromageries are suddenly swamped with business as tourists are suddenly all about cheese. Books about the moon make their authors new stars. TV and movie execs are receiving a relentless amount of pitches for shows and movies all about cheese has something to do with cheese (with titles most often in the form of some sort of pun, of course). And then some people don't see how it affects them whatsoever and pretty much carry on with their lives. I was most interested to see how and why people would or would not believe it actually happened, especially given how reactions towards science and evidence has been a bit hit or miss among various populations in recent years, and I appreciated seeing this addressed in the boo.
When the Moon Hits Your Eye is a bit irreverent in parts, and I appreciated the break from more serious works sometimes. However, as I mentioned, it's also quite timely and really does dive deep into some interesting political and social commentary as a result of people's reactions to moon's new cheesy makeup. Altogether this made for a sincerely compelling read that left me fully entertained. There were a few chapters as we neared the end of the book that started to feel a bit overdone or repetitive, but all in all there's not too much to complain about with this one as long as you go into it with an open mind and can appreciate that the entire thing is just the slightest bit silly. But we as readers are here for the journey and the experience, not so much the scientific accuracy of it.
