by John Scalzi
First published 2025
The moon has become cheese. Humanity stares upward at an impossible sight that defies everything they thought they knew. Astronauts prepare for missions to a celestial body that no longer follows the laws of physics. Billionaires see profit opportunities while comedians mine the absurdity for material. Bank executives try to calculate the economic impact as professors question their understanding of science. Presidents convene emergency sessions while teenagers post about it online. Terminal patients in hospital beds wonder if they're hallucinating their final days. Over one complete lunar cycle, each person gets their moment to respond to the inexplicable. Some panic. Others plan. Many pray or laugh or grieve. The world keeps spinning even as the fundamental nature of reality shifts overhead. Scalzi follows dozens of characters as they navigate a universe where the impossible has become undeniably real.
Genres: drama, science-fiction, literary-fiction, humor, speculative-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: absurdist, darkly-comedic, introspective, surreal, thought-provoking
Tropes: ensemble-cast, multiple-viewpoints, slice-of-life-vignettes, world-altering-event
Setting: Earth, The Moon
Period: 21st Century, Contemporary
352 pages · Paperback · Tor Books
Content warnings: death, mental-illness