Chasing the Moon

Diana, an ordinary girl with a ho-hum job selling coats in a department store, is tired of sleeping on friends' couches. She needs her own place. So when she finds an apartment that's inexpensive and fully furnished (with furniture exactly to her taste, including a vintage jukebox loaded with her favorite songs), she figures that if it didn't come with a slightly creepy landlord with bizarre rules it would be too good to be true.

Well, Diana isn't wrong. There's a floppy-eared puppy guarding the door to apartment two, but don't get too close. West, the creepy landlord, never says what will happen if Diana breaks that rule, but Number Two (all tenants are known to West by their apartment numbers) lost control of the dog a year ago and show more now he's lucky if it will let him out to buy groceries. (Rule 3: Don't pet the dog.) There's a monster in the closet--or, more accurately, a cosmic horror, an ancient entity--called Vom the Hungering. Guess what he'll do if she opens the closet door? (Rule 2: Don't open the closet door.) Food appears in the fridge when she thinks about it and her merest wish suddenly seems to have the power to shape reality.

Which actually might be a good thing, since another ancient entity, known in this reality as Calvin, is about to bring the universe as we know it to an end. It's not his fault, exactly, and Calvin actually seems to be a pretty nice guy. But still.

As Diana gets a grasp on what's happening to her, coming to terms with her new and seemingly limitless powers (on day one she accidentally burns down the department store where she works when she thinks how nice it would be to have a reason not to have to go to work and on day two she reverses that action) and to the growing parade of cosmic powers in her posse (first, of course, is Vom, whom she convinces not to eat her), she realizes that reality is not as rigid as she once believed.

Which is another good thing, because Diana's going to have to give it all she's got to bend reality back once Calvin does his thing.

Chasing the Moon is funny on every page. Characters are zany yet have surprising depth, particularly Diana's wise-cracking sidekicks. Possibly best of all is the character of West, who's really only creepy because his day-to-day tasks involve nothing less than world maintenance.

Oh, if you were wondering, the first rule is turn the lights off when you leave a room...just because West pays the utilities doesn't mean he's made of money. show less

Synopsis: Diana’s life was in a rut – she hated her job, she was perpetually single, and she needed a place to live. But then the perfect apartment came along. It seemed too good to be true – because it was. As it turns out, the apartment was already inhabited – by monsters. Vom the Hungering was the first to greet Diana and to warn her that his sole purpose in life was to eat everything in his path. This poses a problem for Diana since she’s in his path…and is forbidden from ever leaving the apartment.

It turns out though that there are older and more ancient monstrous entities afoot – ones who want to devour the moon and destroy the world as we know it. Can Diana, Vom, and the other horrors stop this from happening? Maybe show more if they can get Vom to stop eating everything…and everyone.
Review: About half-way through this book I realized that the author was slipping in a lot of symbolism that hit the subconscious. One character is the destroyer; another is a creator; and another is a mindless 'god' changing the universe. And the author has humanized all of the characters. show less

Review provided by Black Lagoon Reviews:

Fans of campy 50's sci-fi will love Chasing the Moon, an amusingly bizarre mix of 'Mork and Mindy' meets the 'Hooneymooners' with a 'Twilight Zone' twist. Fun, creative and out of this world, Martinez definitely lets his imagination soar in this fun frolic through dimensionally challenged monsters and outlandish werewolf cults!

The world building, as bizarre as it may be, was quite entertaining as reality gets put on its ear. Great descriptions and intricately complex theories that leave your brain a quivering mass of jelly leave the reader to take on the stance of the protagonist, just stop trying to understand and go with the flow. The campy science fiction twist is definitely what had me hooked show more though as there's something so...mundane about all the craziness that Diana is met with. But, as outlandish as all of this may seem, Martinez does a wonderful job of making it approachable and even makes the adventure fun with adequate action and some great humor along the way.

The characters are all extremely likable, even the supposed 'villian' Calvin. Diana is a fun protagonist to follow as she tries to come to terms with her new immortal role as caretaker to the invisible horrors that roam the face of the Earth. She's intelligent, witty and above all else, sort of resigned to her new place in the world despite her struggles to extricate herself. Along the way she meets many strange and interesting creatures, the most lovable of which is Vom the Devourer. With an unending appetite and a penchant for eating his wardens, Vom is often the cause of much of the hilarity spouting any thought that settles in to his mind as well as eating anything that will fit in his stomachs. But, the host of other creatures that take up residence within Diana's ever expanding and accommodating apartment are all likewise enjoyable with unique personalities and interesting roles. For instance Smorgaz, a hedgehog like creature that spawns replicas of himself constantly. That is his purpose sole purpose, to spawn. But, he's also got a wonderfully normal personality, but like Vom, says whatever thing pops in to his mind. The seemingly random, deadpan delivery often had me laughing and shaking my head.

Martinez definitely has a writing style that fits the atmosphere and world building that novel demanded. There's a sort of 'Leave it to Beaver' tone that makes the insanity all the more hilarious and the situations all the more improbable. The only thing that I can legitimately compare it to would be 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe'. While the plot may be a little slow in coming, the sense of discovery at seeing what Martinez will expose readers to next definitely drove me on.

In the end, this was an amusing read that definitely spoke to my love of campy science fiction. Fans of 'The Hitchhikers Guide' will enjoy this read, but it's not something that I would recommend to readers who enjoy a lot of action. More to readers who like a sense of whimsy with a great sense of humor as a kicker. show less

I was thoroughly entertained by this book. It's one of the most original books I have read in a long while. The cast was colourful and fun to get to know; I particularly liked Vom and the small dog. It throws the whole "monsters in the closet" idea right on its head.

It was a quick read, as it was so fast-paced and I found it so enjoyable. It was written with a sense of humour that was right up my street. The characters were all memorable and well-written, and there wasn't one of them that was unlikable or out of place. Diana was brilliant: I loved the way she came to terms with what was happening and just went along with it all. There were some interesting messages in here, particularly about the way in which the cosmic monsters were show more only terrifying because that's how everyone perceived them, and they didn't know how else to be. It was quite refreshing in fact.

My main criticism with this book was that the plot was a bit thin: there was so much action and little scenes throughout the book that at times the point of it all went missing. But it was such good fun. Will be reading more books by this author now. show less

This was a fun, engaging and hilarious book that was hard for me to put down once I started reading. Of course I have yet to read anything by this author that wasn’t.
I love his take in this book on reality and our perception(s) of it and how everyone responds differently, including the Universe as a whole.
A. Lee Martinez is great at creating these little slices of unique realties in his books and making them believable throughout the story so no matter how wild and ridiculous the situations got they never felt out of place or over the top, they fit. He is also great at creating characters that you quickly grow to care about or at least find interesting, even All Devouring Monsters such as Vom the Hungering. He has yet to go back to show more a universe he’s created and write a sequel, but I would love to learn more about the other tenants in the apartment building from this book. show less

If dime novels of the first half of the 20th century had survived, matured and evolved, I think they might have become this kind of story: the lightly-plotted, easily-read, quick hit of brain candy. Don't take this as a criticism—it's not meant that way—everyone should have a little guilty pleasure reading once in a while.

Chasing the Moon is quite reminiscent of Martinez' earlier Gil's All Fright Diner in its flippant take on denizens out of something like the Cthulhu Mythos deciding to take a chomp out of our world. In a nutshell, Diana finds a dream apartment...except that there's a monster name Vom who eats EVERYTHING trapped in it...and she's his new guardian (unless he eats her first)...and the building is a portal to thousands show more of realities...and her new sensitivity to the otherworldly means more monsters want to check her out...and there's this cult dedicated to Fenris who wants to destroy the universe (and is well on the road to success)...and, well, you get the idea.

This isn't the type of book that will impress you with its significance or astound you with deep thoughts but it will provide a few pleasant hours of chuckles as you ride along with some colorful and entertaining characters. I think I prefer Martinez doing pulp noir comedy (The Automatic Detective) instead of pulp occult comedy but I'll still pick up his next one when I'm in the mood to sit back and kick off my shoes for a bit. show less

What happens when your roomies are a perpetually hungry monster that will eat anything in its path, a giant spontaneously spawning purple hedgehog, and a large floating eyeball with tentacles and a mean electric charge? It can't be good, but it sure is hilarious. Oh, and they must work together to save the world from even more ancient and horrific monstrosities.