Chasing the Moon

By: A. Lee Martinez

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam

Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

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 if they can get Vom to stop eating everything...and everyone.

©2011 A. Lee Martinez (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic Reviews

“Martinez excels at off-the-wall storytelling that perfectly suits this cheerful apocalyptic fantasy.” (Publishers Weekly)

Douglas Adams on Acid

Thoroughly enjoyed this very strange little book. If Douglas Adams had been dropping acid, I suspect he would have come up with something like this. The female narrator, Khristine Hvam, gives a delightful performance. This is my 3rd Martinez AudioBook, after "Divine Misfortune" and "Emperor Mollusk vs. the Sinister Brain." I've thoroughly enjoyed all three of these weird books but "Chasing the Moon" was decidedly the weirdest and, perhaps, the one I enjoyed most. I hope to find more Martinez on AudioBooks as soon as possible.

GREAAAAAT

I kind of stumbled on Martinez's books. If you enjoy supernatural things, alternate universes and improbable situations read his series. The character Dana finds herself in usual situations and is able to overcome the obstacles.
She us not the woman who is told to stay in the car; rather she is the go to person to solve a problem She is not happy that where is has ended up does not follow the normal rules people live by, but she learns to play by the new ones. Of course she has this big heart and wants to make things right for all which is why she ends up in funny situations.

Great book! Great author!

I've both read and listened to many of A Lee Martinez's books. They are all wonderful. Why can't they make movies or even animated films with stories like this? If you never read his work try this or "Divine Misfortune".

Ugh

I like science fiction. And I like weird things. But I couldn't make it past the first two hours of this.

Monster Mash

Lee Martinez likes to take ordinary everyday life and hurtle upon it the supernatural and fantastical. In Chasing the Moon, Diana finds an apartment that is too good to be true, which it turns out is, well, too good be true. There is a monster in the closet. There are monsters everywhere. And other mythical creatures and deities.

This may seem familiar to you. Monsters Inc of course. Chris Moore's A Dirty Job et.al. More to the point, A. Lee Martinez's own Monster and Helen & Troy. And Gil's All Fright Diner and Divine Misfortune if you want to try it with zombies and gods. Other titles in his bibliography too. It's his M.O.

If this is the first time you're reading him, you may love it, as I did when I read Helen & Troy and Emperor Mollusk. If you're on your third or fourth, well, you either like it so much that you can't get enough, or you like it well enough but now you're over it. I'm over it. I want to Lee to apply his considerable talent for writing comic fantasy in other ways, as Moore does with (for example) his Shakespeare send-ups.

For me, this was an experiment. It is the only Martinez book I've read in print. I found myself underwhelmed by the aimless story and repetitive themes and surmised that maybe it only works in audio -- I had that same experience with another author I love (several, actually). But listening to it left me with the exact same feeling of deflation -- we've been here before, me and Lee, and I need something new from him.

Please quit comparing to Douglas Adams

This is an enjoyable listen. A bit odd for odd sake. Predictable. But enjoyable. But the reviews that compare it to hitchhiker's guide do not do it justice. It is different and lumpy and bubbles with strangeness all on its own and going in thinking is has Adam's sense of contradiction takes away from its own voice.

Odd but entertaining

This story was very odd. But if you are reading A. Lee Martinez, it's pretty standard. I enjoyed it. I did feel occasionally confused by the story-line. But I never felt the urge to stop listening to it. The confusion somehow added to the atmosphere of the book. I am glad I gave it a try.

Weird on purpose, but not compelling

Would you try another book from A. Lee Martinez and/or Khristine Hvam?

Based on this book, I'm not chomping at the bit.

What was most disappointing about A. Lee Martinez’s story?

The story was just a mishmash of absurdities packed together without an underlying cohesion or purpose. This didn't transcend being weird on purpose (it sort of felt like a SciFi madlibs.
True example: the (noun) Hedgehog monster (verb) multiplied into several copies of itself and attacked several people, then (verb) complained when the protagonist (verb) punched it too hard and disintegrated one of its copies, then the (place) bagel shop (verb) went back to normal like nothing happened and the (Person) love interest from work who was just mashed to a paste then reassembled (verb) kind of remembered what happened and (adverb) quickly excused himself).
Unless you like a dozen hours of that, it felt like a waste of time.

What about Khristine Hvam’s performance did you like?

Overall I liked the narrator's voice and she had a range of characters that stayed true. I'd listen to her again. But, I kept wondering if she was a little too peppy and it was making the absurdities harder to work with. Perhaps a hard book to read.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No.

Fun, but it goes on too long

This book starts out as good, silly fun...but they could've pared away about a third from the middle and not lost anything of importance.

On the plus side: I LOVED the narration. Too often, when a narrator does different voices to differentiate the characters, it's just a distraction. They're usually so dumb and awkward and poorly-done! This narrator was great--her voices were all well-executed and plausible and consistent with the characters. They added to the story rather than taking away. I won't be looking for more books written by this author, but I definitely will be looking up more voiced by this narrator.

it was bland

there were some great visuals but the story felt rushed and unfinished. I heard great potential but it was overall underwhelming.