BLOBS

In Moscato’s SF novel, when mysterious “blobs” arrive on Earth, humanity’s way of living may be over…forever.

It’s the year 2022 and Marty Harperbaron is out walking his dog when a silent, floating, “blank, metallic blob shaped like a hundred-pound Mentos” starts following him. After failing to shake it off, Marty seeks help at the police station. Authorities assume that it’s some sort of international spying device and soon discover that, when attacked, the blob produces a flash of light that instantly melts the attacker’s face off. It’s not long before more blobs appear all over the world, each one following a different person. If not attacked, the blobs appear to remain peaceful and even protect their “host” humans from harm. As scientists desperately study the new arrivals to find out where they came from, they discover the blobs’ ability to alter their hosts’ brain chemistry by increasing feelings of love and attachment toward the blobs. Marty, meanwhile, finds himself in increasing danger as some begin to believe that eliminating the original host will end the blob invasion. Marty begins to wonder if the blobs have come to destroy everyone—or if they’re actually here to save humanity from itself. The author takes aim at everything from microplastics to mainstream media in an over-the-top SF yarn that is as likely to make readers laugh out loud as it is to provoke them to question the state of the world. The dialogue is naturalistic (or as close as it can get when discussing people getting their faces melted off), while the snappy pacing makes for a quick read. Narration jumps from the third person to various hosts—including the traumatized Sheriff Walter Gamble and Yuri Lysenko, a Ukrainian soldier—which helps keep the perspective fresh, although the most poignant moments occur within Marty’s chapters.

A timely satire that challenges the status quo through a delicate balance of absurd humor and compassion.