264 pages
English language
Published April 5, 2022
When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls "an animal rights organization." Tom's team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.
What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda and they're in trouble.
It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society that's found its way to the alternate world. Others have, too--and their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.
Just like in "Starter Villain", there are plenty of fun ideas in this book. It's light and a quick read. Had a French version of the book.
As Scalzi says in his afterword, this is a three-minute pop song of a novel, not a complex symphony. However, even the lightest of pop songs needs effort to make it work, and this does work on its own terms. It's a fun book that rattles along at a good pace, throwing enough big ideas into the mix to keep you reading and not asking too many questions about whether it all makes sense. Spends a lot of time setting up for not much plot, and relies a lot on coincidences to give the ending a personal stake for the protagonist, but does what it says on the tin and people who like this sort of thing will like this.
A bit light in some parts, a bit obvious the desire to make into a movie or show I guess, but still enjoyable.
This is written and set in late 2020. Much like Netflix' Glass Onion, it uses COVID in the backdrop, and then gets onto its main bit. This is about as much COVID as I want in a book.
Equally you get the feeling that Scalzi has a lot to say about US politics and is resisting only dropping a few things before getting back to his main hobby of dropping his favourite nerds in as backing mentions (or ship names in Old Man's War).
This was exactly the right amount of silly for me, I didn't quite get into Redshirts. It gets a bit close when they discuss how kaiju are tropes but then follows with a Peter-Hamilton-level exposition dump about how the pretend science works.
Who cares, there are kaiju, and also a bunch of characters who respect others' chosen pronouns. It's like a much snarkier Becky Chambers book.
Is this a fun ride with lots of satisfaction, a good story and a quick pace. Definitely. Is this a good book? No, not really. Scalzi is an amazing storyteller, but not a particularly good writer. (Having said that, he is far better than he used to be, and he's even commented on problems with his writing that he has tried to correct.) I started this as a light vacation read and it performed exactly as expected.
The premise of this novel is comically brilliant and the early chapters have several laugh-out-loud moments.
It all slows down a bit once the plot gets going, but The Kaiju Preservation Society remains a fun romp throughout.
KPS is not, and I say this with absolutely no slight intended, a brooding symphony of a novel. It’s a pop song. It’s meant to be light and catchy, with three minutes of hooks and choruses for you to sing along with, and then you’re done and you go on with your day, hopefully with a smile on your face.
Not much to add to that, really.
I really enjoyed this book, and I like that Scalzi himself says that it’s basically a feel-good fluff piece that was fun to write. Not that all of his writing is intended to be “fluff,” but this book does fit well with his catalog.
The concept of the Kaiju as ecological systems with an interdependence with a variety of life forms is really cool, and seems unique to me. Very creative. I also like the second dimension, the Earth that exists because no Chicxulub impactor ever happened. Also, like Jamie, I didn’t know the meteor that killed the dinosaurs had a name.
“I lift things,” will forever be how I describe my profession from now on regardless of accuracy. Plus this description of vegan cheese, “shredded orange and white sadness that mocks cheese and everything it stands for,” priceless.
I read a few reviews before I really got into the …
I really enjoyed this book, and I like that Scalzi himself says that it’s basically a feel-good fluff piece that was fun to write. Not that all of his writing is intended to be “fluff,” but this book does fit well with his catalog.
The concept of the Kaiju as ecological systems with an interdependence with a variety of life forms is really cool, and seems unique to me. Very creative. I also like the second dimension, the Earth that exists because no Chicxulub impactor ever happened. Also, like Jamie, I didn’t know the meteor that killed the dinosaurs had a name.
“I lift things,” will forever be how I describe my profession from now on regardless of accuracy. Plus this description of vegan cheese, “shredded orange and white sadness that mocks cheese and everything it stands for,” priceless.
I read a few reviews before I really got into the book, and for those decrying all of the “political stuff,” I claim that everything in the book is completely on-brand for Scalzi.
Wondering what outraged folks I kept a list of items I thought might be “political stuff.” Maybe this isn’t what outraged folks, but for those of you wondering if this is something you might read but being put off by the outrage, here ya go. Decide for yourself.
– “Preservation” - The whole concept of the book revolves around nature preservation. I don’t find this political but some might.
– The COVID pandemic is a real environmental factor in this book for a bit. I’m sure this will make its way into lots of fiction eventually, but maybe people aren’t ready for it now.
– One of the characters goes by they/them pronouns. Also, the gender of the main character isn’t clearly defined, but it doesn’t seem to matter. I thought the main character was male because I listened to Wil Wheaton read the book, but the narrator’s name is actually gender neutral. My thought: Just let people be who they want to be. Intersectionality exists in real life, so why not fiction.
– A situation is described as “the president’s two large sons” wanted to hunt Kaiju. No names are used to describe any political figures. Point of fact, President Trump’s sons are proud big game hunters, so this fictional situation is not out in left field.
– There is one comment about folks who always need to carry a gun. The follow up is that it isn’t a good way to live
– One character references The Art of the Deal in a not-so-positive light.
– At the end, the 2020 election is mentioned with a change of President coming. Nothing about January 6th though.
– There might be a few more items that I missed or just didn’t recognize as a trigger for folks.
An excellent, fun, light-hearted read.
Absolutely perfect. I was hooked within 7 minutes of cracking it open. Not a deep and meaningful read, but as we're told in the author's notes at the end, sometimes, a pop song is what you need. This delivers tremendously and I enjoyed every page. The action was fast. The characters, great fun. The synergy of the whole book was just a jolt of happy escapism, and I'm hugely glad to have read it.
Ok, that was a fucking blast!
This was the pandemic novel that I didn't even know I needed. Smart, funny, light and made me laugh out loud more than once.
Scalzi delivers again. Quality entertainment from start to finish. This is very much a 'Hollywood flick' of a book but none the worse for that. Don't get me wrong, there are depths here but the intent is clearly to entertain.
Dammit Scalzi, you have pulled another 5 star rating from me.
An obvious recommend if you like fun. If you don't like fun then I can't help you with this review.
