Early Review – The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 272 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: March 15th, 2022
ASIN: B0927B1P8L
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars
“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 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 whose found their way to the alternate world. Others have, too. And their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley.
Thoughts: This was a fun, light read with a bit of a sci-fi bent to it. You have to kind of suspend your belief for the premise here, but that’s not hard to do. There is a lot of humor, some action, and the idea behind the kaiju’s existence is interesting.
The premise of the story is that a marketing specialist, Jamie, gets laid off right as COVID hits and ends up as a food delivery driver. On one of his deliveries he runs into an old acquaintance who offers him a strange job. Suddenly Jamie is traveling to a parallel reality to take care of giant Kaiju monsters.
The characters don’t have a ton of depth but they are fun. The world building and the monsters are incredibly entertaining and just generally awesome. I love all the Kaiju science and the action. Is this a masterpiece? No, and Scalzi even says as much in the afterward. However, it is fun and entertaining and a good mood lifter.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this. This book is kind of like a summer blockbuster movie; it’s fast and fun, a bit goofy and full of action. I liked the Kaiju science here. The plot and characters were fairly light but I didn’t really mind because I was so entertained by the world. I would recommend this if you are looking for a sci-fi light type of action read with a lot of fake science that is actually pretty cool.
