John Scalzi is one of the most successful modern SciFi/Fantasy authors out there, at least from the subset of writers who haven't had major works made into major TV shows or motion pictures (Yet). At one point in 2015-2016, I went on a big kick of reading Scalzi novels, from his entire Old Man's War series to his Hugo Award winning Redshirts to some of his other works, and I've now read 11 Scalzi books prior to this one. And well, outside of Redshirts and maybe the Old Man's War series, I've kind of come down in my opinion on Scalzi - his works are always enjoyable and entertaining, and often have really relevant underlying themes (the dangers of capitalism, overlooking dangerous environmental disasters for short term gain, etc.) but they rarely go more than skin deep into those themes and I never really find myself blown away anymore.

And The Kaiju Preservation Society is pretty much another great example of that. To be fair, Scalzi admits in his acknowledgements in the end that he intended this to be a light enjoyable book because that was all he could manage during the pandemic, and well he's certainly done that here: a book featuring a bunch of scientists (and its protagonist dropout) going to a parallel world to help protect the nuclear powered Kaiju found there from each other....and from rich and powerful humans with dumb ambitions. It's a short novel again, and it's stand alone, and again it's highly enjoyable and fun at times. On the other hand again there really isn't anything spectacular about it, even from the standpoint of being a light humorous and enjoyable ride, so yeah


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Jamie Gray, science fiction fan and PhD drop-out, thought they were going to make a big splash by giving their boss, the Rich founder of a delivery-app company, an idea to make millions during the Pandemic, an idea that would get them major props. Instead Jamie was fired, their boss took that idea for themselves, and Jamie found themselves making deliveries to try and get by. But when Jamie makes one such delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, they find themselves offered a job at Tom's unnamed "animal rights organization" doing gruntwork, and Jamie could not sign on to do anything else but delivery more readily.

But what Jamie couldn't have known is that organization is the Kaiju Preservation Society, a multinational society supported by governments and wealthy donors that secretly travels to an alternate Earth to study and protect the giant monsters - the Kaiju - on that human-free Earth. It's a dangerous job, as the Kaiju are like nothing else on our Earth, and work in very strange ways...and that's not even talking about the fact that they contain natural nuclear reactors as part of their own bodies. But it's a job Jamie finds themselves at home with, even despite the crazy dangers it poses.

After all, the biggest danger may not be the Kaiju, but the rich assholes back home who know about them, and have delusions of grandeur about what the Kaiju represent, people who Jamie is surely far away from in an alternate world....right?
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The Kaiju Preservation Society is told from the first person perspective of Jamie*, a person who very much fits into the world we've all gotten used to during the pandemic. It's a world where the pandemic has thrown people for a loop, and Jamie is yet another person spit out by a rich spoiled venture capitalist brat who didn't even realize a good idea until someone fed it to him, which he then took advantage of by selling out of his company in the first place. God knows we've seen this world before, and well, the Kaiju Preservation Society takes advantage of that to ground this otherwise escapist fare.

*Note: Like the Lock In series, The Kaiju Preservation Society deliberately uses its first person perspective to never gender Jamie, so they could be referred to with really any pronoun. I'm using "they" in this review as a result.

And well escapist fare it is, as the majority of the plot is Jamie and their scientist friends discovering the Kaiju on the other Earth with the Kaiju Preservation Society, getting into bonkers and fun situations, and dealing with the aftermaths. It's the type of fun and creativity that Scalzi is best at, and the tone of Jamie and their friends as they deal with the changing conditions - from Kaiju Nuclear Reactors exploding, to using pheromones to try and get Kaiju to mate yet not trying to get killed by them in the helicopter they're spraying them with (the helicopter pilot is a lot of fun), to dealing with Kaiju parasites....well Scalzi knows how to make this highly entertaining.

And then there's the cartoonish antagonist, who fits right into both our world and this one, and will surprise absolutely no one by being one of the rich assholes who knows about the program and has his own selfish designs on the Kaiju. There's nothing surprising about him turning out to be the antagonist, but Scalzi makes it enjoyable to see him get his comeuppance repeatedly, and makes the final confrontation highly entertaining.

Again, nothing about this is a serious book, even with anti-capitalist and exploratory themes underlying the plot, the point here is just to be fun. And well, The Kaiju Preservation Society is fun, so it's hard to say you'll be disappointed to read it. It just isn't something that I'd really say I loved or would highly recommend. It's popcorn, never disappointing, but never memorable either.

I don't need to describe what this book is about. It says exactly what it is on the cover and most of the other reviews and the back cover blurb will give you some additional details. What I will do is tell you why I enjoyed this book and why you might, too.

Picture yourself on the couch flipping channels on a Saturday. 350 or so channels of sports, talking heads, old sit-coms and movies you didn't care to watch when they first came out. But wait. Go back. Is that Godzilla? The actual 1956 Godzilla with Raymond Burr? Cool! It's almost over. But you watch anyway. Flip, flip, flip. There's Silent Running! The 1972 eco-flick with cute robots and Bruce-effing-Dern saving the trees in a space ship. Flip, flip. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. "Captain! There be whales here." You get the picture. That's this book. And I loved every page.

This book was so much fun to dive into. Not Scalzi's usual fare (which I love all of his books), but a light romp through the portals with some serious drawbacks. A little sarcasm directed toward our current and past few years of covid torture.
Highly recommend and will add to our library.

After being fired from his corporate job, Jamie Gray is forced to take a job as a food deliveryman - for the very same company he was just fired from, in fact. Luck lands him a new job with an animal preservation outfit specializing in large, exotic species. Initially, that's all he really knows, other than they provide excellent benefits, but after taking the job, signing his non-disclosure agreements, and otherwise being sworn to absolute secrecy, an entirely new world - literally - opens up for Jamie. Dimensionally, our next door neighbor is an alternate Earth populated entirely by Kaiju, and it's up to the Kaiju Preservation Society to keep them on the right side of the scarily thin barrier between universes. And it's for the KPS that Jamie has a new job on a similar-but-different-enough Earth as a professional lifter of stuff and things.

In the Author's Note at the end, John Scalzi notes that The Kaiju Preservation Society is the literary equivalent of a pop song. It's light and catchy, and you hum along with it for a bit before going about your day. The whole raison d'être for this book is to have fun. After the shitstorm of American life in the day-to-day since roughly, oh, 2016 and the election of an ignorant, brain-damaged, racist, and quite likely drug-addled, orangutan who knowingly and gleefully lead us all head-first into an unmitigated disaster of a pandemic before launching an attempted coup cum white supremacist insurrection cum terrorist attack on January 6, 2021, we're certainly all due for a bit of fun!

So, yeah, given all that! (oh yeah, I forgot to mention all the wild fires, too, didn't I?), it turns out that Scalzi had trouble focusing on writing what was originally expected to be a dark, brooding, and ambitious science fiction novel and he needed something simpler and more entertaining to write. Enter this book here. And whoo boy, it turns out that The Kaiju Preservation Society releases just in time, too, since, you know, we're now maybe apparently on the cusp of World War III with that drooling, stupid, sack of shit orangutan's bestie, Vladimir fucking Putin, what with his insane and completely unnecessary invasion of Ukraine. Yeah.

Yeah...

The good news is, Scalzi most certainly delivered in his mission of giving us some light, catchy fun to distract us from the entire crazy state of this world and goddamn I really wish I could skip on over to an alternate Earth right about now.

But it turns out that being a somewhat cozy bit of brain candy is also my own personal hurdle to clear with this book. Yes, it's fun, but KPS also spends a long time not really going anywhere or really doing anything. There's not a lot of dramatic tension or high stakes, despite the presence of enormous kaiju and the existential threats their mere existence represents, but there is a lot of comedy. Scalzi is great at writing characters and character dynamics, and each page is packed with wit, humor, sarcasm, and irreverence. (Side note: I'm sure the audiobook edition narrated by Wil Wheaton is big damn hoot!) It's not until the book is nearly over that all the subtle pieces Scalzi has been moving about finally reveal themselves and show off their deadly implications, but I found myself wanting more. This is, after all, a bit of bubble gum fiction, not a satisfying, full-course meal. It's fine for what it is, but it doesn't exactly fill you up. As noted, The Kaiju Preservation Society is fun, but it's also just a bit too light and fluffy for my tastes, as well as my own wants and expectations of what I want from a kaiju story.

Its early 2020 and Covid-19 is just starting to appear in New York when Jamie Gray is laid off from the food delivery start up she works for by her asshole of a boss. With no one hiring due to lock down Jamie is forced to be a delivery driver for the same app. Due to a stroke of luck, while out on a delivery, she runs into an old acquaintance who just happens to have a job for her. He needs her to lift stuff, which she can do, but who needs an NDA to lift stuff. The job is kind of a big secret and she wont really know what she's doing until she gets there. Turns out Godzilla isn't really fiction after all.

This book is fantastic. The humor is really what makes it; I laughed out loud often. The story itself is pretty fun, not overly complicated or extensive world building but just enough for this short novel. This is much more of a character driven narrative than plot driven although there is a distinct plot.

This is a nice short read with great pacing. Highly recommend it to anyone who might need a bit of a palate cleanser after a heavy or complicated book or someone looking for a bit of quick fun.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

When Jamie Gray is booted from his corporate job with a food delivery company, he finds work with a mysterious organization called KPS working with "large animals".

This read is not deep, and I loved it. Read this book if you want a palatable, humorous, goofy sci-fi adventure.

I received an advance copy of this book.

I loved this book! I'm a big fan of John Scalzi's other work and this one did not disappoint! It's a light, fun book with enjoyable characters. Main premise - kaiju (think Godzilla or Mothra) exist and they're in a parallel world. There's a "preservation" group to help keep them in the other world and not in ours, as well as study the monsters and their environment. The main character is just a sci-fi geek who was hired to "lift things."

It's not my favorite of Scalzi's work (that award goes to "Lock In"), but it's still a 5-star read. I definitely want a sequel to this book.

A funsized snack of a book. Perfect for rainy weekend. It feels as though this story could have happened to any of us in 2020!

I'd never read a John Scalzi book before, but I am ALL in for his books from now on and until the end of time. This book flew by and had such an interesting premise. (And Kaiju of course.) Plus the actual science discussed was very digestible (in some cases literally) and realistic. There was so much snark and humor that I barely noticed its setting of the pandemic, and going to alternate dimension really eliminates any fears you might have about the time period. There's a lush atmosphere, a cast of characters that will leave you giggling, and a plot that's honestly just FUN! I'd recommend this to sci-fi fans and newbies alike, especially if you love Godzilla.

*Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review*

I adored this book! It was a short fun read, a perfect popcorn flick type book, or as the author himself says "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." I definitely had a smile on my face the entire time I was reading, the humour is spot on and the chemistry the characters have is brilliant.

Let’s be honest. Covid fatigue is a real thing. Many of us have hit the point in which the trauma is just too constant and too much and would be happy to just never leave the house again as long as we have Netflix and food delivery and books. If you’re having those feelings, and want something awesome to read in your pyjamas, if you have been asking yourself why there are not enough fun books about monsters around, if you just want to feel like someone gets it, John Scalzi has just the thing for you.

When Jamie Gray loses his job in the midst of covid and gets stuck delivering food just to keep the rent paid, things seem bleak. Then seven spice chicken and vegan egg rolls manage to change his life in the most incredible ways. A food delivery order from an old acquaintance who just lost a member from his “animal preservation society” team leads Jamie into something that he could never have imagined. I mean, sure, it is technically animal preservation, it’s just that they are gigantic, inter-dimensional monsters with nuclear powered biosystems. They’re freaking Kaiju!

To be honest, I didn’t expect so much fun from The Kaiju Preservation Society. I’ve been stuck with this idea that sci-fi is serious for some reason. There is so much good dystopian and cyberpunk and amazing afro-futurist and ethno-gothic out there, and while I love it, it’s not exactly fun. I needed that fun! Yes, there are still serious themes about conservation and responsibility, and a heck of a lot on capitalism and entitlement. Scalzi even makes sure to be put some excellent non-binary representation in there, complete with absolutely zero in-world explanation of why someone uses they/them pronouns. Zero! Plus, and I’ll admit that I got a kick out of it, a multi-discipline operation to get Edward and Bella the gigantic kaiju to make little kaiju babies.
Satisfyingly fun

In his Afterword, John Scalzi explains that his newest book, The Kaiju Preservation Society, took the place of another he struggled to finish during these awful times we’ve lived through these past few years. This one, he says, is not “with absolutely no slight intended, a brooding symphony … [but] a pop song … light and catchy … for you to sing along with, and then you’re done, and you go on with your day.” And he’s mostly not wrong, though I might quibble a bit if I continued the metaphor, noting on the good side, for instance, that while it doesn’t brood it does occasionally bite. And adding on the not-so-good side that one “sings along” because the pop song has lodged in one’s memory, and I’m pretty sure this book won’t do that.

I might therefore have gone more the food rather than music metaphor. Something that goes down fast and easy, leaves a fleeting sweetness in the mouth then quickly disappears from mouth, hand, and mind. A handful of grapes or almonds maybe, with an occasionally too-soft or too-stale one. Or maybe, since the book felt a little overlong, a handful of M & Ms, because you always grab a few too many and wish you would have stopped five or seven earlier.

The book opens with our main character, Jamie Gray, unexpectedly and rudely demoted by their asshole boss from a marketing position to “deliverator” for a relatively new food delivery startup just at the beginning of the pandemic. Luckily, one of the people Jamie delivers to works at the KPS and just happens to desperately need a new employee. After a whirlwind interview, vaccination session, and flight to Greenland, Jamie arrives at a place inhabited by Godzilla-like creatures. We get the big reveal, some exciting scenes thanks to the work Jamie is involved in, then a villain gets introduced and the stakes get raised.

As noted, the book is fast-paced, moving along quickly and easily via lots of dialogue, much of it in the quippy and sarcastic vein or the “oh god oh god oh god we’re gonna die” vein. And often it’s both. Jamie’s a relatable, likable character, one that’s easy to root for thanks to the shafting they get early on and their self-deprecating (“I lift things”) sense of humor. The underlying ecology of the kaiju and their habitat, even if it’s a bit hand-wavey
is interesting, though it sometimes does come in big chunks. All of which are natural parts of the plot — an orientation session for the newbies for instance— but still feel a little too on point. That on-the-nose issues raises its head as well with the satire, which is chuckle-worthy at times and a bit too obvious at other times.

I mentioned in the intro that I felt the book went on too long, but it’s not so much that it drags but that the latter part enters a new type of story, one that I felt was far less successful. The character interactions, the kaiju scenes, the learning on the job, the chase scenes, the “oh my god we’re gonna die” moments all worked well until the introduction of the villain, at which point the book went off the rails for me. The antagonist (s) felt both incompetent and cardboardy, the story became ever more implausible (yes, Godzilla-like monsters, I know. Still), and I never bought the higher stakes. It almost felt like Scalzi didn’t trust his own original creation and felt the need to bring in a host of standard tropes to keep the reader engaged. Unfortunately, it had exactly the opposite effect for me.

That said, The Kaiju Preservation Society is a fun, light read for the first two-thirds or so of its length and if the latter part doesn’t maintain even that level (say, a solid 3.5 on our scale), at that point you may as well give the rest of it a shot.

This book was fun!
John Scalzi has written serious Sci-Fi ( LOVED Old Man's War) and works that are more light-hearted (Redshirts). He is a great world builder and can bring characters to life so vociferous that they seem to leap from the page. This book was (as Scalzi himself says in the afterward) more on the fun side.
This book immediately lets you know that it is meant to be of the fun variety. Unlike many of Scalzi's books, he doesn't spend a lot of time differentiating these characters (honestly, other than pronouns many of the characters could have been name swapped and I might not have noticed). What he did spend time with was coming up with an imaginative new take on multiverse exploration/exploitation. The idea that a different universe could be reached and the evolutionary history it could have (leading to Kaiju) was not only original but interesting and better science than most authors bother with... I was ready to read a novel twice as long.
By the time I got to the third chapter, I was messaging friends of mine who I know like Scalzi's work to tell them I was enjoying it. This book only disappointed by how short it was. It is a quick read and perfect for its time.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.
#JohnScalzi #TheKaijuPreservationSociety #TorBooks #Netgalley

The Kaiju Preservation Society is the most fun I've had with a Scalzi novel since Redshirts, and for many of the same reasons. Scalzi loves nothing more than taking a trope, plot, or other sacred sf bovine and turning it on its head, revealing a few dark truths and poking a bit of fun at it in the process. This time he takes on Godzilla and his kin, pointing out the absurdity of the whole thing, and then sciencing the hell out of it just the same. It's Jurrasic Park meets Pacific Rim on the other side of the looking glass, and it's great fun.

(see link for full review posting 03/01/22) http://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=19700

Rip-roaring fun and unconventional. This was my first of John Scalzi's books and it certainly won't be my last. Even though this book was set during the COVID pandemic, it managed to drag your mind away and focus on fun things like studying gigantic kaiju in a different dimension. Funny, adventurous and thoughtful, this will be a great handsell throughout 2022.

What a fresh take for Scalzi. I do love the humor and characterization in his stories. The Kaiju Preservation Society is a novel that tackles the importance of preservation, especially to extinct species. It is a fun read!

I don't even know if I can describe how much I needed this book. It wasn't exactly funny, although it did have some funny parts. If you read it, it will really make you think, but I can't really say it is a deep book. It is fun to read! The protagonist is someone like me, or at least someone I'd like to have a beer with. It is science fiction with science that is mostly followable, and what is a little above me didn't matter to the overall plot anyway. I loved the way that the story unfolded in layers, but it makes it hard to review it without spoilers. I'll say this, tho, it was an amazing read and I hope it makes you feel as good as it made me feel.

File this once under “How great this could’ve been??” John Scalzi’s latest is a good enough novel, but terribly frustrating when you think how much potential is wasted. The author goes to great length to create an incredible world, with amazing science behind it, but unfortunately treats this as a light and entertaining story instead of fully developing and unfolding his vision to us, leaving us with an okay ride, but thinking how incredible this could have been. This had all the foundations to be as close to Jurassic Park as possible… yet the lengths Michael Crichton went to explain the science and make it believable are barley touched book. I’m annoyed…. Because whilst the book was good, it could’ve been incredible! How I wish this was just a first draft and not the end product… but alas it is what it is. Could’ve, should’ve, would’ve… but wasn’t. 4 out of 5

HA! This was great fun, just as it seemed Mr. John Scalzi intended. You see he wrote this in 2021 after the miserable year of 2020 when evidently nothing was going right for anyone.

So back to the topic at hand. This book is set during Covid, when jobs became fragile and people were scared. Our MC Jamie Gray loses his job and has become a food delivery man aka deliverator. While on a food run he meets an old acquaintance who offers him a job, and not just a job but a great paying job. Yeah, be suspicious , because this job is has the makings of a movie and I mean Godzilla. So Jamie takes his new job as a "heavy lifter" and finds a whole new world with monsters and strangeness that could only exist in the mind of the great JS.

So people if you need a book to entertain you , bring you to a witty and bizarre place and you like sci-fi then this is a must!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Books for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Scalzi calls this book a pop song vice a deeply thought out album in his acknowledgments, and he’s right. It comes with everything a simple novel does...but he does it so damn well that it’s hard to be mad.

Plot: Godzilla...yes, that Godzilla...is actually from a different Earth in another dimension. But we can get there if the conditions are right. And getting there means accepting that things evolved differently there than here, despite both Earths being just as carbon-based as each other. Anyway, the KPS is designed to protect the Kaiju and of course to study them. That goes sideways when a bad guy from the main character’s past reappears and asserts himself (it’s Rob Sanders, Jamie’s former boss). The wrap up at the end is satisfying, though I won’t spoil how it works out.

Worldbuilding: Scalzi does some really good world building, which adds to the believability here. Greenland, where part of the story takes place, is incredibly different, but he explains it so well that I moved on without a lot of effort. The world is different, despite being Earth, and Scalzi writes it in a way that’s easy to understand. Also, the Kaiju...the freaking Kaiju...just amazing. Particularly at the climax of the story. Simply wonderful.

Characters: I liked Jamie, the main character, a lot, though Scalzi did a lot to try and hide his gender. I technically still don’t know for a fact that he’s a man, but I think so based on something he said about 2/3 through the book. I don’t remember Scalzi doing that in previous books. I’m not a fan. Having said that, Jamie is clearly on a hero’s journey in the book and I liked the arc. On the other hand, I hated the character Niamh. They were miserably bad. Arrogant to a fault. Pompous while hiding behind knowledge with no wisdom. Unable to give anyone else the credit (or doing so only halfheartedly). And there’s no character arc. Even after being called out for their attitude by one of the more likable characters, they don’t change, which I think was a missed opportunity by Scalzi. Niamh stays all the things they were at the beginning of the book. I almost put the book down because of them. And they aren't the worst character there. Rob Anderson was by far the most canned character in there. He was a rich kid who acted like one. Basically all of the “rich and powerful person on a power trip” tropes you can get. It made it hard to hate him or sympathize with him. No depth. I think a lot more development was needed here. Martin Satie, the helo pilot, however, is brilliant. In control. Knowledgeable about his own abilities and authority without Niamh’s arrogance. Wisdom too. Just really well done.

I know it sounds bleak. So why 4 stars? Jamie and Satie. The plot as well, was good enough and unexpected enough to keep me interested even when a couple of characters were not. I really think you’ll like this book. It’s a little different than what Scalzi normally writes, but I enjoyed it a lot.