A spectacular modern-day sci-fi romp through an alternate Earth with mountainous creatures and a bunch of nerds trying to study them. Jamie, our narrator, stumbles into a job as a lifter of things for KPS but, for some reason, doesn't ask what KPS stands for. Upon arriving at his new workplace it becomes apparent: the K means Kaiju. Jamie and three other newbies to the company become quick friends as they try to wrap their heads around their new surroundings and the 'animals' they're going to be protecting.

Life on Kaiju Earth is a lot more exciting than lockdown COVID Earth back home: with everything on the planet trying to eat you while you try to study it, there are some close calls, although Jamie seems to take it all in stride. As a massive Sci-Fi nerd himself, he has the mental capacity to perceive of such a reality and so it's all not quite as much of a mind-melting shock as it could be.

Scalzi's writing is quick, chatty and funny, and this is the perfect book to decompress with. It's cool - there are giant monsters - it's fun - there's some great action - and, it has some heart too as the crew genuinely care about each other and the Kaiju around them. Capitalism rears is ugly head and threatens everything on both Earths and our team of plucky newbies take it upon themselves to fight back and save the day. They might not have a plan, per se, but they've got the right attitude.

The Kaiju Preservation Society is wonderfully written, includes diverse characters (without making a scene about it) and has a nicely cynical view of US politics back in 2020/21. Plus, Kaiju. I mean, what's not to get excited about there? As Scalzi himself says in his note at the end of the book, this is a story to feel better after the shit few years we've had back in reality. It's not meant to be a genre-breaking masterpiece for the ages; it's meant to be fun. In that, Scalzi has certainly excelled himself.

Love Godzilla? Love Jurassic Park? Well, I have the book for you.
The Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi's first standalone novel since the conclusion of his New York Times bestselling Interdependency trilogy, is a fun, entertaining sci-fi adventure on par with the thrillers of Michael Crichton (but with more cussing and more humor).
Challenged by a creative block, The Kaiju Preservation Society seems to be the novel that Scalzi needed to write and the novel his loyal readers need to read.
The novel starts in 2020. (Just stay with me, folks- it gets better). The Covid pandemic is hitting and Jamie Gray is working for a food delivery startup in New York City. He's barely making rent. By chance, Jamie delivers to the doorstep of an old acquaintance who says there’s a job opening at his animal rights organization. Jamie jumps at the chance (cause why not and health care coverage!) and discovers that the group’s work is protecting Kaiju, gigantic animals (think Godzilla, Mothra, etc.) that exist on a human-free Earth in an alternate dimension. Humans (mostly entitled millionaires and government officials who have nefarious plans) are beginning to find their way to this planet, which threatens the Kaiju. The Kaiju Preservation Society must help save these dangerous creatures from their own world—and ours—or both could be destroyed.
Scalzi's novel is filled with pop culture references (including Godzilla and Star Wars), and explores the intersections of governmental influence and science.
The Kaiju Preservation Society manages to be both irrelevant in tone and also quite timely in its themes. It's another great novel by a reliable author. Grab a bowl of popcorn and dive in!
Thanks to NetGalley and Tor for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Jamie used to be an executive for a food delivery app startup – now, he’s stuck as one of their “deliverators.” And he’s about to lose even that crappy job. So naturally, when an acquaintance he delivers food to tells him about an immediate, well-paying job opening at his "large animal rights” organization, Jamie is interested. He doesn’t find out until his first day on the job that the “animals” in question are actually gigantic, monstrous kaiju from an alternate dimension.

This is the first book I’ve read so far that takes place in the present day and actually deals with the COVID pandemic. It doesn’t go into too much depth or dwell on it, and the characters remove themselves into an alternate dimension fairly quickly so it’s not a factor through most of the novel, but I felt that when it came up, it was well handled in terms of showing its effects on everyday life.

This was a really entertaining read. Scalzi’s writing, as always, is hilarious and has fantastic dialogue, and giant monsters and airships are just plain fun. The worldbuilding is strong, with many of Kaiju Earth’s differences explained, and explanations of things like Kaiju behavior are well thought out within the world that has been built. The action sequences are engaging, and the characters are all very likeable, though some of the supporting characters are somewhat indistinct from one another.

Representation: LGBTQ characters and relationships, non-binary character, major side characters of color

I received an advance copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

So much fun! Imagine an alternate universe where Kaiju exist, and an unemployed food delivery driver finds himself with a mysterious job offer that brings him out of the pandemic world and into a place where these giant beasts are in his care.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi is a fun, fast paced read. It's perfect for anyone looking for an escape from reality, just for a bit. The story is unique and there is a lot of action and a lot of humor. The author's notes about how this book came into existence made me appreciate the book even more. Highly recommended.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

This book! I didn't know it, but this was exactly the book I needed to read. I know there are Scalzi people and not Scalzi people, but I don't care about the not Scalzi people. It was fun, light, hilarious, full of heart and weird things (as one comes to expect from a Scalzi novel) and an utter delight to read. I don't want to discuss plot or characters or anything like that, it's best to go into it with your sense of imagination and wonder intact but trust me when I say this is the book you need to lift some of the awfulness of the real world right out of you. This is one of those where I am sad to have finished it because I wish I could read it for the first time again. The afterword Scalzi wrote pretty much sums up exactly how I feel about this book. Read it!

Laid off from his marketing role, pivoting into food delivery to pay the bills during the pandemic, Jamie is not where he thought he'd be. When an old acquaintance offers him a mysterious job protecting large animals, he has nothing to lose. So begins Jamie's journey with the Kaiju Preservation Society.

Scalzi's latest novel is fast and a whole lot of fun. It is filled with quick witted characters and a wondrous world to take you away from the world outside your window.

I could not put this one down. I found myself frequently laughing out lour, and then having to explain to my partner what I was laughing about.
This was a fantastic sci fi read that I heartily recommend.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi is for fans of Godzilla and science fiction, or those who need a break from reality. Fun romp in an alternate Earth with colossal giant nuclear monsters that are quite amusing and provide some very funny moments. Entertaining escape from the “real” world.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

This is my 2nd time reading a John Scalzi book and let me tell you, I've now figured out why I didn't like Redshirts yet loved this one.

Scalzi's humor tends to be very "with the moment," meaning his characters' dialogue and pop culture references are going to be very current with the year it was written. In my previous review of Redshirts, I got that feeling based on a lot of the dialogue. For example, I had a lot of trouble with the way women were written in Redshirts. If I had read the book in 2011 when it had come out, though, I probably wouldn't have felt that way based on my own humor at the time. However, I felt completely different about his portrayal of women in The Kaiju Preservation Society. I was impressed with the main character Jamie, a woman, and I appreciated his representation of gay and non-binary side characters.

The reason I'm giving this book 4 instead of 5 stars is because I found this book very funny and relevant to 2022 me, but I could see a person in 2032 reading this book and feeling it aged poorly. I don't think this is a fault with Scalzi, though. On the contrary, his writing benefits from being relevant to the time he's writing it in. This is just a personal issue I have since I would happily recommend a person this book now, but I'd be reluctant to a decade down the line when Covid is no longer a thing and Donald Trump's presidency is not on people's minds.

Overall, I recommend this book wholeheartedly, and to read it right now. You will definitely get a kick out of it and laugh out loud at certain parts.

Being a geek, and a big fan of Jurassic Park, this book was one I knew I wanted to read as soon as I heard about it. I was excited to get a review copy and it definitely met and exceeded my expectations.

The book definitely is a bit reminiscent of Jurassic Park, but also other such science fiction works as Annihilation and Pacific Rim, but the question here, who are the real monsters? Humans or the Kaiju?

Filled with fun pop culture references and based in a pandemic filled world, it was amazing how real this story felt and honestly, it a Kaiju showed up today I probably wouldn’t bat an eye.

I can see lots of people enjoying this book, especially those with the same interests as me. In fact, I can’t wait for this release so I can have my husband read it!

“The Kaiju Preservation Society” boasts an irresistibly loopy premise supported by beautifully tortured science but a strange lack of visual details concerning the eponymous super-sized creatures, tired humor, and a cast of wholly indistinguishable characters holds it back from being anything other than a fleetingly enjoyable trip to a world full of giant monsters.

2.5 out of 5.

The Kaiju Preservation Society

John Scalzi
pub date: March 15, 2022
reviewed from NetGalley epub

If you like Scalzi, you will like this. If you are looking for some serious speculative fiction that challenges assumptions and turns them on their tail, then this isn't the book for you. As Scalzi himself says in his Afterword:

"I had fun writing this, and I needed to have fun writing this. We all need a pop song from time to time, particularly after a stretch of darkness."

If I had to to sum it up I would describe it as a classic James Bond movie complete with super villain, innovative gadgets, action and a classic twist. Really the only thing is missing is a James Bond hero.

A lot of people over the years have compared Scalzi to Robert Heinlein and I really didn't get it. I always just generally assumed it was because of The Old Man's War/Starship Troopers comparison but recognized that was a pretty weak-assed reason. With The Kaiju Preservation Society I finally get an inkling of what they might have meant. While Heinlein often populated his books with extraordinary characters they rarely rose to the rarified heights of "hero" (or heroine). They were people, with all the foibles and faults that entails. That's how I feel about Jamie Gray. He's about getting the job done and his success relies as much on dumb-ass luck as any sort of innate superior characteristics. And I enjoyed him and the book as much as anything in the wider RAH canon.

If  you happen to know anything about the actual John Scalzi (or at least his online personality) then you will find this book pretty much pure Scalzi. Almost excessively so. The "next band name" running gag makes an appearance, the major characters all share a Scalzi-esque outlook and there isn't much to challenge the ethos he generally is a proponent of. On the other hand, if you have no idea who this guy is then you will either find the tone bringing a smile to your face, the word play and character interactions making your eyes roll back into your head or perhaps both.

As Scalzi himself alluded to this book isn't going to win any literary awards and the premise probably won't be 100% convincing to the hard SF aficionado, but if you can kick back, relax and enjoy, I think you will find this a pleasant interlude. It will definitely going on to my  "To be reread" pile for when I want something light and escapist.

It is an honest novel. It offers what it promises, entertainment and very funny moments with colossal giant monsters. A blockbuster, but with Scalzi's trademark knack for this kind of story.

John Scalzi, writing in his blog, Whatever, recently responded to a podcast that mentioned him, defending his work as commercial, accessible, middlebrow, familiar, nostalgic, and of course (it couldn't be Scalzi without being) humorous. Meanwhile, he argued that he is neither innovative nor influential, which I'd disagree with (based on the generally accepted meaning of those terms rather than his narrow definition), nor a few other things I would agree with.

That came before the official publication of The Kaiju Preservation Society (KPS) but after I had the good fortune to read an advance copy thanks to NetGalley and his publisher.

KPS perfectly epitomizes exactly what Scalzi said about himself. It centers on a nearby parallel universe where Kaiju -- monsters from Japanese movies of the 50s and 60s like Godzilla -- exist, and thrive with the help of humans crossing over from our universe, and are of course threatened by other humans crossing over from our universe.

Accessible, especially because it is familiar, particularly because it is nostalgic, and so much fun because it is of course (it couldn't be Scalzi without being) humorous. Commercial, yes, a guarantee at this point in his commercially successful career, but that is not a drawback unless you're one of Scalzi's nemeses who resent his success.

What has made me such an enthusiastic Scalzi fan is that on top of all that, he is so good at being what he calls middlebrow. I agree with he means by that even if I find his terminology unduly if only mildly self-deprecating. What he means, in his own words, is "I give just enough of a concept that readers feel smart for getting it, and not enough they feel stupid for not getting it."

That's what I've often said in reviews of prior Scalzi works: the subtext is there if you want it, and I do want it and appreciate it, but if that's not what you want out of your contemporary science fiction, the books work perfectly well as straightforward (and always humorous) stories. I've also said that, like the best SFF, Scalzi's books usually say more about our world than whatever fictional futuristic world he has created. Issues may only arise if you don't like what he's saying about our world, but that's on you, not him.

KPS certainly fits that bill. The environmental messages are not even thinly disguised, nor are they meant to be. Likewise the juxtaposition of science as benevolent and beneficial vs. corporate greed -- it's not a coincidence that this story is set during the 2020 pandemic. And diversity. But Scalzi doesn't ever hit you over the head with these things. The story, characters, world building, and of course humor, conveyed via snappy dialogue that I expect will be especially good in audio, are the stars.

To sum it all up in one example: I never expected I'd ever laugh out loud at the words "Edward’s tumescent cloaca" let alone do so twice -- and have it not just be an almost tasteless joke but actually relevant to the action.

One final observation: I never thought an author's note, coming here at the end, could be a spoiler if revealed in advance, but make sure to read it when you're done. It says a lot.

I love John Scalzi and this is the right book for the exact right time. I needed something breezy and fun and inventive and this ticked all those boxes. And it was funny, to boot. It acknowledged the pandemic in such a good way, and involved curent events without being mired in them, and ultimately provided a bright outlook for what's next. Also big ass Kaiju and fun Scifi tech.

I was really excited to read this because I'm a big Scalzi fan, especially the Collapsing Empire series. Unfortunately I'm 17 chapters in and I'm just not feeling it. I like that it's got the escapism of a "You've been chosen for a marvelous adventure just when your life sucked the most" story, but so far it feels like neither the story nor the characters have really amounted to much. The only story seems to be the setting, and the characters don't have much going on besides self-consciously witty banter and in jokes. I find myself wanting to skip to the end to see if anything ever happens, but there are too many potentially good books waiting for me to slog the rest of the way through this one. I miss Kiva.

Thanks to a jerkweed startup CEO and the onset of COVID, Jamie is left jobless in New York City. A chance encounter with an old chum leads to a job offer which is suspiciously secretive but so eye-wateringly remunerative that Jamie jumps at the chance to join the “NGO” helping “large animals” “in the field.” Yeah, it's kaiju. On a parallel Earth. As a literary nerd on a planet of science geeks, Jamie's expertise is schlepping stuff around the base, until the inevitable third act catastrophe. Scalzi set out to write some fun escapist fluff and succeed admirably.

If a book could be a pop song about Godzilla, this would be that book.

Oh man, I love a fun adventure! There's nothing heavy here. No long slogs or brooding protags gazing off into the distance contemplating life. Nope. All we have here are Kaijus, the humans attempting to learn and preserve them, and karaoke.

A few notes and thoughts about KPS. The protagonist is never gendered. Is Jamie a guy/girl/gender fluid? No idea. And it doesn't matter. I really loved Scalzi's choice here because it allows every reader to believe they are Jamie. I was there, carrying heavy things, as Jamie. And I was running for my life, as Jamie.
The prose is 90% dialogue. Descriptions are few and far between ... which is a little sad for a story about monsters. If you're hoping there will be pages describing what all the Kaijus and other creatures look like, you'll be disappointed. Descriptions are just enough to ignite the brain engine but the rest is up to you, my dear reader.

This is the sci-fi equivalent of a beach read, which I believe the sci-fi genre needs more of. Bring on the fun!! Make me laugh, give me something to think about, and provide a happy ending. All is bliss.

I should probably start by saying I’m not the target audience for this. I’ve never been a fan of Godzilla movies and their ilk, and I didn’t know the multiple meanings of the word kaiju (or even one of them) before requesting this. I requested this because I like Scalzi. And I still like Scalzi. I love Scalzi. But I didn’t love this book. That didn’t make me feel bad until I read the acknowledgements and learned about how it came into being after his struggling with writing a different novel during the pandemic and ultimately having to set it aside indefinitely. This novel restored his writing routine and his confidence, and I do like that about it.
So.
For a non-Godzilla movie person, this is only OK, at least for me. I liked Jamie, the narrator, well enough, and his pals were also likeable. The plot, although nothing I’d seen before in this particular form, was fairly predictable once we met the first group of tourists to Kaiju Earth. The dialogue went back and forth from snark-a-thon to snarky explain-a-thon, which made me a little tired. I was waiting for consequences to one of Jamie’s more foolish actions, and when they never came, I was both relieved and disappointed. The action scenes were exciting, and the book was a quick, fun read, overall.
I think the right audience will dig this a lot more than I did.