In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Jamie Gray loses a job. Fortunately, an opportunity at an NGO dealing with wildlife preservation presents itself. Only that life turns out to be more wild than Jamie could imagine.

I've been anticipating this novel. I've been a latecomer to John Scalzi's books, but what I've read so far have deftly balanced high concepts and themes with down-to-earth characters and an engaging writing style. As much as that, though, I've been a longtime follower of Japanese Kaiju films (that would be primarily Godzilla for the uninitiated), so I was somewhat predisposed to come in to this story with positive expectations.

This book is, in many ways, popcorn fiction. Not that there's anything wrong with that. As Scalzi himself acknowledges, this has been a trying couple of years and many of us need some lighter entertainment to compensate for pandemics, shootings, and attempted insurrections. At the same time, as with all good science fiction, this book still has important observations on humanity and the world we live in, even though presented through the lens of a fictional one.

The title of the book communicates the basic premise of the story quite clearly, with a world being presented in which the titular kaiju (giant monsters) are treated and examined as wildlife, though obviously of a much more fantastic variety. The story revolves around how these creatures exist, thrive, and how humanity interacts with them, both those who would try and understand them and those who would exploit them. However, as with previous Scalzi books, the true strength lies in the characters. Jamie Gray and friends are written with depth and personality, with much playful bantering and a humorously matter-of-fact reaction to the extraordinary situations into which they are thrown. There's a wonderfully diverse cast of characters, presented in an organic and, in some cases, surprisingly subtle fashion. The true joy of this book is in seeing how these characters interact with one another, an achievement considering giant monsters are a key component of the story.

If someone is looking for a fun science fiction adventure, this qualifies. But even if not a science fiction fan, the reader may just find themselves engaged with the entertaining cast of characters.

This is my first written-in-COVID, mentioning-COVID, novel. If you're not ready for that yet, maybe skip this for now.

Having said that, it's not like it's ABOUT COVID (you should avoid Station Eleven more than this book if it's the ABOUT COVID aspect you're worried about). Instead, the realities of businesses being shut down and people being frustrated is a catalyst for our narrator to take an... unusual job. He doesn't realise the full weirdness of the job when he signs on, of course.

Look, you can see the title. Kaiju Preservation Society. You're already ahead, since Jamie just knows he's signing on to lift things for KPS, a group who help look after 'large animals'. What sort of large animals? He doesn't know until after he gets on a plane with other newbies, and then through a door, and then... ta dah.

This is what I take to be classic Scalzi. Super fast-paced - not TOO fast, so I never felt lost, but also nothing extraneous and very few lulls and I read it in a single afternoon. Effortless diversity, delightful banter, and persuasive enough that I was content to read about ludicrous kaiju biology and just go along with it.

It's pretty obvious from the set-up - newbie gets involved with group who are looking after kaiju, which are secret from most people in the world - that eventually something is going to go wrong. That's no spoiler, but I'm also not going to reveal WHAT goes wrong, because I am not a monster (heh). I was fascinated, though, by some of the commentary Scalzi gets into what could just have been a romp (this is not unexpected, of course). The idea that private corporations AND governments might work together on something as expensive as this is... kinda weird from an Australian point of view. I mean it happens, sure, but I feel like we're less at ease with it than the American standard. (Maybe I'm just naive.) The discussions about how start-ups sometimes work, and how the American system let people down during COVID, were also particularly sharp - while completely fitting into the narrative.

This book is bonkers, and was an absolutely delightfully madcap ride. An excellent read when you when you want to immerse yourself into something delightfully ridiculous.