This isn’t my first John Scalzi book, having read Old Man’s War a couple of years ago. I liked that one, but I haven’t read any of the other books in the series. This book surprised me, as I didn’t think it would live up to the promise of Old Man’s War.

The characters in this book were great! Our main protagonist, Jamie, is just your average guy. He could be any one of us trying to make our way through the world during the pandemic. And that’s what makes this book so great. Jamie was on his way to a doctorate when he decided to drop out and live his life just like all of his friends, so he’s not a slowpoke in the brains department, but when he arrives at KPS, he’s nothing special. Just a guy.

And this everyman is very well written. He takes his responsibilities seriously, and given the circumstances, he has found himself in, that’s actually a good thing. He has a great sense of humor, a quick wit, but a realistic side to him that I can appreciate.

But Jamie doesn’t know what he’s gotten himself into. In fact, none of his doctorate-holding companions do. They’ve all been left in the dark as to what exactly it is the KPS does.

Our side characters’ interactions with Jamie are great. They all have fun together and they have real and genuine friendships that help when the time to be heroes comes.

There is a lot of exposition in this book that comes from those side characters. At the beginning of the story you learn as they do, but later on, they are the ones explaining things. And they explain those things in a way that assumes the audience listening to them is smart. Which is always nice.

I found no issues with the pacing and the writing style kept me engaged the entire time I was reading. Just to give you an example, I was at 35% when I picked up the book today. I finished it once I actually sat down to read it. I actually laughed out loud a couple of times and when I told the Hubs one of the funny things, he laughed too, and he hasn’t even read the book.

One of the things I didn’t like was that I called the villain the second I met them. I hated being right, but, surprisingly, it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the story. I still wanted to know how everything played out.

I wasn’t expecting it, but I really loved this story. I happily give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Jamie Gray loses his management job as Covid-19 hits, ending up as a food delivery driver. But one of his customers offers him a job in large animal management. It would be worth a fairly large amount of money, but he would need to commit in the next day or so and be willing to travel. Jamie takes the deal and finds himself the Kaiju Preservation Society! Now, if you have watched Japanese monster movies, you will have a clue as to what Jamie will encounter! The KPS was a fun read that kept moving quickly and twisting enough to keep the reader guessing what would come next. This was exactly the read I needed right now!

This book was a lot of fun. Parts of it had me laughing out loud. As John Scalzi mentioned in his author's notes it is a pop song. Meant to be light and catchy. I prefer to think of it as a big bird flip to the years 2020 and 2021. And it succeeds on all levels.
A slight warning though---the language is a little salty so if you are sensitive to the fall of F-Bombs you may want to give it a pass.
Although I was under the impression there would be giant pandas--no giant pandas. :(
Thank you to #NetGalley #Tor #JohnScalzi for the ARC copy. It made my weekend.

Could not put it down. It did exactly what the author intended to, it brought me to a bright spot after being down in the dumps. It was a great read favorite of the year so far

This was such a fun read!

Thank you NetGalley for the free EARC.
I loved the fast pace, entertaining story, and the dialogue. John said that this was the book he needed to write during the pandemic and I am so grateful because this is the book that I needed to read afterward. I found myself cheering for the Kaiju and the crew. Thank you for this terrific “pop song” that will be stuck in my head for a while to come.

Buy this book. I cannot overstate how much I absolutely enjoyed this fast read of a book.

The Kaiju Preservation Society takes place during the beginning of the covid outbreak so if you're sensitive to that, you have my support and understanding and may want to skip this one. If you're okay with it, read the book. I thought I'd have problems but it was so worth it.

We start the book with Jamie. He's working at a tech startup and it's the day of his six month evaluation. To put it short, his boss fires him. and with Covid on the rise, he has no idea what to do for a job except to become a food deliverer.

This leads him to meeting a guy on his job that he strikes up a bit of a comradery with who offers him a job at KPS and that's when the story gets going.

I loved the voice of this story. It's fun, it's funny. All of the characters feel real and solid. Their personalities are fun, they feel like real friends. And the pacing is actually great. It never felt too fast, like things were just zooming by.

There's a lot of diversity, various non-white names, a nonbinary scientist with a sassy attitude.

Also kaiju! The descriptions actually reminded me a lot of how Lovecraft described his monsters. Except better because there wasn't any racism in it. Just creatures so strange that they didn't make sense to look at so how do you describe them?

All in all, it gets five (5) stars from me.

I thought the ending might have been a little contrived because of the villain but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Which I hated because wow some people just suck. You will absolutely hate the villain. And you will love Jaime. And I loved this book.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to them and the publisher.

Please find our full review on our podcast, Genre Junkies, available on most podcast platforms. To put it succinctly, this book is a monstrously good time. We lost track of how many times we literally laughed-out- loud. This is one of those novels that feels like a hug. It’s a fun, funny and friendly novel. A wonderful bit of escapism while still feeling grounded in our own strange reality. It reminds us there is good and it’s worth fighting for.

John Scalzi is always a fun read, and this one does not disappoint! Action, humor, and overall just awesome!

Title: The Kaiju Preservation Society
Author: John Scalzi
Genre: SciFi
Rating: 4 out of 5

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 that's found its way to the alternate world. Others have, too--and their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.

I don’t delve into science fiction too often these days, but this was a fun, quick read. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, and even in serious moments, I enjoyed the characters. The idea itself is so far beyond my comprehension that I just went along with it without question, but Scalzi made me believe in it.

John Scalzi is a bestselling author. The Kaiju Preservation Society is his newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Books in exchange for an honest review.)

(Blog link live 3/28).

What a wild, weird, fantastic book. I expected something a bit scarier but what I got was a summer blockbuster on the big screen in this book. Would love to see this as a movie!

This was a really fun sci-fi novel, where the protagonist takes a new job, not realizing it is on an alternate universe/alternate Earth. Even though it was set during the pandemic, the book is funny and witty throughout. It was a very enjoyable read!

Sometimes you just want to read some light science fiction. No deep science. No not-so-subtle morals for the real Earth’s ailments. Just adventure and the great unknown. The Kaiju Preservation Society delivers on that promise.

Jamie has been demoted from management to a career as a food delivery driver. He has bills and no way to pay them. But one of his regular customers needs to hire someone for a mysterious job. Jamie takes it without understanding it is on an alternate Earth.

Despite being set during the pandemic, The Kaiju Preservation Society manages to be both witty and just plain fun like the Jurassic Park movies, if they were on an alternate Earth. If you want a light spring or beach read, this book is a good choice. 4 stars!

Thanks to Tor Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Published by Tor Books on March 15, 2022

John Scalzi spent two months of his pandemic knocking out an amusing novel. When he’s being serious, Scalzi can be an incredibly moving writer. Even when he knocks out a two-month pandemic wonder that is written for laughs, he’s a good storyteller who makes me smile.

Jamie Gray has a tech job for a niche startup that competes with food delivery apps like Uber Eats. After he’s fired, he signs up to make deliveries because there aren’t many jobs available during the pandemic. After making several deliveries to a customer who has sympathy for Jamie’s situation, the customer offers Jamie a job. His new job, as he frequently explains, is to lift things.

Until he arrives in Greenland, Jamie doesn’t realize that he will be working in another universe. It’s possible to cross into that universe (and for very large and nasty creatures called kaiju to cross into ours) when the dimensional barrier is weakened by nuclear explosions. Unfortunately, the radiation from those explosions attracts the kaiju, who are basically powered by their own naturally occurring nuclear reactors.

The kaiju are not so much animals as ecosystems. They maintain symbiotic relationships with parasites that keep them from exploding like a nuclear bomb. Every now and then, their system breaks down and the kaiju die a spectacular death.

Most people don’t know about this alternative universe, although rich people are in on the secret because they’re helping the government fund its study. Jamie’s team is one of three that periodically enter the universe through the Greenland portal. Most of his colleagues are scientists but they still need someone to lift things.

Scalzi explains enough of the science underlying the alternate Earth to fool me (a nonscientist) into believing that the story is plausible. That’s all the science I need in a story that is meant to amuse.The plot sets up a rich guy as an evil nemesis of Jamie. Naturally, the evil rich guy embarks on an evil scheme and it will be up to Jamie (and a few other characters) to thwart him.

This is primarily a science fiction conspiracy thriller with enough action to justify calling it a thriller despite its failure to thrill. The plot doesn’t hold any real surprises, but the characters’ banter is … amusing. Scalzi fans presumably understand how his characters engage in good-natured banter. The banter is probably enough to keep them happy until Scalzi turns his attention to more serious work.

RECOMMENDED

I completely loved Kaiju Preservation Society! See my full review and my Grand Unifying Theory of Scalzi here: https://youtu.be/CQRLIN52VSQ

On the sci-fi spectrum, It is closer to the fun, silly side of the spectrum. The world that the book starts in is exactly our own world. It starts right in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. Jamie loses his job at a tech startup and becomes a food delivery driver. He runs into an old friend who offers him a very last-minute job where he’ll talk to no one in his life for 6 months (would any woman agree to this? It sounds like how you get lured into human trafficking). But no, he’s going to another earth, through a nuclear gateway kinda, and on this earth, there are kaiju.
This is normal guy in a scientist world vibes. His job is to lift stuff and he shares a connected suite with 3 scientists. They are competent, brilliant people doing work around a guy who is a jokester, and also plenty smart.
One of the things I loved about his group of friends is that a character used they/them pronouns and NO ONE mis-gendered them, not even the very obviously bad bad guy. It made me so happy.
I saw a review that said the big conflict comes late in the book, but I think it’s paced like an adventure story. The set-up is just a few chapters and then you are in this whole new world, exploring it, learning things, having near-death experiences! There is a BIg Bad, but that’s not the point.

You’ve got to read this if you love Godzilla or Pacific Rim or any of the kaiju movies. Also, if you love a team of Scoobies, like Buffy the Vampire slayer or Brooklyn99, I think you’ll like it.

I got the ebook ARC from the publisher, which I totally appreciate AND I paid my own money to pre-order a copy so we’d have a physical copy.

When Jamie Gray got the boot from her old job she never thought it would lead her to a career in an alternate dimension where "they have actual Godzillas." But here she is, living the dream.

In all seriousness, KPS runs the vein of the classic cheesy Kaiju movies. For being set in the Covid pandemic, its the perfect escape from it. There's a lot of science, a big throw down and crazy shenanigans involved to solve the problem. Its not meant to be some epic action/adventure but still a hell of a lot of fun.

Full of snark, humour and wit this was everything and more that I expected from a John Scalzi book. The fact that this book has the setting of COVID-19 should not put you off from this escapist novel. Loved every page.

I've carefully avoided books that mention Covid, because it's just too much for me right now to be dealing with it in real life AND fiction, but Scalzi promised a pop song, not an emotionally weighty symphony, and it turns out he can be trusted, because this is the funniest, fluffiest, alternate-Earth and giant radioactive monsters sci-fi I could ever hope for. If the premise sounds like your bag, definitely read this.

The Kaiju Preservation Society was a supremely well done read blending sci-fi elements with such strong characters. I'm looking forward to reading more from John Scalzi in the future.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi is a very highly recommended hilarious and action packed science fiction novel. I really enjoyed this one!

Right when New York City is facing lockdowns, Jamie Gray is fired as a marketing director during at füdmüd (FoodMood) by the insufferable owner/ boss Rob Sanders, and ends up being a 'deliverator' (driver) for them because it is the only job available. When making a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, he recognizes Jamie and ends up recommending going to an interview for a job at KPS. He describes it as an animal rights organization where he needs someone who can lift things. Jamie can certainly do that. What he doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals are not on our version of Earth, but in an alternate parallel Earth. The endangered animals, Kaiju, are mountain-sized Godzilla-like creatures (thus the name). KPS stands for the Kaiju Preservation Society.

This is an enjoyable, hilarious, adventure novel full of funny, snarky quips, incredible action scenes, references to other science fiction novels, and the enjoyable "that's a great name for a band" game. It is a read-in-one sitting book because you won't want to stop reading and, well, it's a short novel. Scalzi says in the afterword that he meant for this to be a fun novel and at that he certainly succeeded. This is a stand-alone novel and would make an excellent movie.

I saved several passages that made me laugh and gave me great pleasure. I'll share a couple that don't need a language warning: "They have vegan cheese." "No, they don’t. They have shredded orange and white sadness that mocks cheese and everything it stands for." and this gem, “When you finish your training and survive your first mission on the jungle floor, you and I can sing ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ as a duet at karaoke,” Tagaq said. “Until then, you learn.” She handed the shotgun to me. “Let’s start with this.”

Jamie is a great character, intelligent, witty, snarky, and I immediately felt a soul-connection to. Much of this is due to experiencing a company reorganization at the beginning of the pandemic which left me in a similar position, a huge pay cut, a change in job title, but in my case the expectation to do the same work and all during a time when there were no job options available. When imagining Rob Sanders, I did project a very specific physical appearance to him. While there isn't a great deal of in depth character development, they are all portrayed as realistic individuals and you can easily distinguish between the characters. Sanders is really more of a caricature of an antagonist, but, obviously, it worked for me and I gave him additional traits on my own.

As for my fluid rule that authors need to keep their editorializing on personal social/political views on contemporary topics to themselves and out of books to extend the longevity of the novel, well Scalzi's gonna Scalzi. Most readers will know opinions will be present but at least he's talented enough to integrate it into the story and make it a somewhat acerbic mirror of the situation during the pandemic. However, time has passed since it was written and many of the comments do feel dated now at publication, so my rule still stands. Scalzi gets a pass for the sheer pleasure and enjoyment The Kaiju Preservation Society provides.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Tor Books via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, and Amazon.

Kaiju Preservation Society follows Jamie Gray as he’s unceremoniously fired from his job. This story kicks off in New York City as it enters the initial COVID-19 lockdown, but this is just the inciting incident and the pandemic plays a nearly nonexistent role throughout the rest of the story. I encourage you not to cross it off your list if you're in a habit of avoiding books about the coronavirus.

First and foremost, the banter is smart and quippy and perfectly timed. I legitimately laughed out loud at least once a chapter. Actual cackles escaped my mouth. This novel is one of the funniest I’ve ever read. I had such a good time, I didn’t want it to end, but I couldn’t stop turning the pages.

As for the science? I’m not an expert, and the only doctorate I have is in suspending my disbelief, but one of the things I really enjoyed about this book was Scalzi’s attention to detail. He made KPS as realistic as he possibly could--at least in my opinion. Every time I had a question about how this worked or why they did that, one of the main characters asked exactly what was on my mind. He didn’t shy away from getting into the nitty-gritty of the science, but wasn’t afraid to have someone say, “We don’t know exactly how this works, but here are our theories.” I imagine that if kaiju were real, we’d still have plenty of questions even after decades of research.

I had so much fun reading this book. It was a breath of fresh air and exactly what I needed right now.