Thursday, January 26, 2023

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi


After presenting a nice idea to his boss, a man gets fired from a food delivery company. As there aren’t really any other jobs, he ends up as a delivery person for the same company. While making a delivery, he meets an old friend, who gives him a work offer: he is supposed to work with large animals. It turns out that the large animals are Kaiju, the giant beasts of Japanese monster movies, and work is situated on an alternative Earth filled with those monsters and other less-than-friendly things, too. The goal of the group is to study life there and prevent Kaiju from preaching the wall of realities – as they did in post-war Japan (causing the legends). And the Kaiju are run by biological nuclear power – and if they fall sick there is a very real chance of a nuclear detonation. But there are powerful rich people who want to exploit the Kaiju.

A very light book with a very strong “Young Adult” feel to it. The protagonist feels and speaks practically exactly like the main character in Scalzi’s first book, “The Agent to the Stars”. The style of writing is very light, punning, and referential – and not especially good and/or literate. It was the bubblegum style of book, giving moments of satisfaction but soon goes stale and doesn’t leave any lasting memories. I don’t really understand all the good reviews it has.

268 pp. 

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