Book Review: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

This is a fun, light hearted story about Jamie, who, sacked from a tech start up, lands a mysterious job which pays extraordinarily well. The twist? They're out of contact for chunks of the year because... they're on a parallel Earth where Kaiju – monsters like Godzilla – are real, and need help.

Scalzi takes a daft premise just seriously enough to keep it going through the book, but not so seriously that he doesn't have lots of fun with it. We get to see some lifecycle of the monsters, the ecosystem they live in and live on them, the dangers of working around them and why they do indeed need preserving.

We also get snide commentary about the tech industry and especially techbros, plenty of banter between characters, and a life threatening situation for the normal Earth.

Although it's a fun premise and story, there's enough detail to let you believe these giant monsters could exist and to run with the idea. In the end, everything slots together nicely.

I found it took a little while to get going, and I almost put the book down as I found the tones of voice in conversations between Jamie and his housemates and friends quite aggravating when added to the slow pace, but once we moved to the Kaiju world the story is much more engaging and rattles along rather nicely. I'm glad I stuck with it.

For me, some of the story points are flagged maybe a little too heavily, making it too easy to see what is about to happen, but this is a minor criticism. I was reading it pretty quickly and if I'd been reading more slowly I think I'd have appreciated the clear hints so I could remind myself of who certain characters were and the situations they were in before. I think the twist of who is causing particular problems later in the book was good and fit into the story well.

On the positive side, there are plenty of fun parts, you do feel the characters are in proper danger from the Kaiju while trying to help, and that they care about what they're doing. Although I have niggles about it, I enjoyed The Kaiju Preservation Society a lot, more than any other story I've read by Scalzi.

If you're looking for a lighthearted read that doesn't tax your brain too much and doesn't treat you like an idiot, this is perfect.

Title: The Kaiju Preservation Society
Author: John Scalzi
ISBN: 978-0-7653-8912-1
Published Date: 2022
Pages: 272

Book Review: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

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