John Scalzi's newest book is brought down by an under-developed, rushed plot that's focused more on the “society” of the title than the “kaiju.” Any comparison to Jurassic Park applies only insofar as this is a story about humans living alongside huge, dangerous creatures. Scalzi didn’t flesh out his characters (human and monster alike) or include any high-adrenaline thrills. Well, I’m glad to hear you say that, Rob.” I tried to move forward again in the beanbag, failed, and decided to risk a small push-up. It realigned the beanbag so I was in a slightly less compacted position, but my tablet slid into the well my body had created. I was now sitting on my tablet. I decided to ignore it. “Tell me how I can serve the company.” I hadn't realized when I read the book the first time that Scalzi manages to tell the entire tale without revealing Jamie Gray's gender. Other readers may have assumed, like I did, that Jamie was a man because of the job they were recruited for. As Jamie frequently says, “I lift things.” Which proves how even someone with strong feminist leanings can let childhood programming sway her. I think this book is an easy read, I had fun at some point, and I'll probably read more Scalzi in the future, especially his serious stuff.

In describing the process of writing The Kaiju Preservation Society, Scalzi likened the book to a pop song, and that pop songs are sometimes what we all need. Amen to that! Everyone has that favorite catchy song they like to put on, a guilty pleasure to turn to when life is getting you down and you need something to cheer you up and lighten the mood. Well, what we have here is pretty much the literary equivalent. Over time nuclear blasts have weakened the barrier between our Earth and another Earth where huge dinosaur sized creatures, Kaiju, roam freely. It is essentially Kaiju Earth, and the humans are there only to observe, protect and stop the Kaiju from entering our Earth as they previously had done. As Jamie and a team of scientists enter Kaiju Earth, their whole sense of reality is shattered. What follows from then is one hell of a lot of mayhem! What Tom doesn’t tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, 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.

New in Series

You have no idea how difficult it was for me to not say, ‘Welcome to Jurassic Park!’ to all of you just now.”" This preservation society is on Earth, but not our Earth and it has kaiju as a dominant species. We learn why there needs to be a “preservation society” only as the story ramps up. But here is a snippet which won’t spoil it for you:

Well, this is great,” I said. “At least she left her last month’s rent.” I dropped the envelope, the note and the money on table and put my head in my hands. “This is what I get for not putting any of the rest of you on the lease. Don’t you two leave, okay?” Our main character is a likeable everyman, who at the start of the pandemic is being fired from his delivery company start up. He makes an ungracious fall from a corporate job to a driver, and despite some conflicts ( I don’t like you. I get that a lot) this serves as a catalyst to a mysterious job. Setting aside that I could not get the chorus of The Kinks Village Green Society out of my head while I was reading it, this one is, maybe more than any other book I've read recently, exactly what it says on the label. It's a John Scalzi novel about kaiju and about a society that preserves them. There's a threat to the kaiju, because otherwise why would you need a preservation society, and stuff happens, because it's a Scalzi novel. Thirdly, Scalzi can't write a female MC. I'm sorry, he's not skilled enough at writing a female POV so his “genderless” characters sound like men. Rather neutered and repressed men, but men nonetheless. This MC didn't sound female at all to me, nor was I tempted to think or even wonder if he was female at any time.So that was my day,” I said to my roommate Brent. We were in the pathetically small fourth floor walkup on Henry Street that I shared with Brent, Brent’s boyfriend Laertes, and a convenient stranger named Reba who we almost never saw and, if she didn’t leave long strands of hair on the shower wall on the daily, might not believe actually existed. I’m glad you asked, Rob. I feel really good about it. And in fact,” I held up my tablet. “I’d like to spend some time in this session talking about how I think we can improve not just the füdmüd app, but our relationships with restaurants, delivery people and users. It’s 2020 now and the food delivery app space has matured. We really need to go all out to distinguish ourselves if we want to genuinely compete with Grubhub and Uber Eats and all the others, here in NYC and beyond.” the information on the Covid-vaccine is downright false: it does not immunise people against the virus: you cannot conveniently take off your masks in close quarters, just because you're vaccinated and be absolutely sure, you're safe.

Deliverationing,” Rob repeated. “That what our deliverators do. They deliverate. So, deliverationing.” The Kaiju Preservation Society is John Scalzi’s first standalone adventure since the conclusion of his New York Times bestselling Interdependency trilogy. Second, this book has a B-Movie action plot attached to it, along with some melodrama and deaths that were pushed to the side with "Everyone was suuuper sad about it for a week :(((". I don't think it was appropriate for this book. If fun was what we were gunning for, I would've liked seeing this as more of a Parks and Rec kind of thing. Well on his way to a doctorate in econ from the prestigious University of Chicago, Jamie Gray believes he has life figured out. So, he jumps to a New York City job with a “start-up” and starts to make things happen for himself and this company.I read snippets about “humor” and “fun” and “funny” and I was mostly rolling my eyes and swearing if I read “I lift things” one more damn time I’d scream. Sorry, inside joke,” the dude said. “You know ‘deliverator’ is from Snow Crash, right? The Neal Stephenson book? Anyway, the protagonist of the book is a delivery guy who has samurai swords. I forget the hero’s name.” KPS is not, and I say this with absolutely no slight intended, a brooding symphony of a novel. It’s a pop song. It’s meant to be light and catchy, with three minutes of hooks and choruses for you to sing along with, and then you’re done and you go on with your day, hopefully with a smile on your face.” — Scalzi’s Author’s Note.