The Kaiju Preservation Society

When he loses his job right before the initial COVID-19 shutdowns, Jamie Grey resorts to food delivery to make enough money to get by. When an old friend offers him a job with an organization that works with rare animals, Jamie jumps at it -- especially as he'll make enough money to cover the rent for himself and his suddenly unemployed roommates. The catch: he'll spend six months out of communication with civilization, and the job is basically grunt work. Also, it's not until he arrives that he learns just how rare the creatures he'll be working with are...

In his author's note, Scalzi describes this as a "pop song" of a book, and he's hit the nail right on the head. This is a fun, upbeat, fast read that will leave you feeling good when show more it's over (and kind of wanting to listen to read it again). If you enjoy light speculative fiction like the Murderbot Diaries and Andy Weir, this is a sure winner. show less

Jamie Gray heads into a performance review brimming with confidence, only to be laid off. The COVID lockdown is rearing its ugly head, job openings are scarce, and his temp job as a food deliverer is uninspiring to say the least. So when he's offered a job working with big animals at an NGO, he jumps at the opportunity. Surprisingly the company is familiar with his Master's thesis on biotechnology in science fiction. Coincidence?

I loved this novel precisely for the reasons John Scalzi wrote it. What with getting COVID, the lockdown, and the political situation in 2020, Scalzi was unable to progress with the novel he was contracted to write. So finally, he set it aside and wrote The Kaiju Preservation Society instead:

As a writer I feel show more grateful to this novel, because writing it was restorative. 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. I had fun writing this, and I needed to have fun writing this. We all need a pop song from time to time, particularly after a stretch of darkness. (emphasis is author's)

This was the perfect book for my current mood, and for that reason I rated it a smidge higher than perhaps it deserves. I hope you read this when you are in a similar need for humorous entertainment. show less

It's 2020, and Jamie is working for a company called fudmud - until she's unceremoniously fired by the asshole boss just as the pandemic rolls in. She becomes a food "deliverator" and happens to deliver to an old friend of a friend, Tom, who gives her a business card. Jamie swiftly has an interview, a slew of shots, and is on her way to a mysterious location...which turns out to be a parallel universe where kaiju exist. Jamie may be just there to "lift things," but her new buddies all have PhDs in various fields. Everything ticks along as well as can be expected until the first batch of "tourists" shows up, and guess who it is...Jamie's asshole ex-boss.

Tight pacing, excellent world-building, believable-enough science, and best of all, show more sharp, humorous banter.

Quotes

"Well, that's fun," I said, when [all the vaccines] were done.
"If you think that's fun, let's not ever meet socially," Dr. Lee said. (21)

"Nuclear fission and fusion do more than make energy. They also thin the barrier between universes." (Tom, 41)

"Remember when you interviewed, and you were asked what you thought about science fiction?"
"Sure."
"We ask that question because the people who watch Godzilla movies and Jurassic Park movies are fundamentally better prepared for the reality of this place. Our brains already have a model for it so we don't blow a fuse when we come over. Well, it works the other way, too. If we're so used to a fictional version of something, it makes it easier to deny the existence of the real version." (106)

"Is there something about this place that everyone is great, except that they will murder you if you cross them?"
"There is a certain personality type that thrives here, yes." (107)

"A delayed game is eventually good. A bad game is bad forever." (video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, quoted in author's note/acknowledgments, 261) show less

Jamie is unceremoniously fired from their tech job, and then a pandemic starts and they have no choice but to work as a food delivery contractor. One of their regular customers is a guy they knew from college and he offers Jamie a job - well-paying but top secret and remotely located. Jamie accepts and is transported to another world - the world of the Kaiju. The gigantic Godzilla-esque beings are their own ecosystems, covered in predatory lion-sized parasites and powered by a naturally-grown internal nuclear reactor. The role of the Kaiju Preservation Society is to learn about them, keep them from traveling to our world, and keep humans from exploiting them for profit.

What an imaginative book (and SO funny)! The world-building is show more fantastically complex while staying mostly logical (and also the scientists just don't know everything because doing research is hard, which is realistic). The tech bro villain is very realistically dumb (until he isn't, which kind of ruins the realism, as does him facing actual consequences for his actions ). When I bought this book I saw Scalzi speak about making his main character completely gender neutral…and then by the time I got around to reading it I had forgotten and assumed their gender. Whoops! The more dated aspects of the book are done well. Scalzi accurately pinpoints the desperate feeling of the early-to-mid pandemic, when spending time in close proximity to others was still dangerous but it had gone on too long to not take the (masked) risk. show less

John Scalzi's work is VERY hit or miss with me, but when he hits, boy does he hit. This novel captures the perfect mix of humor and adventure (and is, perhaps, the only novel set during a pandemic I didn't abandon). Jamie is laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic and finds himself through a random college connection joining the KPS or Kaiju Preservation Society. This group goes through an interdimensional portal three times per year to study and protect giant interdimensional creatures on a parallel universe earth. If you are with the storyline so far, you'll like it. It's lightly humorous, satisfyingly action-packed, and appropriately critical of billionaires who fancy themselves scientists. If you see a billionaire tech bro whose show more family has been involved in Department of Defense contracts, you know not to let him around your kaiju. show less

Humour is very personal. It either makes you laugh or it doesn't. 'Kaiju Preservation Society' is full of wild, epic, slapstick humour tailored for Millennial nerds who are into science and movies. I'm not a Millennial but I'm a nerd of longstanding and I'm into science and movies but 'Kaiju Preservation Society' doesn't make me laugh.

I can see that it's funny. I can imagine other people laughing at it and wanting to share it with their friends. The story is creative, playful and sometimes witty. Wil Wheaton's narration is zestful and all-in.

I really OUGHT to be laughing. But I'm not.

I've only listened to the first 10 chapters (30% or so) so I haven't even got our hero past his first day working in the field yet, but I've had enough. show more

On to the next book. Which won't be a comedy. show less

This wasn't very deep but it was a lot of fun. Jamie has a very bad day where he's laid off from his job and then ends up working as a delivery driver for the same company. Then a chance delivery encounter has him meet up with an old friend with a strange proposition and he ends up being caught up with a secret government agency and sucked up into a complicated world with some interesting other people. It's full of sarcasm and doesn't take itself seriously and I found it a blast to read.