The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
Review by Cyndi J. (cyndij)
In the afterword to this stand-alone SF novel, Scalzi calls it a pop song – light and catchy. It’s a perfect description. Nothing about this takes itself seriously, and it’s such fun to read, with engaging heroes, evil villains, a bizarre alternate Earth, and Godzilla! Sorry, kaijus.
Jamie Gray gets fired from a great job just as the COVID-19 lockdown hits New York City. But a new gig as a food delivery driver is going to end too, until Jamie meets a former acquaintance who just happens to need a strong back to work in an “animal rights organization”. Jamie is desperate and signs up immediately, to be met with a long questionnaire that includes feelings about science fiction, not to mention multiple vaccinations.
As it turns out, the animals are not exactly here on Earth. They’re gigantic creatures in an alternate, jungl-y hot human-free alternate Earth, and they happen to look a lot like Godzilla. Turns out Godzilla was not just a movie invention after all. The kaijus have evolved to use internal nuclear reactors in place of food and water, and the Kaiju Preservation Society is there to study and, yes, preserve them. But this big secret takes a lot of people to maintain and fund, and so is not exactly a secret for certain people back on Earth. As always there are some would really like to profit off the kaijus.
Scalzi’s characters all tend to sound alike, but no matter, the dialogue is funny, snarky, and with a lot of deadpan humor. The villain is suitably evil and gets his comeuppance as he should. The alternate Earth is nicely described and horribly dangerous, but it’s all done with a grin. I’m not familiar with the Godzilla-verse, so there might be a lot of funny references I didn’t pick up on. I didn’t find anything lacking, though.
It’s told from Jamie’s first-person POV, which gives the perfect framework for all the science bits to be explained to us as Jamie gets the information. There’s also something about Jamie which you may or may not catch as you read. I did not until it was pointed out (which says something about me) but I’m not going to spoil it. If you are still curious after you read, leave a comment here.
