The Kaiju Preservation Society: Shortlisted for the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Novel

Product Information

It was only as Jamie encountered Dr. Lee, the physician seeing to his vaccinations, that we are assured that this is a book written by John Scalzi.) Templeton, Molly. " John Scalzi and R.F. Kuang Are 2023 Alex Awards Winners!" Article on Tor.com, Jan. 30, 2023.

We’ll make it work,” I smiled at Brent and then went to my room, which was the size of a postage stamp, but at least it was drafty and the floor creaked. This is a tight, short tale that’s masterfully written to give you the scares, the chills and the laughs and all the feels. Oh and big azz creatures! Bella <3 This is the first book I read, which was not only written during the Pandemic, but was also relevant, in a round about or direct way, to it:) The author was a good deliverator to some laughs, if you take the book for what it was meant to be and suspend disbelief as far as the science is concerned. Or maybe, that is just me unable to process concepts that do not support our human-centric thinking of the Universe and everything we do not understand, we tend to render impossible. Maybe:)

Chapter Two

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.”

Kaiju Preservation Society (for those like me who are insufficiently cool, for “kaiju” basically think “Godzilla”, but nuclear reactor-powered. Yes, just roll with that) is light-hearted and very funny, full of present-day references and neverending quips and snark, almost a meme in book form. It’s meant to entertain above anything, with a bit of self-aware “reverse lampshading”. And banter — or dear, the banter comes in kaiju-sized chunks and is perfect. But let’s have Scalzi himself explain things just a bit in his Author’s Note: 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: Yes!” I made a pointing gesture, which sunk me further into the bean bag. “I mean, we’re already better than the other apps. We just have to drive the point home.” It was his turn to laugh. “I’m not a mercenary. What I do is much, much cooler. And much more interesting.”Lisa Tuttle in The Guardian calls the book "Hugely enjoyable, intelligent and good-humoured fun." [13] So, yeah, that’s pretty nice. It’s lovely to have the book optioned well in advance of its publication; that’s a fabulous vote of confidence. vaccines in general, as described in the book: I, personally, know of no vaccine that is 100% sure to work within 2(!) days. Lastly, the humor felt kind of lazy to me. It was either "Haha that's so random" humor or humor through repetition of a phrase, i.e. "I lift things". Also every character always had something snarky to say/reply with about everything, even in the more dramatic scenes.

What were you thinking when you started beating the shit out of that thing?" Kahurangi asked Niamh. We were at the point in the video where Niamh had gone ham on the creature, but not yet where they had zapped it. 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. It’s a mess. Seriously, don’t even think about trying to fart for the next eighteen hours. It’s not a fart. You will regret it.”I laughed again at this. “It’s more like we have a workable service relationship with a tenuous personal history. But thank you, Tom. I actually did enjoy deliverating to you. Enjoy your shawarma.” I started to go. Food app delivery driver Jamie Gray has just about had it—with work, New York City and the pandemic. But a chance encounter leads Jamie to Tom, an old friend who offers Jamie a job working for a mysterious animal rights organization called the KPS. Eager to do anything to get out of town, Jamie jumps at the chance. But this job is unlike anything anyone could have imagined. On another Earth, one warmer and devoid of humankind, gargantuan creatures called Kaiju roam. It’s up to the Kaiju Preservation Society to make sure the incredible, powerful monsters don’t hurt anyone—and that no one tries to hurt the Kaiju.

The Goodreads description of The Kaiju Preservation Society does a perfectly good job of setting up this novel. For reasons, Jamey is one of several new employees transported to a “slightly different” Earth to help protect our Earth from that Earth’s Kaiju—and to protect them from us. Then he connects with someone he knew in his previous life and that person offers him a job “in a remote location working with big animals.” Jamie jumps at the opportunity and we are on our way. If you’ve been looking for the perfectly escapist science fiction thriller novel, one that’ll keep you laughing, give you characters to care about, and let you lose yourself in a better world – look no further, because John Scalzi is here to help.A lot of this novel felt mostly like setup; the real plot conflict didn't show up until the last third. It's not the deepest read, but it's a very fun escape-type read. Scalzi gleefully imagines insane biological systems, and I just went along for the ride without worrying about whether it made any sense or not. I think it was actually the idealistic nature of the KPS that I needed right now, when the world around me seems to be going to the dogs. I have days when I just have to turn off the news and turn up the music. I have the privilege of being able to retreat from reality for a few days when the world seems too heavy. Fantasy literature has been my haven during the whole pandemic, not to mention my whole life. Thank you, Mr. Scalzi for an inspiring, funny fantasy novel that cheers me up when I'm feeling blue. I had a quarter-life crisis,” I said. “Or a twenty-eight-year-old crisis, which is the same only slightly later.” Tom nodded. “Yeah, that’s kind of the catch, actually. As long as Gracia signs off on it, the job is yours, but you sort of have to decide now whether you want it. I know that’s not cool of me. But I’m in a bind and if you can’t take it I have to find someone else, fast.” I’m presenting you with an exciting opportunity to enrich the füdmüd work experience in an entirely different way.”