Book review: The Kaiju Preservation Society – John Scalzi

The Kaiju Preservation Society, KPS, is a non-profit organization that has the mission of preserving Kaiju that has been found in a parallel universe. So yes, Kaiju (aka Godzilla, Kong or any of the monsters from Pacific Rim) exist. But not in our world, unless they cross over the dimensional border, which is possible under the right (but probably wrong) circumstances.

But we start the novel with Jamie Gray, a marketing manager at the food-delivery service füdmüd. During a performance review his douchebag boss, and founder of the company, gives him the boot, but at the same time offers him a job as a delivery-person. Jamie tells him to fuck off, but this being set during the pandemic, he soon realizes that delivery is the only job opportunity and only way to be able to pay the bills.

On one of his deliveries he meets an old classmate from his studies, who offers him a job for the non-profit organization he works for. It’s nothing fancy, they need someone to lift things, and for Jamie that sounds better than delivering food during the pandemic. The details are hidden but Jamie and a new team of scientists are taken to Greenland and from there go through an dimensional door, and hello research base on Kaiju world. A world where everything, big and small, is pretty much out to kill you.

We get to follow Jamie and his new scientist friends when they start to do research on the Kaiju, and Jamie does his job in lifting things. Of course something’s gonna go wrong in the second act, but I’m not gonna give that away too much here.

The novel is wittingly written, pretty fast paced and short. Once you get into it, it’s a quick and fun read. The banter between the people in the research team is nicely written, although at some times almost a bit too snappy. It comes at the cost of some depth for the characters. But depth is not really what this book is about, and the author knows that and really leans into the fun aspects of it. The story seems plausible, as long as you accept the general Kaiju premise, although it’s a little bit predictable who the antagonist is going to be.

A nice little read that is well written and snappy, with some good social commentary in between. I gave this a 4 out of 5 on Goodreads.