“‘Jamie Gray!’ Rob Sanders popped his head out of his office door and waved at me, grinning.”
The best part of any kaiju movie is none other than the kaiju themselves. I live for those monster fights, a slow-mo smackdown in the rain, the nasty details about how their monstrous bodies work. Sorry Millie Bobby Brown, I do not give a fuck about you, I just think Godzilla is fucking sick.
And in The Kaiju Preservation Society, it is all about the monsters.
When Jamie loses his job at the start of the pandemic, he has to make ends meet by working as a food deliverer. That is until he meets Tom Stevens, an old buddy in need of a grunt at his top-secret job. So secret in fact, Tom can’t even tell him what he’s doing until he’s officially employed with the company. And with nothing to lose, Jamie agrees.
Now Jamie spends his days hauling heavy equipment back and forth in an alternate universe where kaiju exist and learning how to keep them alive with the help of his new teammates. That’s until one of the radioactive ones disappear and the only possible place she could be is on regular Earth.
I am eternally grateful to Tor for giving me an ARC for this book, I have been so excited for this book since John Scalzi announced its release. And thankfully, it just did not disappoint.
I loved this book so much. Scalzi understands the heart of the story is with the kaiju—a common gripe I have with kaiju movies is that they make it about the humans and as we’ve established, I don’t give a fuck about them—and he lets the monsters push the narrative forward, with the humans standing at the ready to clean up their mess. Like the team, I loved learning about the kaiju, how they live, breathe, fuck, every bit of it.
The world building is the star of the show here; kaiju may not exist, but every aspect of the story still felt so realistic from how the team preps to interact with these radioactive creatures, to how corporate greed impacts the running of what is essentially a wildlife conservation effort. I’ve always learnt that without a good, fleshed-out setting, a sci-fi story wouldn’t work as well, and this is a book that definitely highlights how true that is.
A shout-out as well how naturally Scalzi works in a nonbinary—but keep in mind, they’re never explicitly labelled as such—character. From the bat, they’re simply referred to with the correct pronouns, there’s no big hooha over it, and it was so neatly done, that even I myself who uses they/them pronouns didn’t notice it until a page in or so.
The Kaiju Preservation Society is such a fun, humourous sci-fi book and I highly recommend it. If you’re a fan of Godzilla, Jurassic Park, Pacific Rim, you’re bound to love this book too. And as a fan of John Scalzi’s work, I think this is a really lighthearted intro to his body of work and an excellent jumping-off point for those keen to explore.
Rating: 5/5
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi is published by Tor Books and was released 15 March.
March Round Up
If you want to catch up with what I’ve been reading this whole year, I update my reading challenge frequently on StoryGraph.
Also! This coming April, I will be participating in Escapril, a writing challenge where I write a poem every day over on my Instagram @distanceofio. I post additional book reviews and snippets of my writing there as well so please hit follow if that’s something up your alley.
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
In 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon suddenly takes ill with the plague. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches for his parents to no avail. A story about love, grief and magic, Hamnet turns its focus away from the playwright and onto those whose stories have been lost to time.
4.5/5
#FollowMe for Murder by Sarah E. Burr
When a dead body is found in her client’s shop, ahead of their big opening, lifestyle-blogger-turned-brand-manager Coco Cline must figure out who did it or risk having her reputation ruined forever.
Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places
Why do ghosts exist? Why are some places more haunted than others? And who determines which places are haunted and which aren’t? Colin Dickey travels across the country to explore the history and consciousness behind America’s most haunted places.
4/5
The Housekeeper and the Professor
A former genius robbed of his memory, the Professor’s short term memory only lasts for 80 minutes before he forgets everything that has happened since his traumatic accident. Tasked to care for him, their relationship only blossoms once the Professor learns the Housekeeper has a 10 year old son.
5/5
Hope everyone had a good reading month this March!