Review of "The Kaiju Preservation Society" by John Scalzi

I received an ARC of this book from Tor in exchange for an honest review.

The following contains no spoilers for The Kaiju Preservation Society (or at least, none that the title doesn't immediately provide on its own).

I don't like reading about the current pandemic. I don't like side references to it, I don't like plots that depend on people wearing masks or staying inside or getting vaccinated, and I don't like near-future or parallel-present books that have cute references to similar events. The Kaiju Preservation Society starts out with its protagonist looking for a way to make money after COVID-induced layoffs, which meant I was immediately predisposed to dislike the book. Still, give Scalzi credit--he doesn't linger too much on the here and now, and when he does, it's with the snarky dismissiveness that he's honed so well. For this reason alone (and also because Redshirts remains an all-time favorite, and Scalzi books tend to be upbeat and hopeful, and it's worth reading for a few good jokes alone) I give this book a pass on the "near-future that is too near" front. Once the initial stage is set, Scalzi delivers on an entertaining romp with just enough pseudo-science to keep the nerds happy and enough giant monster fights to keep the action junkies on the edge of their seats. The Kaiju Preservation Society is unabashedly fun--it's a love letter to monster movies, parallel world stories, and people who are sick of doing boring grunt work just to get by. The main cast is filled in enough around the edges to make them likeable, but not so much that we are bogged down in backstories; it's a plot-first book, after all. Scalzi develops a rich and entertaining fictional ecology which is as much a character in the story as any of the humans, and delivers a satisfyingly self-contained monster-of-the-week story that wouldn't be out of place as a TV episode in an anthology show. In an era of huge, sprawling sagas that feel like they need to take themselves seriously in order to justify putting out a nineteenth season, The Kaiju Preservation Society is refreshingly un-serious and has no pretensions about changing the world. It's the story of a poor deliverator who just wants to lift things, the asshole rich people who get in his way, and the giant lizards (forgive me the abuse of notation here, Scalzi) who make it all work out in the end. Not Scalzi's best work, but certainly worth tracking down for an entertaining and escapist afternoon.

Three and a half out of five stars (leaning towards four--to paraphrase Wolverine, Scalzi is the best there is at what he does even if what he does isn't always the best).