John Scalzi: The Kaiju Preservation Society (2022, Pan Macmillan)
English language
Published March 14, 2022 by Pan Macmillan.
The Kaiju Preservation Society is a science fiction novel written by American author John Scalzi. It was first published in hardcover and ebook by Tor Books, and audiobook by Audible Studios, on March 15, 2022; British hardcover and ebook editions were released by Tor UK on March 17, 2022. A large print hardcover edition was issued by Thorndike Press on July 27, 2022, and a trade paperback edition by Tor Books on January 24, 2023.The novel was nominated for the 2022 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. It won a 2023 Alex Award, the American Library Association's annual award recognizing the ten best adult books that appeal to teen readers.
Just like in "Starter Villain", there are plenty of fun ideas in this book. It's light and a quick read. Had a French version of the book.
The story is fun and creative. It's too bad the characters are so poorly written. By the end of the book I had trouble focusing on anything else.
The characters are all the same. Whether it's a science fiction loving delivery guy, a brilliant scientist, a billionaire tech bro or an experienced military officer, they all have identical mannerisms and speech. If you take any dialogue out of context there's no way to guess who said it.. Everyone is calm and snarky in the face of death, and more interested in getting a quick jab against the scene's designated punching bag than in what's best for themselves in the long term.
As Scalzi says in his afterword, this is a three-minute pop song of a novel, not a complex symphony. However, even the lightest of pop songs needs effort to make it work, and this does work on its own terms. It's a fun book that rattles along at a good pace, throwing enough big ideas into the mix to keep you reading and not asking too many questions about whether it all makes sense. Spends a lot of time setting up for not much plot, and relies a lot on coincidences to give the ending a personal stake for the protagonist, but does what it says on the tin and people who like this sort of thing will like this.
