Review.
The Kaiju Preservation Society
John Scalzi
Pub date: 15 March 2022
Publisher: Tor Books
Reviewed from NetGalley
If you like Scalzi, you will like this. If you are looking for some serious speculative fiction that challenges assumptions and turns them on their tail, then this isn’t the book for you. As Scalzi himself says in his Afterword:
”I had fun writing this, and I needed to have fun writing this. We all need a pop song from time to time, particularly after a stretch of darkness."
If I had to to sum it up I would describe it as a classic James Bond movie complete with super villain, innovative gadgets, action and a classic twist. Really the only thing is missing is a James Bond hero.
A lot of people over the years have compared Scalzi to Robert Heinlein and I really didn’t get it. I always just generally assumed it was because of The Old Man’s War/Starship Troopers comparison but recognized that was a pretty weak-assed reason. With The Kaiju Preservation Society I finally get an inkling of what they might have meant. While Heinlein often populated his books with extraordinary characters they rarely rose to the rarified heights of “hero” (or heroine). They were people, with all the foibles and faults that entails. That’s how I feel about Jamie Gray. He’s about getting the job done and his success relies as much on dumb-ass luck as any sort of innate superior characteristics. And I enjoyed him and the book as much as anything in the wider RAH canon.
If you happen to know anything about the actual John Scalzi (or at least his online personality) then you will find this book pretty much pure Scalzi. Almost excessively so. The “next band name” running gag makes an appearance, the major characters all share a Scalzi-esque outlook and there isn’t much to challenge the ethos he generally is a proponent of. On the other hand, if you have no idea who this guy is then you will either find the tone bringing a smile to your face, the word play and character interactions making your eyes roll back into your head or perhaps both.
As Scalzi himself alluded to this book isn’t going to win any literary awards and the premise probably won’t be 100% convincing to the hard SF aficionado, but if you can kick back, relax and enjoy, I think you will find this a pleasant interlude. It will definitely going on to my “To be reread” pile for when I want something light and escapist.
It seems once again, belatedly, NetGalley has awarded me this book under my own login ( see this post ). So once again I am going to have to add a secondary review. This time I think I will just post it to the main site and avoid duplication. Enjoy.