The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi is a short novel seeped in pop culture references and take a fun approach to what if Kaijus were real. What is a Kaiju? a giant monster, think Godzilla and King Kong. The book uses a lot of mythos from Godzilla created from a nuclear blast and all Kaiju’s are radioactive. I liked that this wasn’t a Jurassic Park rip off it’s it’s own thing, though there are references to Jurassic Park littered throughout. This novel is hard in it’s science fiction and trying to make the science work, there’s some science that went over my head. The character that we the reader follow is in over his head which really works he is a grunt a person who lifts things. But in another life he has a Master’s in fiction and did his thesis on science fiction novels. The pace is really good in this smaller novel of 264 pages, their are more than a few unputdownable moments. The Climax is really exciting. The opening is really great and had me hooked in record time.The Kaiju Preservation Society is up for Best Science Fiction in Goodreads Choice Award and gained my vote over the 3 other books I read in the category. The Kaiju Preservation Society was published on March 15 2022.

Plot Summary: Jamie worked as an executive for rip off food delivery service like Doordash and Uber Eats, until he was fired and they still used his idea, as a constellation prize they let him be a delivery driver for the service, with Covid hitting he becomes it. On his last delivery since the company got bought out by one of the competitors, He runs into Tom a guy he knew from college, they have a good talk and Tom has a job opportunity where that requires him to lift things and he will take care of big animals, but it’s more that that, an escape from Covid in a remote location. Tom takes the job and finds out the location is not on this earth but another and those big animals he will take care of are hundred feet in the air Kaijus.

What I Liked: The opening was great how it slowly reveals the world was incredible and made me totally hooked. Jamie is a great perspective since the audience is just over their head as he is. I’m just a person that lift things joke always gave me a chuckle. The helicopter pilot was my favorite character by far, and has a lot of great moments. The enemy was so easy to hate reminded me of a swarmmy 80’s villain. The climax had some incredible moments where I couldn’t put down the book even though I was tired.

What I Disliked: Before we get in to the climax I could feel the book slowing down and I did ask myself where’s the conflict in the novel, moment later it was delivered, but there was a small lull. The science does go over my head and thank goodness for Jamie because the have to explain it to him, but sometimes he’s not there and I got a little lost in the plan and the science. I will say most things get explained not too far after.

Recommendations: This was my favorite Science Fiction novel of 2022 easily. The book reminded me of Jurassic Park meets All Systems Red. Really good Science fiction company to be in. I say read this book now it is fun, funny and exciting. I will say I’m not that big of a Kaiju movie fan I’m not a fan of Pacific Rim films and most Godzilla films, but I loved this book. I rated The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi 5 out of 5 stars.