Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

25 reviews

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Fun times! I don’t have many complaints about this book; it was less kaiju action than expected, but the fun setting made up for it. My one gripe was how much of a mary sue the main character was; one month in and he could just do anything. combat, detective work, follow scientific conversations, plan missions, blackmail ceos… it was a bit hand-wavy but ill allow it bc it made things fun. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny informative lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

The topical real world pandemic/politics mentioned felt like a time capsule reminder of an era that was terrifying and sucked.  In that regard, I felt it did a bit of disservice to the rest of the book because I genuinely loved the premise/worldbuilding of Kaiju Earth (I have a pet peeve of it being "kaiju" instead of the more proper kaijū). 

The humor was full of nods to pop/nerd culture and some repetitive gags which was generally tied to the burgeoning found family vibes from the crew.  I would say that some of the characters felt a little one dimensional, which can kind of be explained away with the job attracting a certain type of person, but it felt a little lazy.  I did appreciate the non-binary rep for one character though. 

The majority of the book had you learning everything via the protagonist trial-by-fire style which lent itself well to exploring a new world.  If there was more expansion about the multiverse situation I would probably gobble it up, but I think I'm a little scarred about current(-ish) events/politics in books at the moment. 

At the end of the day, it was a predictable story, but I'm pretty sure that was the point.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

athryn's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This was great, I devoured it in one day, almost in one sitting! To be fair, I was camping, so there wasn't much to distract me, but this was a great light read. 

Scalzi is definitely back to form after the somewhat disappointing Interdependency series. This had some great fantasy/wish fulfillment going on. I could kind of see this getting turned into a film or a TV series. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

lex_y's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Murder and Pandemic/Epidemic

saltycoffee's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic