Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - The Kaiju Preservation Society

This was not for me. The style of humor here reminded me of the Big Bang Theory and the MCU movies: scientists making nonstop pop culture references and sarcastic, lampshade-y quips; I kept expecting someone to say "Um, so, THAT just happened!" The world building is cool, but that's basically most of the novel. The plot doesn't really take off until the third act, and even then it's pretty thin and goes in predictable directions.

Having said that, the author's note at the end did resonate with me. It sounds like this was the novel John Scalzi needed to write at the height of the pandemic, and that it was healing for him. I can relate to that, and I'm happy this worked for him. I guess it just wasn't the novel I needed to read right now.

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kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

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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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rstegema's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

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

5.0

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wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

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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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khakipantsofsex's review against another edition

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adventurous funny fast-paced

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

5.0

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ladythana's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-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

5.0

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mommarex1221's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny hopeful lighthearted reflective tense 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

4.0

Fun! Fit right into the current media genre mash up that I've been enjoying this month. It has likeable characters who end up heroes, a true, greed fueled villian, enough scientific explanation to make it believable, and obviously the main attraction, giant f*cking kaijus. I'm not sure what else you'd want! The Kaiju Preservation Society, sounds like a cool name for a band. 😉

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uranaishi's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful informative lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

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