Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Kaiju Preservation Society

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

30 reviews

jennifox's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective 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

2.75

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billievee's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

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

2.5

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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jhbandcats's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny informative lighthearted tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Another John Scalzi novel and I absolutely loved it. Both this and Starter Villain are just SO funny and refreshing and entertaining and charming. I can’t recommend these two books highly enough.

The lead was the only fully developed character but the plot was so compelling that that didn’t matter. We learned enough about the other people where the lack of character development didn’t detract from the story but allowed more development of the setting and the kaiju.

The encounters with the creatures are tense and often terrifying; even the smallest animals are potentially deadly. But those adventures are also wildly funny, especially the initial helicopter trip with the pheromones. The calmer periods in between the field work are full of laughter and jokes and camaraderie, and I would love to read more about these people. They were smart and fascinating and easygoing and fun.

I loved the revolting descriptions of the kaiju and their smells, their Rottweiler-sized parasites, and all the other fauna, plus all the scientific talk that supported the plot. It was just a delightful book.

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trips's review against another edition

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adventurous funny tense 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

3.5

This book was fun, and like Scalzi says himself, like a pop song. Its not super deep, but it is fun and found myself nodding along with the plot.

It honestly reminded me of the summer action movie that gets pushed every year. Its not deep, things kind of happen for conveniences sake but it kept me entertained for a few hours and that's all I think Scalzi really wanted out of this too. A fun story for the sake of being entertaining.

The concepts were cool and the humor was great.

Anyone annoyed that the book is "too woke" is hilarious though, that also gave me a good laugh reading the comments.

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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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ehmannky's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.0

This was such a fun and sweet little read. I think the first 2/3 are a bit slower paced for me, with it mostly just focused on this little group of nerds trying to study the big kaiju, and then the last 1/3 really kicks into gear with its Terrible Billionaire Plot (which I loved). It was a very kindhearted read, with a focus on love and friendship and giving a big fuck you to entitled billionaires. Very fun and I can see my friends who did field work really loving this book.

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