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iono's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Gun violence, and Death
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
billievee's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Torture
deedireads's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
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
4.0
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
The Kaiju Preservation Society was a complete and utter delight. The perfect snack of a sci-fi novel, fun and funny and engaging.
For you if: You love a good sci-fi set-up beginning with a plotty ending.
FULL REVIEW:
I have never read John Scalzi before, but with this book nominated for the Hugo Award, it was finally time. What a fun party I’ve been missing out on!
I don’t think I could put it better than John himself did in his author’s note:
TL;DR REVIEW:
The Kaiju Preservation Society was a complete and utter delight. The perfect snack of a sci-fi novel, fun and funny and engaging.
For you if: You love a good sci-fi set-up beginning with a plotty ending.
FULL REVIEW:
I have never read John Scalzi before, but with this book nominated for the Hugo Award, it was finally time. What a fun party I’ve been missing out on!
I don’t think I could put it better than John himself did in his author’s note:
“[This book is not] a brooding symphony of a novel. It’s a pop song. It’s meant to be light and catchy, with three minutes of hooks and choruses for you to sing along with, and then you’re done and you go on with your day, hopefully with a smile on your face.”
And truly, that’s exactly what’s going on here. As the pandemic hits, a man named Jamie goes from employed at a start-up to delivering food to pay the bills, which lands him the gig of a lifetime: a job where he spends six months of the year as “off the grid” as you could LITERALLY get in a sci-fi novel, working for the Kaiju Preservation Soceity. (If you, like me, did not know what a Kaiju was, it’s essentially like a movie monster a la Godzilla or Jurrasic Park). And that’s all I’ll say, because the discovery is more than half the fun.
This is definitively sci-fi, with lots of sciency worldbuilding, but what a fun and engaging time of it. The banter between characters is full of levity and jokes. The tone of the prose is wink-winky. The plot is just enough until all of a sudden it takes over and you rush to a fast-paced ending. And throughout, there’s just enough heart here to squeeze ya.
If you’re looking for something quick and fun, this is ABSOLUTELY it. Now, on to Scalzi’s backlist!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, and Gun violence
Moderate: Animal death
kaiyakaiyo's review
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.
Content Warnings
Minor: Murder, Alcohol, Gore, War, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gun violence, Death, and Animal cruelty
iris_lpb's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-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
5.0
Wow this book was so good! Exactly what I needed to read right now, will definitely look into the rest of the author's work. Strongly recommend if you want something light and geeky that will make you laugh out loud multiple times
Content Warnings
Minor: Death
readerette's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
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
5.0
What an absolute delight. The characters are engaging and hilarious, the world is quirky and cool, and I looked forward to diving back in after each time I had to put it down to do inconvenient things like sleep or work.
This alternate-Earth story starts with a decent amount of world-building and character development, and then an emotional twist emerges (that you'll probably see coming if you've read many mysteries/sci fi). The resolution is sweet and keeps the humor alive. I also appreciate the length. Not every story needs to be a tome, and this one was just right. And the villain is very hateable (but not so much that my taste for the story soured, and their arc went the way it should have).
This alternate-Earth story starts with a decent amount of world-building and character development, and then an emotional twist emerges (that you'll probably see coming if you've read many mysteries/sci fi). The resolution is sweet and keeps the humor alive. I also appreciate the length. Not every story needs to be a tome, and this one was just right. And the villain is very hateable (but not so much that my taste for the story soured, and their arc went the way it should have).
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Violence, and Animal death
hendrixpants's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
lighthearted
tense
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
trips's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Blood and Deadnaming
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Minor: Blood, Abandonment, Animal death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Cannibalism, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Bullying, Confinement, Medical content, Murder, Violence, Classism, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
athryn's review
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gun violence, Body horror, Cursing, and Violence