Reviews

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

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maestroalberti's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

danaisreading's review

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4.0

When I first heard about this book, I had zero interest in reading it. A Godzilla type book? No thanks. Not my thing.

Then Tor.com offered the first five chapters in a free sampler last month. So I got it. Because why not?

When I got to where Chapter 6 should be, I was REALLY mad there wasn't more for me to read immediately.

I should really learn to trust Scalzi and his storytelling. He could write and publish his town's phone book, and I'd read it.

Like Scalzi's Lock In novels, the main character Jamie Gray is only ever referred to as Jamie. It's first-person perspective, so there is absolutely no hint of which gender Scalzi meant Jamie to be. That is, if Jamie is not non-binary to begin with. (Even then, they/them pronouns are not used to refer to Jamie, while they are used in reference to another character. So maybe, maybe not. Anything's possible.)

I suppose most people would think Jamie is male (there are quite a few GR reviews here that refer to Jamie as he), since Jamie is recruited to KPS "to lift things." Big, heavy things. Except that Jamie is part of a 2-person team of heavy-thing lifters, and the other person, Val, is clearly gendered as female.

It really doesn't matter to the novel, unless you're close minded. (In which case, you're probably not reading this anyway.) What does matter is that it's a fun and quick read. And you should read it. After the 2020 we all had, what's a few Kaiju wandering around?