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A review by arockinsamsara
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
5.0
In his acknowledgments at the end, Scalzi says:
All I can say is that it is incredibly fun, and I devoured it in a day. It is an exciting and well-built world, with a lot of interesting characters who felt real and exciting and diverse (including queer characters and characters that use non-binary pronouns, and none of this is commented on or treated as exceptional in any way, but rather delightfully normal), and who have real lives and personalities. A pop song doesn't have to have substance, but KPS does, and even though the plot goes pretty much where you expect it to go the journey getting there is well-paced and fun and worth every moment. I smiled through every page of this book, and for that I'm more than grateful.
KPS is not, and I say this with absolutely no slight intended, 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. I had fun writing this, and I needed to have fun writing this. We all need a pop song from time to time, particularly after a stretch of darkness.
All I can say is that it is incredibly fun, and I devoured it in a day. It is an exciting and well-built world, with a lot of interesting characters who felt real and exciting and diverse (including queer characters and characters that use non-binary pronouns, and none of this is commented on or treated as exceptional in any way, but rather delightfully normal), and who have real lives and personalities. A pop song doesn't have to have substance, but KPS does, and even though the plot goes pretty much where you expect it to go the journey getting there is well-paced and fun and worth every moment. I smiled through every page of this book, and for that I'm more than grateful.