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A review by yevolem
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
2.0
This was a SF portal fantasy and a metafantasy. By metafantasy I mean that this was meant to be an escapist fantasy for the author, characters, and the readers who wanted to escape the COVID-19 pandemic. It's utterly filled with three elements: cultural affiliation signifiers; pop culture references; and Scalzi's brand of humor. If you don't like all of those, you're already in for an uphill trek to enjoyment. The protagonist's catchphrase was, "I lift things", which he repeats often in various ways. I'm mostly indifferent, so that certainly didn't help at all.
For me those weren't the problem though. What was, was that I just didn't find it interesting, engaging, fun, or enjoyable. Somehow a story about literal kaiju in an alternate Earth was made to be prosaic, banal, and insipid. I felt nothing at all for any of the characters, or really anything in the book. If it weren't for that it's relatively short I wouldn't have finished. The title is very accurate though and that was part of the problem.
Maybe others would like it more, the current GR ratings would suggest that. I think it would've worked better in a visual medium, whether that would be a movie, TV series, graphic novel, or whatever else. I'm not angry, just disappointed.
For me those weren't the problem though. What was, was that I just didn't find it interesting, engaging, fun, or enjoyable. Somehow a story about literal kaiju in an alternate Earth was made to be prosaic, banal, and insipid. I felt nothing at all for any of the characters, or really anything in the book. If it weren't for that it's relatively short I wouldn't have finished. The title is very accurate though and that was part of the problem.
Maybe others would like it more, the current GR ratings would suggest that. I think it would've worked better in a visual medium, whether that would be a movie, TV series, graphic novel, or whatever else. I'm not angry, just disappointed.