In this unusual pandemic novel, a young person—whose gender is never specified—is given a unique, literally out-of-this-world opportunity to escape the Covid-19 lockdown. The prose is pure Scalzi when he’s not trying too hard to be all deep and meaningful; unlike some of his more recent projects, there is no whiff of pretention here, just his quirky sense of humor coming through in all its snarky glory. With The Kaiju Preservation Society, I felt all those vibes as well, making this one a must-read for any fan of the author. Only later Jamie finds out that we are talking Godzilla scale creatures, on a parallel Earth where everything is ready to kill you. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world.

In another mood this might have been exactly what I was looking for but at this time I think I was in the mood for something with more substance. If it happens to you and you actually have enough energy to stand up and move around, fry up some bacon or eat a pint of ice cream, or have a couple of slices of bread with butter. Yes, just roll with that) is light-hearted and very funny, full of present-day references and neverending quips and snark, almost a meme in book form. There's a diverse cast, entertaining banter, lots of good swearing, pop culture references at a level I found entertaining rather than intrusive, and I have a low tolerance for that.They were so cool to read about – it made me feel, for a small moment, like I was a Kaiju naturalist on this grand adventure myself, which was awesome. There’s nothing all that unique about this novel except for the setting and I won’t spoil that—it’s its redeeming quality.

A terrific mix of science fiction, laugh out loud humor and some really touching character development, not to mention it has Godzilla sized entities on another Earth that is brushing dangerously close to ours. Discussion of technical problems and biological processes weighs down the story instead, with Jamie asking questions for the reader’s benefit. Scalzi didn’t flesh out his characters (human and monster alike) or include any high-adrenaline thrills. It’s just delightful this way, even for those of us who before this book thought “Kaiju” was just a funny word.So what he DOES is he just strips the character of anything resembling gender, sex, romance or personality. But then Jamie encounters an old classmate, one with an offer that sounds almost too good to be true; his employer, “animal rights organization” KPS, needs another person willing to travel, work with large animals – oh, and receive a salary that’s almost suspiciously generous. You wanted to see how much it would cost for me to compromise the safety of everyone on this aircraft, me included, to assert your dominance. For the Kaiju, a nuclear explosion makes for the perfect nesting site, where large creatures can feed on Kaiju eggs, and the Kaiju parasites in turn feed on the creatures eventually giving nutrients back to the Kaiju, giving them the means to produce more eggs.