The Kaiju Preservation Society (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
Scalzi’s latest work sparkles with wit and charming snark, surrounded by all the best sci-fi movie tropes: a team of unlikely heroes, epic action scenes involving helicopters above a wild and unknown tropical jungle with air that’s thick like soup, scientists arguing about whose plan is the better plan, greedy billionaires recklessly fooling around with things they don’t understand to fill their pockets. Oh, and kaiju. All. The. Kaiju. The book begins at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, and just as our protagonist Jamie leaves behind his job as a food delivery app driver to step into an alternate dimension for his new mysterious job, Scalzi’s highly accessible and hilarious but sincere voice is the perfect escape from our own pandemic. We’re thrust into a world devoid of humanity and full of things that want to eat you, and things that want to eat them…who then get eaten by even bigger things. And finally: the kaiju, the creatures which this vast and invigoratingly terrifying ecosystem rely on to survive. As Jamie and his scientist teammates soon find out, preserving these insanely massive creatures to keep both worlds safe is worse than dangerous, it’s downright improbable. Kick back with a drink, turn on the Godzilla soundtrack, and let yourself have some fun. I really needed this.
— KarenApril 2022 Indie Next List
“I giggle-snorted my way through this, then watched all of my favorite kaiju movies. This book will make you laugh in public and feed the hope that kaiju are secretly hiding somewhere (in an alternate dimension?!). This book is glorious!”
— Annie Carl, The Neverending Bookshop, Edmonds, WA
Description
The Kaiju Preservation Society is John Scalzi's first standalone adventure since the conclusion of his New York Times bestselling Interdependency trilogy.
When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization.” Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.
What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm, human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda and they're in trouble.
It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society who have found their way to the alternate world. Others have, too. And their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.
About the Author
JOHN SCALZI is one of the most popular SF authors of his generation. His debut Old Man's War won him the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His New York Times bestsellers include The Last Colony, Fuzzy Nation,and Redshirts (which won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel), and 2020's The Last Emperox. Material from his blog, Whatever, has also earned him two other Hugo Awards. He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter.
Praise For…
Praise for The Kaiju Preservation Society
“Scalzi's latest is a wildly inventive take on the kaiju theme”—Booklist, starred review
“Equally lighthearted and grounded—and sure to delight.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
Praise for John Scalzi
"Scalzi continues to be almost insufferably good at his brand of good but thinky sci-fi adventure."
—Kirkus Reviews on The Collapsing Empire
"Scalzi builds a fascinating new interstellar civilization in order to destroy it...Escapism full of guts and brains."
—Ars Technica on The Collapsing Empire
"Provocative and unexpected."
—The Wall Street Journal on The Collapsing Empire
