The Hugo Award-winning author of Redshirts returns with a pandemic science-fiction adventure: When COVID-19 sweeps New York City, food-delivery driver Jamie Gray makes a delivery to Tom, who asks for his help on an "animal rights" project. What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth but in an alternate dimension—massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju.
... a smart and timely and often hilarious work, a quick page-turner that fills the reader with a sense of speculative adventure even as its underlying ethos worms its way into your brain ... Scalzi takes his job very seriously, crafting his narrative world with a delicacy of detail; just because he’s obviously having a marvelous time telling this tale, that doesn’t mean that he lacks commitment to the quality of the work. And this book is of the utmost quality. Scalzi has a gift for coming up with intriguing central concepts and then spinning them out into sharp and compelling narratives. The Kaiju Preservation Society is another example of that gift in action, its central story an ideal framework on which to hang quick-witted dialogue and situational humor and assorted other stylistic Scalzi hallmarks ... smart and well-written, to be sure, but most importantly—it’s FUN.
... all [characters] trade in the wit and inside jokes that make Scalzi’s books so much fun. But the larger joy of reading the book is the feeling of being embedded in the team, and following along on both their 'normal' workdays—which are still pretty extraordinary because freaking Kaiju—and the far more dangerous plot that kicks into gear halfway through the book ... Which leads me to the thing I liked most about this book, which is that it’s beyond competence porn, it’s sort of support network porn? ... The Kaiju Preservation Society is 'Good Faith Argument: The Book' ... refreshing and fun to read, especially after the last few years. But more than being a fun conceit, this aspect of the book sets the central conflict up perfectly, because when there are problems they stem from people who act in bad faith.
... [a] thoroughly enjoyable new adventure ... As a science fiction author, Scalzi carries on the tradition often presented in novels that question who the true evildoers are. It’s a thoughtful debate. He bills The Kaiju Preservation Society as the literary equivalent of a pop song written as a way of staying sane during COVID. It is a wonderfully entertaining and outstanding read for the times in which we live.
