I’m glad you asked, Rob. I feel really good about it. And in fact”—I held up my tablet—“I’d like to spend some time in this session talking about how I think we can improve not just the füdmüd app, but our relationships with restaurants, delivery people, and users. It’s 2020 now, and the food delivery app space has matured. We really need to go all out to distinguish ourselves if we want to genuinely compete with Grubhub and Uber Eats and all the others, here in NYC and beyond.” In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls the novel a "wonderfully witty and refreshingly earnest adventure yarn" in which "[a] more ethical Jurassic Park meets the camaraderie of Parks and Recreation," a "hyper-current story ... touching on the Covid-19 pandemic and offering exactly the kind of playfulness and hope that were needed during that period (and are still more than welcome now)." It concludes "The parallel world Scalzi builds is understandably dangerous even as he carries on the science fiction tradition of questioning who the real monsters are, but those realistically dark elements help highlight the more optimistic themes of collective action and preservation. The resulting escape is equally lighthearted and grounded—and sure to delight." [10]

Shippey, Tom. " Science Fiction: John Scalzi's 'The Kaiju Preservation Society'." Review in The Wall Street Journal, New York, May 13, 2022. Wait!” I can hear you say. “Some people are aromantic! And asexual! And gender-neutral!” OK, sure, fine, but somebody is going to say something and even in your own head you are going to think about things sometimes. Life isn't sterile. Not only does Jamie not have any sexual, romantic, or gender-based thoughts, but no one uses gendered pronouns around him, for him, asks him about his pronouns, looks at him with lust, makes any kind of question/comment about him, his romantic sexual life, his romantic sexual tastes, his appearance NOTHING. It's honestly ridiculous and so far-fetched. Tom smiled again; eye crinkles. “I take it you weren’t the one to come up with the ‘deliverator’ name.” Over time nuclear blasts have weakened the barrier between our Earth and another Earth where huge dinosaur sized creatures, Kaiju, roam freely. It is essentially Kaiju Earth, and the humans are there only to observe, protect and stop the Kaiju from entering our Earth as they previously had done. As Jamie and a team of scientists enter Kaiju Earth, their whole sense of reality is shattered. What follows from then is one hell of a lot of mayhem!

Chapter One

Jamie learns that he is part of KPS Tanaka Base Gold Team. He meets other members of the team and concludes: “It’s like the foreign legion for nerds.” This is the first book I read, which was not only written during the Pandemic, but was also relevant, in a round about or direct way, to it:) The author was a good deliverator to some laughs, if you take the book for what it was meant to be and suspend disbelief as far as the science is concerned. Or maybe, that is just me unable to process concepts that do not support our human-centric thinking of the Universe and everything we do not understand, we tend to render impossible. Maybe:) Thirdly, Scalzi can't write a female MC. I'm sorry, he's not skilled enough at writing a female POV so his “genderless” characters sound like men. Rather neutered and repressed men, but men nonetheless. This MC didn't sound female at all to me, nor was I tempted to think or even wonder if he was female at any time.

But soon after they arrive, Jamie realizes why Tom had been so tight-lipped. As it turns out, KPS actually stands for a top-secret organization called the Kaiju Preservation Society, and though their location might be Greenland, in fact they have traveled to an alternate Earth. Here, giant creatures similar to those featured in Japanese fantasy and sci-fi monster movies called kaiju get to roam freely, and it is KPS’s mission to not only study them but also to keep them breaking through the barrier between worlds into our Earth. Because obviously, that would be very, very bad.You have no idea how difficult it was for me to not say, ‘Welcome to Jurassic Park!’ to all of you just now.” They’re at the top of the evolutionary ladder here, but evolution definitely didn’t select for brains on this planet…” Okay, but why do we care?” I asked.

The novel was nominated for the 2022 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel [2] and the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Novel. [3] It won a 2023 Alex Award, the American Library Association's annual award recognizing the ten best adult books that appeal to teen readers. [4] [5] It was a top ten finalist for the 2023 Locus Awards, [6] and went on to win the 2023 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. [7] Plot summary [ edit ] Jamie Gray!” Rob Sanders popped his head out of his office door and waved at me, grinning. “Come on down. Let’s do this thing.” The Kaiju Preservation Society is John Scalzi’s first standalone adventure since the conclusion of his New York Times bestselling Interdependency trilogy.

Chapter Two

I whipped through it in one evening, and it's the kind of book I might read again sometime, just for the sheer enjoyment of it. This truly felt like going on an adventure. Being in a real jungle of another dimension, trekking dangerously on the lush ground crawling with danger. A legit Jurassic Park in outer space but one that hits so close to home with integrity, curiosity, treachery and greed but most of all, heart. You will grow to care about what’s going on and that makes this book all the better. Don’t worry about that,” Rob said, pointing to the tablet as I finally hauled myself out of my seat. “It’s company property. You can just leave it when you go.” You have a nemesis now,” Kahurangi said. “I'm officially jealous. I've always wanted to have a nemesis.”