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This book was such a delight. When it first came across my radar, it seemed exactly the breath of fresh air I needed to recharge my reading routine. And it was. It’s very real, my friend. We’ve learned that certain foods help counteract the murderous urge. 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.” Jamie Gray gets demoted from an executive position right as the 2020 pandemic hits New York, by the Boss From Hell. While barely making ends meet as a food delivery person, Jamie runs into an old friend who offers them a new job in "large animal care" ("I lift boxes," Jamie tells everyone.) But the benefits are fantastic, as long as you don't mind being completely out of touch with society for six months. Tom is a little cagey about the job details, though ... it turns out, for good reason. We’ll make it work,” I smiled at Brent and then went to my room, which was the size of a postage stamp, but at least it was drafty and the floor creaked.
You’ll do fine. Also, if you don’t mind me being blunt, at this point what I really need is a warm body that can lift things.” He pointed at his shawarma. “I know you can lift things.” Because ‘FoodMood’ was already taken by a food delivery app in Bangladesh, and they wouldn’t sell the name,” I said. “So if you’re ever in Mymensingh area, be sure to use the app with the name that actually makes sense.”
Jamie Gray goes to a six-month performance review as an employee for food delivery startup füdmüd expecting to impress boss Rob Sanders with plans to grow the company, only to be terminated and offered a delivery contract instead. At first rejecting the offer, Jamie is eventually forced to take it after all to make rent, as jobs are scarce in COVID-19-afflicted New York City. One delivery client turns out to be Tom Stevens, an old acquaintance, and over the next few weeks of deliveries they renew their friendship. Tom has a lucrative position with KPS, a secretive animal rights NGO, and is slated to head out into the field right about the same time Jamie loses the delivery job (füdmüd having been bought out). Tom offers Jamie a job with his own employer, and Jamie, again out of options, goes in for the interview, is accepted, and is soon on a plane to Thule Air Base in Greenland. From here on out, Scalzi gets to do what he really came here for: write a story about nuclear powered Godzillas and lots of (rather infantile) snarky dialogue with a lot of WHAT?? going on. He spends so much energy on those two aspects that there's nothing left for either character development, workbuilding or even a single thought that has more depth than a dried-out puddle. the names for the people of ethnicieties other than American are inconsistent with the RL naming conventions of said ethnicity. Turns out, these "pandas" are in mating trouble and not all humans want to preserve them and their world. Tourists are a menace in any world, I guess. So Jamie and his team need to get creative, evade huge-ass tree-crabs, and get some Twilight monsters to get a groove on, all while fending off more sinister threats.
vaccines in general, as described in the book: I, personally, know of no vaccine that is 100% sure to work within 2(!) days. 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 and human-free world. They’re the universe’s largest and most dangerous panda and they’re in trouble. The Kaiju Preservation Society is the upcoming standalone novel by John Scalzi. Although Scalzi is a prolific writer, I’ve always been intimidated by his work assuming that his sci-fi elements would be too technical, and as I’m not exactly scientifically nor technologically minded, I feared I wouldn’t understand key parts of his stories. Yet when I heard about this book, a Jurassic Park esque tale, full of banter and mayhem, I was certain this would be right up my street. I was right. It was! 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.Well, I’m glad to hear you say that, Rob.” I tried to move forward again in the bean bag, failed, and decided to risk a small push up. It realigned the bean bag so I was in a slightly less compacted position, but my tablet slid into the well my body had created. I was now sitting on my tablet. I decided to ignore it. “Tell me how I can serve the company.” This is a tight, short tale that’s masterfully written to give you the scares, the chills and the laughs and all the feels. Oh and big azz creatures! Bella <3 She's probably going to hate your guts for the rest of the tour. Well, the rest of her tour, anyway.” I’m ready to come and get you if you need an emergency extract. Please don’t need an emergency extract. I’m glad to hear you say that. Because the reason we’re here is to talk about your future with füdmüd. Where best to place you, so you can utilize that passion you so clearly feel.”
Kaiju Preservation Society (for those like me who are insufficiently cool, for “kaiju” basically think “Godzilla”, but nuclear reactor-powered. 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. It’s meant to entertain above anything, with a bit of self-aware “reverse lampshading”. And banter — or dear, the banter comes in kaiju-sized chunks and is perfect. But let’s have Scalzi himself explain things just a bit in his Author’s Note: I think it helps that I have read a lot of Scalzi and pretty much know what to expect now. This is one of Scalzi's lighter works, akin to Redshirts. As per usual, Scalzi is shit at writing characters. That is to say, all his characters are basically the same person: smart, witty, sharp, and hilarious. It's kind of like Joss Whedon. All the characters are Scalzi himself, basically. Don't read Scalzi for character development or character arcs. I snorted at this. “You have a much more optimistic view of the academic landscape than I do. I was looking down the barrel of adjunct professorships for the rest of my life.” Here the Godzilla connection becomes more clear ( So we’re the monster police, too). What follows is a fun, fast ride, with Kaiju's called Bella and Edward, cinematic villains and an overall happy ending.
Chapter One
It was only as Jamie encountered Dr. Lee, the physician seeing to his vaccinations, that we are assured that this is a book written by John Scalzi.) During his delivery job he runs into an old acquaintance who ends up scoring him an interview at the KPS and the rest is history. You’re not wrong, but the answer I was thinking about is that they’re endangered. Well, so are Edward and Bella.” The problem with this is that (forgive me) Scalzi is not talented enough to write a non-binary or genderfluid character. Or, that is to say, a character that make you question if he/she is a male or female. Or both or neither or whatever. He doesn't have the skillz. So what he DOES is he just strips the character of anything resembling gender, sex, romance or personality. LOL Leaning into his strengths, LOL, writing personality-less characters is his strength. ANYWAY. It comes off stilted. It is created by building a main character who never mentions, thinks, talks about sex, romance, gender, dating, sexual attraction etc. etc. etc. Nor do any of the side characters mention this. So, it's very artificial.
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