Kaiju Preservation Society

Kaiju Preservation Society (KPS) was the third novel by John Scalzi that I read, although I picked it up at the same time that I purchased Redshirts. Out of the three novels I’ve read of Scalzi’s I found it to be unique when compared to the other two but to still have the same irreverent and enjoyable atmosphere.

Jamie Gray works for Füdmüd and during his performance evaluation he expects it to go very well, after all he has a great idea on how to corner the food delivery market during the pandemic. However, after revealing his idea, he’s informed he’s being let go, but don’t worry they’ve started a Füdmüd deliverer account in his name. With jobs drying up because of the shut-down Jamie has no other choice but to try and make ends meet by becoming a deliverator.

One of Jamie’s customers that he ends up delivering to regularly is an old acquaintance, Tom Stevens, who is on a three-month hiatus from his job at KPS. Over the course of weeks they renew their friendship and Tom offers Jamie a job at his company to ‘lift stuff’ when he discovers that Jamie will be out of a job again since Füdmüd has now been bought out. Jamie agrees and quickly finds himself receiving the COVID vaccine which hasn’t even been announced yet and on a plane to Thule Air Base in Greenland.

As the name implies, there are Kaiju in this book, so I don’t feel like I’m giving anything away by explaining that Thule Air Base is a gateway to a parallel earth where the kaiju are the alpha predators of their environment. Godzilla was real. It was one of the kaiju that traveled to our world after nuclear testing thinned the barrier between worlds that came over searching for the nuclear energy that kaiju use as fuel. The KPS’s job is two-fold, make sure no other Kaiju’s cross into our world, and study and preserve these miracles of nature.

It wasn’t until the second third of the book that a typical plot developed in Kaiju Preservation Society, but the novelty of the world Scalzi set-up, the interactions of the various scientists with their studied species, and the tumultuous meetings of kaiju keep the novel engaging until the problem shows up. I really like Jamie’s attitude as he’s surrounded with Ph. Ds of every scientific field and accepts that his job when surrounded by all these scientists is manual labor.

Since the KPS is funded through government contracts and private donors, that means sometimes Jamie’s job entails taking care of VIPs that come to the parallel dimension to see the wonder of this alien world. There is a reference to one of a certain president’s sons coming to parallel earth and requesting to hunt one of the kaiju, which has to be explained to him is a very bad idea, they’re the size of mountains and have atomic breath. My personal favorite part of the book is when Jamie’s old boss shows up and tries to give the helicopter pilot 10k dollars to touch down and see a sleeping kaiju in the flesh.

After Rob Sanders (Jamie’s boss) ups the offer on the first refusal, making a bet with Jamie that he’ll get his way, the pilot tells him to get out of the chopper. The pilot is no stranger to rich people trying to use their wealth to put others in danger and gives the first offer a pass because everybody tries it once. However, the second higher offer implies that Rob thinks the pilot can be bought out and is offensive. Rob is only able to remain in the chopper by apologizing both to the pilot and to Jamie.