The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
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 and 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 that’s found its way to the alternate world. Others have, too–and their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.
For the Reading Challenge(s):
TBD
The Reason
I’ve been loving John Scalzi’s works and impulsively bought a couple of his books on audio.
The Quotes
“It was stupidly perfect how all my problems were suddenly solved with the strategic application of money.”
“There is a certain type of person who feels like they must be armed at every moment of the day or else the world will come for them in some way. Back home, this is very much not a good way to live.”
“I mean, I don’t know that I was actually planning to possibly die tonight in order to protect a kaiju,” Kahurangi said. “But I might be willing to possibly die to save a kaiju and ten thousand Canadians.”
The Narrator(s)
Wil Wheaton. I did not like his narration at all, to the point that I wanted to DNF and/or finish the book on a print copy. I only hate-listened to the audiobook because I bought the it on a promo and I couldn’t even return it. I didn’t like his inflections and it was incredibly difficult to differentiate the characters so a lot of the time I don’t even know who said what. It also felt like he was reading the book to children with exaggerated voices and expressions, it’s not how natural conversation sounds like. I like Wheaton as an actor and have listened to some of his narration before without much issue, but his work with this book for some reason is horrendous.
My Thoughts
I don’t know if I can give a fair review for this book seeing as how my experience of listening to it on audiobook was so bad. However, I have read a couple of Scalzi’s other works and loved them, and I think I got the gist of this book too and loved parts of it that I got. I will probably reread this book on a print copy some time soon.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?