Sometimes when life closes a window, it opens a door – to a parallel universe!
When Jamie is unceremoniously let go from his high-flying corporate career and is faced with the prospect of becoming a Deliveroo-deliverer at the start of a city-wide lockdown, he jumps at the chance to join his friend Tom’s company, KPS. The details on the job are a little sketchy – all Jamie knows is that the pay is good, and it involves lifting things and looking after animals.
What Tom neglected to mention is that the job also involves commuting through a trans-dimensional portal and the animals, are… well … Godzilla!
Although the existence of Kaiju is hidden from the world at large in The Kaiju Preservation Society, there are some top government officials and business leaders that know of the parallel universe populated by skyscraper-sized monsters. But would you believe it, there are even some slightly evil corporations that want to try and take advantage of the majestically horrifying creatures! Pretty soon, Jamie’s job of lifting and shifting becomes far more important than he ever would have thought, as he teams up with a group of KPS doctors to find out exactly what it means to be part of the Kaiju Preservation Society.
John Scalzi’s latest story is set right at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and provides the perfect escapist tonic to the misery of isolation a lot of us felt at the time. The premise may be a little silly, but it’s treated with sincerity and surprise, taking characters and plot in different directions to what you might think.
The sheer wonder of a world populated by kaiju is enrapturing and Scalzi’s writing sucks you in, using Jamie’s own inexperience as a rose-tinted lens into the unknown. The plot moves with an unbridled pace yet doesn’t skimp on scientific explanation, summarising the rules with pithy and effective asides.
There’s more than a touch of Jurassic Park (more so David Koepp’s screenplay, than Michael Crichton’s book) and a heavy dose of popcorn escapism on show here. Funny and flippant, The Kaiju Preservation Society brings a welcome dose of impish heart and humour to a story with grand scale and grand scales.
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi is out now
