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perid0t 's review for:
The Kaiju Preservation Society
by John Scalzi
I was really looking forward to reading this book and was overjoyed at the chance to ARC read it.
I found the book to be an easy and exciting read. The pages just kind of flew past as I greedily wanted to learn more about the Kajiu. That being said, I think my 4 stars might be a little generous, if you like godzilla-like creatures, you'll like the book. If you don't, it might fall a little flat.
What I really enjoyed, is how much they explained certain things. They went over the origins of the Godzilla movies, they went over how different Kaiju biology was to what we know from earth. They went over how the Kaiju worked, how their biome worked, and stuff like that. I wish there was more talk about the actual science of things, Jamie is one of the few characters that is mentioned frequently in the book that isn't a scientist, so it makes sense they'd explain it to him (and thus us) in layman terms. But I personally enjoy books where the science is explained. But here it was all very pop fiction like.
One thing I really didn't like is how vague all description of the Kaiju were. At first, I thought they were just building up the suspense. But we never get proper descriptions other than "mountain-like" and "something out of lovecraft". So this entire time I'm just imagining a giant turtle with a mountain on their back. And.. honestly that was a big downer. I mean, we're going to a completely separate world? With an entirely different ecosystem? With all kinds of creatures? And you're not going to give me detailed explanations on how these things look?? They were vague about EVERY description, not just the monsters, the base camp was compared to an.. ewok village I think it was? It was in the trees, and that was all the information we got. Now, Star Wars is huge, and almost everyone has watched the movies. I happen to not have. So again, I sat there with no description of anything other than "in the trees" and "covered in nets"
My biggest complaint however, is the real-world ties this book had. It starts off with the Pandemic with the main character struggling to pay rent and finding a good job. Which, I personally felt like is too-soon to have in a book, but not that big a deal. No, what I disliked, is that the political climate in the US at the time gets mentioned in the book several times. No names are mentioned, but certain things are said and even mocked that it is [i]very[/i] clear what is being said. I was uncomfortable with it honestly. Now, don't misunderstand me, I'm not even American. I don't care much about who is or isn't president. But when I pick up a sci-fi book about big ass monsters, I don't really expect that to be part of the story. But, maybe this is me being overly sensitive to the subject. Maybe I've been lucky in the books I've read where the President, and the political climate, in the US is always kind of imaginary with fake names and stuff tossed around. Maybe it's perfectly normally to toss that level of in-real-life drama into a book that has nothing to do about that stuff. Or maybe it's a "bit", something to upset a certain type of people just enough that the book gets talked about. I don't know. I just know I didn't like it and you could hear my eyerolls from across the street.
That being said. If there is ever a sequel released, I will 100% read it. This book wasn't enough. It wasn't nearly enough about the Kaiju and their world, and I need more.
I found the book to be an easy and exciting read. The pages just kind of flew past as I greedily wanted to learn more about the Kajiu. That being said, I think my 4 stars might be a little generous, if you like godzilla-like creatures, you'll like the book. If you don't, it might fall a little flat.
What I really enjoyed, is how much they explained certain things. They went over the origins of the Godzilla movies, they went over how different Kaiju biology was to what we know from earth. They went over how the Kaiju worked, how their biome worked, and stuff like that. I wish there was more talk about the actual science of things, Jamie is one of the few characters that is mentioned frequently in the book that isn't a scientist, so it makes sense they'd explain it to him (and thus us) in layman terms. But I personally enjoy books where the science is explained. But here it was all very pop fiction like.
One thing I really didn't like is how vague all description of the Kaiju were. At first, I thought they were just building up the suspense. But we never get proper descriptions other than "mountain-like" and "something out of lovecraft". So this entire time I'm just imagining a giant turtle with a mountain on their back. And.. honestly that was a big downer. I mean, we're going to a completely separate world? With an entirely different ecosystem? With all kinds of creatures? And you're not going to give me detailed explanations on how these things look?? They were vague about EVERY description, not just the monsters, the base camp was compared to an.. ewok village I think it was? It was in the trees, and that was all the information we got. Now, Star Wars is huge, and almost everyone has watched the movies. I happen to not have. So again, I sat there with no description of anything other than "in the trees" and "covered in nets"
My biggest complaint however, is the real-world ties this book had. It starts off with the Pandemic with the main character struggling to pay rent and finding a good job. Which, I personally felt like is too-soon to have in a book, but not that big a deal. No, what I disliked, is that the political climate in the US at the time gets mentioned in the book several times. No names are mentioned, but certain things are said and even mocked that it is [i]very[/i] clear what is being said. I was uncomfortable with it honestly. Now, don't misunderstand me, I'm not even American. I don't care much about who is or isn't president. But when I pick up a sci-fi book about big ass monsters, I don't really expect that to be part of the story. But, maybe this is me being overly sensitive to the subject. Maybe I've been lucky in the books I've read where the President, and the political climate, in the US is always kind of imaginary with fake names and stuff tossed around. Maybe it's perfectly normally to toss that level of in-real-life drama into a book that has nothing to do about that stuff. Or maybe it's a "bit", something to upset a certain type of people just enough that the book gets talked about. I don't know. I just know I didn't like it and you could hear my eyerolls from across the street.
That being said. If there is ever a sequel released, I will 100% read it. This book wasn't enough. It wasn't nearly enough about the Kaiju and their world, and I need more.