The Kaiju Preservation Society is John Scalzi’s attempt at writing a Jurassic Parc-esque light sci-fi romp that pokes fun at billionaires and postures as hard as a heterosexual white man like John Scalzi can about inclusion and diversity.
Reading through it was a chore and I don’t recommend it. The novel reeks of being written as quickly as Scalzi could after his previous project fell through. I like what I’ve read of Scalzi’s The Interdependency series so far (thoughts on book 1, thoughts on book 2) and I like his other work I’ve read like Redshirts and Old Man’s War (although I read those a long time ago).
The Kaiju Preservation Society is not his best work. I wasn’t in a great headspace when I started reading this book and reading through it hasn’t helped (although I hoped it would).
It’s weak in many ways but the choice to fill the book with every kind of minority (black lady on page 1, gay + trans couple on page 2, indian-american on page 4, I could go on) you can think of, only to have all of them act / speak / exist as copy pasted heterosexual white men is particularly lazy and offensive.
Their identities as minorities are thrust out there for clout (I guess?) and then forgotten as soon as their hilariously, let’s just say, specific names hit the page. Qanisha, John? Really?
In the afterword, John Scalzi states:
KPS is not, and I say this with absolutely no slight intended, a brooding symphony of a novel. It’s a pop song. It’s meant to be light and catchy, with three minutes of hooks and choruses for you to sing along with, and then you’re done and you go on with your day, hopefully with a smile on your face.
p. %!s(int=262)
I’m not smiling.
The jury’s still out on John Scalzi. I’m committed to finishing The Interdependency series and if I enjoy that I’ll likely be going back and taking another look at Redshirts to see if it holds up because I remember really liking it. The Kaiju Preservation Society is not a novel I’m going to be spending much time thinking about and I don’t think you should either.