John Scalzi has never apologized for writing accessible pop sci-fi, nor should he. He writes what he writes, and is damned good at it. It’s not for everybody, though: there are plenty of readers who find his style off-putting for one reason or another.
So I say to those people: stay away from this book. This is the most Scalzish a book can possibly be. If I was told this was written by someone trying to parody the writing of John Scalzi, I’d advise them to tone it down because it’s a little too on-the-nose. This is, by far, the Scalziest thing Scalzi has ever Scalzied.
Kaiju, for those who don’t know the term, is a Japanese term for a giant monster, or, the genre of stories and films focused on them. Godzilla is the original and most famous; Pacific Rim was a more recent example. The premise of this book is that, thanks to an interdimensional portal, humanity has established secret research stations on an alternate multiverse version of Earth where kaiju evolved naturally. Turns out that nuclear detonations thin the barriers between universes; humans first found out about kaiju when one made its way to Bikini Atoll in the years after World War II, and was spotted by some Japanese fishing boats (the rest is cinematic history).
This is a fun, quick, silly book. Like all kaiju movies, it doesn’t really hold up to close scrutiny. Don’t think about it and enjoy it for what it is. The whole thing is tropey and predictable, as Scalzi himself knows perfectly well. (When the Big Bad is revealed, the exact line from the narrator is “It was [REDACTED], because of course it was.” I also enjoyed Scalzi managing to work an explanation of the concept of lampshading into the story. I see what you’re doing, John.)
But, like I said, it’s enjoyable, silly fun. Also like I said, it’s very much a John Scalzi book. Meaning lots of overly-witty banter between people, pop culture references everywhere you look, and long infodump scenes on the “science” of the science fiction. I generally enjoy all these things in Scalzi books, but I do think they’re laid on a bit too thick here.
Everything I have described is a hallmark of an escapist book, but I would absolutely not apply that term here. This book came about early in the Covid-19 pandemic; Scalzi had been working on a different book, and it wasn’t going well, because, you know, vague gesture at everything. This book was what he ended up writing instead, and it’s set in the contemporary world. The pandemic is still ongoing, and it’s a major factor. The book starts with the protagonist losing their office job working for a food-delivery startup, and ends up working as a delivery driver after he gets fired dropping off food for everyone quarantining. The book is set right before the 2020 election, and all the characters in the book are quite happy to use giant monsters as an excuse to think about anything but the election. It’s all a bit too real.
One last point: Scalzi decided to re-use the trick he pulled in Lock In and doesn’t tell us the gender of the protagonist (Jamie). I paid close attention once I realized that’s what Scalzi was doing, and he kept to it. No references whatsoever to Jamie’s gender, and you know what? The book didn’t need any. So good on you, John. Keep doing this kind of thing.
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