by Chloe Townson
This month our Down the Rabbit Hole readers discussed ‘The Kaiju Preservation Society’ by John Scalzi.
Written during the pandemic, Scalzi describes his book as “a pop song…light and catchy, with three minutes of hooks and choruses for you to sing along with, and then you go on with your day.” Although on a deadline to write a much heavier book, Scalzi couldn’t focus on a symphony. He wanted something fun.
Which is exactly what he gave us. The group concurred that ‘The Kaiju Preservation Society’ wasn’t at all deep but that did not detract from its value. We could easily see the book being made into a movie, with quite a few suggestions on who might play the main character, Jamie. Some thought Ryan Reynolds would do an excellent job, while others suggested that his wife, Blake Lively, might also fit the bill. You see, Jamie was purposefully written without any gender signifiers. There was a lively discussion around why readers assumed a particular gender for Jamie, some seeing themselves in the character while others took context from the story.
The pacing was nice, though the novel could have profited from some expansion of the universe. The dialogue was witty and the science was just nerdy enough to be understood, and not so overdone as to be overwhelming.
If ‘The Kaiju Preservation Society’ has purpose, it is to highlight the imbalance of power in our universe; tech bro millionaires and their wealthy buddies in Parliament have too much control over the Earth’s future, and though the motives of the ‘bad guys’ were cliche and black and white, they weren’t too far off the mark.
Overall, we had fun!
Next month’s book is vastly different to the previous two — prepare to be taken into the past to follow the tumultuous life of Zachary Cloudesley.