Tom smiled again; eye crinkles. “I take it you weren’t the one to come up with the ‘deliverator’ name.” Lastly, the humor felt kind of lazy to me. It was either "Haha that's so random" humor or humor through repetition of a phrase, i.e. "I lift things". Also every character always had something snarky to say/reply with about everything, even in the more dramatic scenes. So why did you leave your doctoral program?” Tom asked me, the next time I delivered food to him, which was an Ethiopian mixed meat combo with injera. Deliverationing,” Rob repeated. “That what our deliverators do. They deliverate. So, deliverationing.”

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. I had fun writing this, and I needed to have fun writing this. We all need a pop song from time to time, particularly after a stretch of darkness.” I wouldn’t put it that way, and yes. But the chances are pretty good you won’t experience either side effect, much less both at the same time.” It’s impossible to read this book without sensing how much fun Scalzi was having while writing it. The Kaiju Preservation Society revels in its own nerdiness, joyfully calling out the absurdities that Jamie and the other new KPS employees experience in their journey to the other Earth. The dialogue practically skips along, with jokes and minor insults pinging off each character at a near-constant pace. And the richness of the alternate Earth, with all its odd flora and fauna, is clearly the result of a creative mind let loose. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls the novel a "wonderfully witty and refreshingly earnest adventure yarn" in which "[a] more ethical Jurassic Park meets the camaraderie of Parks and Recreation," a "hyper-current story ... touching on the Covid-19 pandemic and offering exactly the kind of playfulness and hope that were needed during that period (and are still more than welcome now)." It concludes "The parallel world Scalzi builds is understandably dangerous even as he carries on the science fiction tradition of questioning who the real monsters are, but those realistically dark elements help highlight the more optimistic themes of collective action and preservation. The resulting escape is equally lighthearted and grounded—and sure to delight." [10] Shippey, Tom. " Science Fiction: John Scalzi's 'The Kaiju Preservation Society'." Review in The Wall Street Journal, New York, May 13, 2022.It’s a mess. Seriously, don’t even think about trying to fart for the next eighteen hours. It’s not a fart. You will regret it.”

Firebomb the place,” Laertes said, from the room he and Brent shared, where he was playing a video game. I’m glad you asked, Rob. I feel really good about it. And in fact”—I held up my tablet—“I’d like to spend some time in this session talking about how I think we can improve not just the füdmüd app, but our relationships with restaurants, delivery people, and users. It’s 2020 now, and the food delivery app space has matured. We really need to go all out to distinguish ourselves if we want to genuinely compete with Grubhub and Uber Eats and all the others, here in NYC and beyond.” I sat on my shitty twin bed, sighed, then laid down and stared at the ceiling for a good hour. Then I sighed again, sat up, and pulled out my phone. I turned it on.

Chapter Two

I should preface this review by saying I’ve never read one of your books but have always meant to. This one sounded fun and I thought, “Hey, why not?” Godzilla-Dinosaurs in another dimension with people trying to save them much as if they are giant pandas but much, much bigger. Parts of the book worked well for me but I also discovered that I’m probably not the right reader for it. How did I know that? For one thing, I didn’t know what the word “kaiju” means and I’m not exactly a fan of Japanese monster movies unless MST3K is skewering it. That’s my bad. the names for the people of ethnicieties other than American are inconsistent with the RL naming conventions of said ethnicity. There are plenty of clues dropped early on that warned me that eventually bad things would happen such as when Tom explained that his job is keeping things going and fixing things when they go wrong. I mentally cued the ominous music. Along with that, several seasoned veterans of Kaiju Earth keep telling the newbies that in the time they’ve been there “such and such” a dangerous thing has never happened. As Jamie playfully intones “Dun dun dunnnnnnn!’ YALSA announces 2023 Alex Awards". News and Press Center. ALA American Library Association. 30 January 2023 . Retrieved 30 January 2023. Yeah, I do.” I attempted to lean forward in the beanbag and succeeded only in driving my ass farther into its recesses. I rolled with it and just pointed to my tablet. “So, you’ve heard about this COVID-19 thing.”