The Kaiju Preservation Society

By: John Scalzi

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

The Kaiju Preservation Society is John Scalzi's first stand-alone adventure since the conclusion of his New York Times best-selling Interdependency trilogy.

When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food-delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization”. Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.

What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda, and they're in trouble.

It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society who's found their way to the alternate world. Others have, too. And their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.

©2022 John Scalzi (P)2021 Audible, Inc.

A pop song for dark days

This book is an absolute delight — inventive, funny, and wonderfully human. As usual, Wil Wheaton does a great job of bringing Scalzi’s words to life.

A Great Ride!

I love John Scalzi's work, and this book was great, as expected. Fun characters, a great premise, and a lot of great humor, not to mention Wil Wheaton's great narration just made this book great to listen to.

Exactly the book I needed!

Everything about this book was so enjoyable! I love that the balance of sarcasm/cynicism of the characters never veers into hipster apathy. The core characters feel real and alive.

Everything you need, nothing you don't

I say this not as a criticism, but you can tell in this book that Mr. Scalzi has written for TV and Movies. This book is TIGHT. I listened to it a second time around just to catch the way everything comes together, even information from what seemed like throwaway moments earlier. The characters are memorable (always love Mr. Wheaton's narration) and distinct. It is obvious that this book is not for everyone, but it is fun, has a cool story hook, has good characters, and is thoughtfully laid out. I hope there are more coming out in the future. I would love to see what happens next.

Great light listen

Lots of Scalzi dry humor, Will Wheaton does his usual superb reading. If you want a light fun time this may be for you. There is an afterword to me it was worth the listen (does not add to story, but does give some insight to the author & his thoughts)

Thank you

Thank you Scalzi! You are my favorite author and Wil Wheaton my favorite narrator! I've been waiting for this book for a while now and I'm so glad it was fun to make! I felt connected to this weird book about Kaiju more than any other book this year.

Another winner from Scalzi

sometimes, the author can get too dark for me, but not this time. Always a good story teller and an incredible imagination, John comes up with an unlikely, but possible, story line and makes a grotesque and frightful monster loveable. Not to mention the characters- all very likeable, just wish they all could have made it. But without a little angst there isn't much of a story I guess. Anyway, one of his best, and I'm hoping he has more stories like this in his weird, fantastic brain that he's willing to share.

exactly what I needed to read. fun times.

Thanks, Scalzi and Wheaton, for the mental escape I so needed. If KPS is looking for any more biologists, I could use some more time away from Earth one.

Just What the Doctor Ordered.

I'll admit, the dialogue was a bit tricky to keep up with but I feel I'm more to blame than anyone. This was a fun, campy and exciting story that was grounded well in reality (as well as one could with kaiju) and that was largely because it took place so close to the present and had real life current events tying it down to reality in the back of your head. Be sure not to take this story too seriously as some of these other listeners obviously did. It's not the author's fault the MAGA god is a knuckle dragging troglodyte.

Really enjoyed it

John Scalzi books are always enjoyable to read, and this book is no exception. I liked the plot, but the fun in the book is the detail of the world-building and in the relationships between the characters. There are (as usual) some darker events that create the conflict in the plot, but for the most part, it's just entertaining. There is some NSFW language, so if that will bother you, be warned. It's not egregious, though.

Wil Wheaton gives an enthusiastic performance, even if his dialogue differences are not terribly nuanced. I've heard him perform many times, and I always view him as the reader "stand-in" who is just rolling along with the story and enjoying what happens next. He's having a good time, and listening to him helps me to have a good time.

P.S. Pay NO attention to the political trolls commenting in other reviews. This is not a "woke" political book .... just the fact that these reviewers used almost the exact same words in their reviews makes me highly suspicious that some weirdo posted in his social media account that all his friends should go give reviews about this book. PLEASE PEOPLE, FOR THE LOVE ... find something better to do with your time.

As for "woke", the author clearly believes the following (gasp) horrible things: 1) vaccines work, 2) wearing a mask to keep others safe is the right thing to do, 3) you shouldn't treat your workers like disposable peons, 4) billionaires think rules don't apply to them, 5) working with the government can be difficult/time-consuming/frustrating, 6) referring to someone as "they" rather than "he/she" is fine if this is what that person wants, 7) the 2020 election was contentious and one party didn't like the result and worked hard to change it. If you add together all the time spent discussing those "woke" ideas: you'd probably have a total of ten minutes of the entire book.