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A review by ryanberger
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
DNF'd.
This is my first introduction into Scalzi, a writer I'm sure that I'm going to love when I get to Old Man's War. I think I've gone completely ass backwards into his catelog-- unfortunately. I remain just as enthusiastic about reading his work (he occupies a lane of Sci-Fi and Humor that I think I'd like to see myself in some day) despite the fact that I thought this was pretty damn joyless about 40% of the way in.
The fact that they're specifically Kaiju and not just generic giant monsters is such a fertile field to really write a love letter to the genre of monster movie that these things came from. Unfortunately, it reads like a hacky screenplay or worse, one of those soulless Jungle Cruise-style blockbusters that feels like it was written by an AI.
Scalzi is pretty upfront about this being something without much to say-- a pop song. But here's the thing about even the most seemingly bland pop song that blows up: there's a lot of technique going on to make it ear-wormy down to the BPM that will get hearts racing. I don't feel like there's much technique going on here at all. All the characters have the same mode of speaking and it's that Amazeball EpicBacon FTW-speak that was grating in 2011 and mind melting in 2022.
If I were to hypothesize, I imagine most Scalzi fans are big Science Fiction fans more than they are fans of Humor in literature. I don't think I'm uniquely qualified to wipe my own ass, let alone deconstruct on a cellular level down to the genre, but I feel like this book is everything I *don't* want in a humor-read. It doesn't have much to say (I'm not about to stand on a soapbox for something that I really don't even hate, just disliked-- and not to get up my own ass about anything but humor requires some form of truth or deftly playing with expectations to really work in literature and this book does neither), it doesn't have a great deal of interest in really exploring the Kaiju (at least as far as I was willing to get) and what made them fun and cool-- and I just can't resonate with a book that thinks calling someone a douchenozzle resembles a joke.
I would really like to meet the person who calls this book fun. I just wanna ask some questions.
When I get to Old Man's War and inevitably love it I will circle back to this review and lament how this book happened because it seems to be the polar opposite of everything I'd heard about Scalzi's books thus far.
This is my first introduction into Scalzi, a writer I'm sure that I'm going to love when I get to Old Man's War. I think I've gone completely ass backwards into his catelog-- unfortunately. I remain just as enthusiastic about reading his work (he occupies a lane of Sci-Fi and Humor that I think I'd like to see myself in some day) despite the fact that I thought this was pretty damn joyless about 40% of the way in.
The fact that they're specifically Kaiju and not just generic giant monsters is such a fertile field to really write a love letter to the genre of monster movie that these things came from. Unfortunately, it reads like a hacky screenplay or worse, one of those soulless Jungle Cruise-style blockbusters that feels like it was written by an AI.
Scalzi is pretty upfront about this being something without much to say-- a pop song. But here's the thing about even the most seemingly bland pop song that blows up: there's a lot of technique going on to make it ear-wormy down to the BPM that will get hearts racing. I don't feel like there's much technique going on here at all. All the characters have the same mode of speaking and it's that Amazeball EpicBacon FTW-speak that was grating in 2011 and mind melting in 2022.
If I were to hypothesize, I imagine most Scalzi fans are big Science Fiction fans more than they are fans of Humor in literature. I don't think I'm uniquely qualified to wipe my own ass, let alone deconstruct on a cellular level down to the genre, but I feel like this book is everything I *don't* want in a humor-read. It doesn't have much to say (I'm not about to stand on a soapbox for something that I really don't even hate, just disliked-- and not to get up my own ass about anything but humor requires some form of truth or deftly playing with expectations to really work in literature and this book does neither), it doesn't have a great deal of interest in really exploring the Kaiju (at least as far as I was willing to get) and what made them fun and cool-- and I just can't resonate with a book that thinks calling someone a douchenozzle resembles a joke.
I would really like to meet the person who calls this book fun. I just wanna ask some questions.
When I get to Old Man's War and inevitably love it I will circle back to this review and lament how this book happened because it seems to be the polar opposite of everything I'd heard about Scalzi's books thus far.