Kirkus Review of “The Kaiju Preservation Society”
Posted on December 15, 2021 Posted by John Scalzi 7 Comments
It has some not-insubstantial spoilers so I’m going to avoid pointing directly to it for now, but it’s pretty darn positive, and this is a key observation:
“Despite the absurdity of the premise, the book isn’t entirely escapist fluff. Sure, it bubbles with the banter and snarky humor readers expect from this author. But it’s also a blunt and savage swipe at tech-bro/billionaire culture, the Trump administration, and the chaos and tragedy that result when powerful and rich people set themselves against science and scientists in order to profit from disaster.”
Not wrong! The events of the this book take place between March of 2020 and March of 2021, so it would have been, shall we say, inauthentic not to at least make some note of the state of the world at that time. And it’s fair to say I was working out some stuff. There’s some irony in what is (in my opinion) one of my lightest novels also being one of my most overtly political, but, well. This is what happens when you write in the present tense.
Be that as it may, Kaiju is now 3-for-3 with positive reviews from the publishing trade outlets, for which I am delighted and thankful. You never know! So I’m glad.
(Also, a reminder that if you pre-order Kaiju from Subterranean Press I will sign and even personalize your copy!)
— JS
Getting a positive review from Kirkus is pretty impressive! When they first reviewed Tammy’s books, her agent at the time reminded her that Kirkus only reviewed authors they considered significant, so even a negative review from them meant they knew you were important enough to slag, at least.
And their first review was pretty negative. Not that that kept her publisher from using it as a pull-quote, after replacing a negative term with a positive one from later in the same paragraph! 🤣
Subsequent Kirkus reviews have been more positive, thankfully….
Banter, snarky humor, and swipes at the rich and powerful?! I want!
How dare Kirkus dislike Tammy’s first book? I know better than them! :)
Do you know yet if there will be a Kaiju Book Tour? Still up in the air?
I’m excited to buy mine! Also looking for a hard covered Red Shirts. Hope I can find one.
I’m always wary of Kirkus (if anyone’s going to be gratuitously negative, even when all of the other reviews are positive, it’s them), so this is a relief!
hmmm… snarky you say?
so, how long till the e-pub ver drops?
(((I’m still wracking my brain — wrecking my brain in the process — trying to puzzle out what good an ex-church will do; gotta be research for a Netflix series about world-saving quasi-religious stealth team of nerds ‘n freaks… sort of an Ohio-based version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or maybe time traveling trolls or… ah! it will the “Enchanted Forest Legal Aid Society” … Shrek-ish but lawyer-ish…)))
ANOTHER CLUE! ==> “Police in Akron, Ohio, hunting brazen thieves OF entire 58ft-long bridge.”
Your nefarious schemes are now obvious, Baron von Scalzi
the only thing standing between the world and utter apocalyptic devastation is if we can stop him before he retrieves the Spiral Jade Monkey(tm)
Q: who’s with me? quest to save the earth forming up; survival not guaranteed; though but your kin gets a fair share of movie rights and product tie-in sales;
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/16/ohio-police-ask-for-help-finding-thieves-who-stole-entire-bridge