“Kaiju” Review in Library Journal
Posted on January 1, 2022 Posted by John Scalzi 10 Comments
Well, this is not a bad way to start the new year: A positive review of The Kaiju Preservation Society in Library Journal, the last of the four major publishing trade magazines to report in on the novel. I can’t quote the full review (it’s behind a paywall) but the “Verdict” section wraps it up nicely:
Scalzi’s first stand-alone novel in several years is a wild ride filled with takes on pop culture, startups, governmental influence, and science.
Yes! All true! I cannot deny it.
Thus is capped off a nice run of trade reviews for Kaiju: Four positive reviews, with two of them (Booklist and Publishers Weekly) being starred. Which is more than I expected, if I’m being honest. Of all my books, Kaiju is tonally closest to Redshirts, which ten years ago received a rather more mixed set of reviews, including two really big pans of the book in PW (“strange and unfunny”) and Kirkus (“Intriguing developments, fresh ideas, dashes of originality? Forget it”). I was ready for the reviews to be all over the board for this one as well. So to have them all be varying degrees of “thumbs up” is really a pleasant surprise. I will take it, you know?
As for Kaiju itself: 73 days until its official release. I’m really excited for you all to see it.
— JS
Because I can, and because I have the ability, I am getting my library system to order multiple copies!
Congrats.
Congratulations! All of this foreplay will hopefully culminate in an explosion of awesomeness!
I already know more than I want to from reading another review, so I am ignoring these. I don’t need to be told it is going to be a fun, smart romp.
Congratulations!
. . . but now I’ll be here focusing on the bit where Redshirts came out 10 years ago. Holy moley!
“Kaiju is tonally closest to Redshirts”?
Well, I was going to read Kaiju anyhow, but now I’m /definitely/ going to read it!
Wow!
Wait, Redshirts was TEN years ago? Are we sure of this?
Wow, time…passes. Actually, I reread it and all the OMW novels in 2021. Really looking forward to this!
Glad to hear this for you.
Pre ordered audio book in little leap of faith, as redshirts was not my favourite.
I hope it will be star narrator as it always been with your books.
On unrelated note, i wonder if you can make a post on how author decide when to pull plug on a book series. Theoretically life in created world continues regardless if get documented or not.
While I am a more or less religious reader of this blog, I am actually not that interested in reading Scalzi fiction. Mostly. However,
I loved Redshirts and will be reading this one when I can buy it.