Hardcover, 264 pages
English language
Published March 15, 2022 by Tor.
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 least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm, 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 have found their way to the alternate world. Others have, too. And their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.
Just like in "Starter Villain", there are plenty of fun ideas in this book. It's light and a quick read. Had a French version of the book.
As the author states himself: This is the book equivalent of a pop song and not meant to go very deep. With that in mind, it was entertaining to read. The characters are a bit flat and predictable, the story needs a lot of suspending one's belief from the reader (so much that even Scalzi needed to make the main character explain what the literary term "lamp shading" means, in a meta-nod to his own story). If you're up for something light with a lot of quips and pop culture references, I recommend to read this book.
The story is fun and creative. It's too bad the characters are so poorly written. By the end of the book I had trouble focusing on anything else.
The characters are all the same. Whether it's a science fiction loving delivery guy, a brilliant scientist, a billionaire tech bro or an experienced military officer, they all have identical mannerisms and speech. If you take any dialogue out of context there's no way to guess who said it.. Everyone is calm and snarky in the face of death, and more interested in getting a quick jab against the scene's designated punching bag than in what's best for themselves in the long term.
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.
Not much to add to that, really.
