CBR Bingo- Strange Worlds
I am glad to see a bunch of folks reading The Kaiju Preservation Society because it was great fun. Very much like his Redshirts novel where a merry band of misfits exist and wackiness ensues. It’s not completely low stakes, and it had enough tension that I almost worried a little for our misfits.
These misfits are smart scientists, except for the main character, Jamie. Jamie lifts things. Jamie is pretty non descript. Most of the characters are not described in great detail because it is not that important to the story. Their job is to band together as a team and protect a bunch of Kaiju on alternate Earth. I liked this book, it’s a fun romp with Kaiju smashing things. It is a quick read.
The one part I had an issue with was making the Department of Energy tied to the bad guy. I am a Federal Government worker, and let me tell you, the average civil servant just shows up and does their job. Not much changes with who is in charge. And also at DOE during the Trump administration [redacted] and even with [fine, redacted]. Someone has to be the bad guy though, so I guess that’s fine. The tech bro dude working with DOE was a fun and very smug bad guy. I enjoyed disliking him.
I was really moved by John Scalzi’s afterward/acknowledgements. He started writing a novel and when he wrote many words one day and it didn’t save, he had a crisis and decided to scrap the book entirely. Then the very next day this book came to him. Sometimes when things get frustrating, you just need to write some smashy smash.