John Scalzi knows how to tell a great story, and he proves it with The Kaiju Preservation Society, which is a thunderously enjoyable tale that gives us a fun and unique look at the horror/science fiction subgenre that is populated with stories of kaiju.

Throwing nods to classic kaiju like Godzilla and newer ones like Pacific Rim and Cloverfield, we join Jamie Gray as he takes on his new job, as a member of the Kaiju Preservation Society. Set in modern times, Jamie is fired from his executive position in a food delivery service when the pandemic hits, offered a delivery role, he grudgingly accepts, trying to find a way to stay afloat during the COVID lockdowns.

Through a series of deliveries to the same person he’s offered a new job, one involving working with big animals. Really big animals.

After a quick crossover to an alternate Earth, Jamie is amazed to discover that the animals he will be working with are kaiju, and they have occasionally been known to cross over to our reality through rips in space-time. It’s Jamie’s job (to lift things) to help protect these animals, as the company he works for is designed to protect them in their own environment, study them, and stop any incursions into our world.

But like most science fiction and monster stories, the real horror is humanity and what will do to one another in the name of greed and power. And this story is no different in that regard, though it sure is a lot of fun in the setup and the payoff, as Jamie and the rest of the society discover that someone is intent on kidnapping one of the kaiju and getting it back to our Earth for their own purposes.

An incredibly fun read with lots of delightful pop culture references and a fast-paced and immensely enjoyable story, The Kaiju Preservation Society pays homage to the kaiju movies we love, while taking the genre in a new direction, balancing an action-adventure tale with lots of laughs and a sense of wonder.

Scalzi is a fantastic writer, and he introduces us to his worlds and characters with an ease that works in concert with the reader’s own imagination. This is one of those stories that I could see in my head as I read it, and I delighted in every moment of it.

Scalzi makes his characters real, grounds them in as much reality as possible and then throws them into the extraordinary. This one was a brilliant read, and I can’t recommend it enough. Check it out!