The Kaiju Preservation Society is a stand-alone science fiction novel that is a Hugo finalist for 2023. This is not the “serious” novel in that list; Scalzi himself describes it as a “pop song” of a novel. Which it is, a delightful one, that has some serious things to say about capitalism and a look at how the COVID-19 pandemic had many of us feeling while we were under lockdown. The novel is set in 2020 into 2021.

The novel is science fiction in the loosest of terms: it uses science to “explain” how the biosystem on the alternate Earth they are on works, and the science is genuine, but I suspect that an actual biologist would disagree with the explanations given. It doesn’t actually matter; the science is there to explain how a kaiju, or Godzilla-like creature, would exist. The fun of the story is not the science, it’s the situation and the people.

As is typical for a Scalzi novel, the cast of characters is diverse: The characters come from all different backgrounds, multiple genders (yes, at least one is non-binary), and probably sexual orientation. As is not uncommon with a Scalzi novel, sex isn’t a high priority of the story, and I don’t remember any pairings being mentioned, so sexual orientation isn’t important. The main character, Jamie Gray, is probably male, but I don’t actually remember it ever being specifically mentioned; this is another common Scalzi feature. The villain of the story is at the apex of privilege: a rich, cis het WASP male dudebro, and every bit as unpleasant as that sounds.

This was likely nominated for the Hugo since it is a lot of fun and very much a pandemic novel; it isn’t a work of “artistic merit”. It has also been nominated for the Dragon Award for best SF novel and won the Locus Award for best SF novel. However, in looking over the nominees, most of the ones I’ve already read fit into this category, and most of the others likely do as well. This isn’t my top choice, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it won, and it wouldn’t bother me one bit. I highly recommend it.

Scalzi, John. The Kaiju Preservation Society. New York, New York: Tor Books, 2022. 79,821 words. 5 stars.