The Kaiju Preservation Society

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi, 264 pages

Jamie Gray has been rudely fired from a tech startup and is forced to get a job delivering food right as COVID-19 hit New York City. So when a regular customer offers a high-paying job at the mysterious KPS, Jamie jumps at the chance. Turns out "KPS" stands for Kaiju Preservation Society, and spends most of its time at a parallel world that is home to huge nuclear monsters, a la Godzilla. While most of the people on the KPS team are super-intelligent scientists, Jamie's job is, to quote, "picking things up and carrying them." But even that brings Jamie into way-too-close proximity to the giant creatures and the not-quite-as-giant parasites that feed on them.

This book is not meant to inspire deep thought. It's a popcorn book, just as summer blockbuster movies are popcorn movies. It's fun, it's crazy, it's full of action, and it's a quick read. I loved it, and I'll be recommending it all over the place, particularly to fans of Jurassic Park, Godzilla, and snark.

The Space Between Worlds

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson, 336 pages

This was my second time reading this parallel-universe, social-commentary-filled science fiction novel, and I still very much enjoyed it, so I'll direct you to my first review instead of rehashing everything here. I will say that there is a LOT to mull over during the reading of this book, even the second time around. The Orcs & Aliens will be discussing this on Monday, and I can't wait to see what everyone thinks of this.

The Space Between Worlds

 The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson, 336 pages.

Kara wrote about this book back in December of 2020, so you can read all about that here.

I really liked this one! It did a really phenomenal job laying out the clues for the plot subtly enough that I only caught most of them in hindsight, but consistently enough that I felt like I could have seen most of these twists and turns coming. It's also a setting that gives you a lot of space to think outside of the story, which is something that I always enjoy. This is definitely worth the read, and I'm really looking forward to discussing it with Orcs & Aliens next week.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow, 399 pages

January Scaller lives a peculiar life. Her mother died when she was a baby, and she lives in the museum-like home of Mr. Locke while her father travels the world seeking out oddities for Mr. Locke's collection. She'd love to travel with her dad and explore the world, but he says it's too dangerous, though January does occasionally gets to travel with Mr. Locke. It's on one of these journeys that she discovers a Door, an unexplained portal to a world that smells of the seaside, despite her previous location in Kentucky. Though she eventually forgets about that experience, she later stumbles upon a book that discusses the nature of Doors, making that memory resurface and revealing more about her father's mysterious wanderings.

This is a captivating, beautifully written novel that muses on escape, homesickness, love, memory, and much much more. I can't wait to talk about it with the Orcs & Aliens tonight!

The Space Between Worlds

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson, 327 pages

In a distant future, the lines between haves and have-nots has become increasingly clear. The haves live within the protective dome of Wiley City, either gainfully employed or taken care of by society. Meanwhile, the have-nots struggle to survive in the unprotected desert surrounding the city, ruled by a brutal emperor/gang-leader who metes out a cruel death to those who dare to contradict his rule. 

In the midst of this, Wiley City tech genius Adam Bosch has created a method of traveling between parallel worlds, but with an interesting caveat — the only people who can survive the trip are those who have already died in the other world. This makes the desert-dwellers suddenly VERY valuable to Bosch and his company, and nobody is more valuable than Cara, a woman whose doppelgangers have died on all but 7 of the 380 known other worlds. When a routine trip to gather information from a "new" world (read: one in which Cara's doppelganger just died) goes awry, Cara begins to question her role in Bosch's company and in Wiley City itself.

The imaginative world-building and sharp social commentary of this novel are excellent, and the characters are nuanced — I'm honestly not sure if any of them were particularly likable, though all of their motivations are completely understandable. A great thought-provoking read.

A Conjuring of Light

A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab, 624 pages

In the first two books of the Shades of Magic trilogy, Schwab created a series of parallel worlds centered on their different versions of London: Grey London, which is for all intents and purposes our world; Red London, a beautiful world in which magic flows freely, though not unrestrainedly; White London, which has become stark and scary through the rule of siblings who control magic with an iron fist; and Black London, which has fallen to wild dark magic and is shut off from all other places. The only people who can travel between these Londons are specific types of magicians, called Antari (easily recognizable through their one normal eye and one reflective black eyeball).

This final entry in the trilogy brings the Antari together to fight a force that has escaped Black London and is attempting to take over Red London. Though there are some elements of this story that I particularly liked (The gay non-white royalty that's not really a big deal! The tougher than nails women!), I felt a bit let down by the story as a whole. The book felt long and unwieldy, and certainly could have used another pass of proofreading, as way too many inconsistencies and typos sneaked through. It ended well enough, though, and I got to see these fantastic characters grow and mature. So it was OK.

Dark Matter

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, 342 pages

Jason Dessen is a physics professor at a small college in Chicago, living with his art instructor wife, Daniela, and their 15-year-old son, Charlie. Years ago, Jason was on track to become a prize-winning, respected-by-everyone-in-the-field physicist, but when Daniela got pregnant, Jason chose to put his family first, letting his untapped potential remain just that: untapped. But one night, Jason is kidnapped by a masked man and forced into an odd world where Daniela and Charlie don't exist. Soon he's running for his life to get back to the family he loves.

It's an intriguing concept, that idea of following the what-might-have-been, the if-only, and Crouch has created a novel that sweeps you up, sucks you in, and doesn't let you go. However, once I emerged from this engrossing tale, I felt a bit cheated by the ending, which seems a bit floundering under the weight of the complexities of the story. If you're a fan of Michael Crichton's brand of science-y thriller, you'll probably like this one. It's definitely a wild ride!