When scientists discover a tear in reality that lets them access an alternate timeline with nuclear-powered dragons, one society steps up to protect that tear in reality.
I had read about the premise of this book when it first came out, and nothing about it made me jump to read it. Maybe because we were still dealing with the pandemic and I didn’t want to read anything that dealt with the pandemic.
But when my brother threw his copy at me, I thought, Why not? I always like Scalzi.
And I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
To be fair, while it takes place during the pandemic, there are only a few short chapters in which the characters actually have to deal with the pandemic. The rest of the time they’re in an alternate reality learning about nuclear-powered dragons and how to care for them without getting killed by them.
The idea is that, because these dragons are nuclear powered, they also eat nuclear energy. And when we do stuff with nuclear weapons over here on our timeline, not only does it make the fabric between realities thin, it also attracts hungry dragons. So Godzilla is real and was a dragon attracted by the disaster at Hiroshima.
Now there’s a Kaiju Preservation Society whose mission is to study the nuclear-powered dragons (called kaiju) and keep them in their world and safe from bad actors in our world.
Of course, these things always sound easier than they are, especially when some bad actors manage to lure a kaiju and all her eggs over to our reality.
So, of course our hero, who is just learning about all this on the job (everyone learns on the job due to the extreme level of secrecy surrounding the whole endeavor,) has to get his friends together and save the day.
It’s typical Scalzi, so if you tend to like Scalzi’s writing, you’ll like this one.
Scalzi said in his author’s note that he wanted this book to be like a pop song you enjoy for a few minutes before going back to your day, and that’s exactly what this book is. Whatever you’re trying to escape from, this book will provide the few hours of relief you need.