The Godzilla science guide you didn't know you needed

Caution: Insofar as fictitious science facts about Kaiju are spoilers, this post contains mild spoilers for The Kaiju Preservation Society.

Countless monster stories have concluded that the real monsters are humans, but precious few delve deeply into the identity of the monsters themselves. John Scalzi's lighthearted new monster novel The Kaiju Preservation Society is one of them. If you're a hardcore Godzilla fan, you may think you already possess an encyclopedic knowledge of Kaiju — those giant, unearthly beasts of Japanese action flick fame. But after acknolwedging the humans-are-the-real-monsters trope in the first act, Scalzi moves on into the largely uncharted territory of Kaiju biology, giving these lizard-like titans new depth in the process.

He does so through the titular KPS, a top-secret, multinational organization of scientists, ex-military personnel, and jobless millennials with masters' degrees in science fiction. Its mission: Studying Kaiju in their native habitat, a parallel Earth with a Carboniferous-like climate, preventing the colossal creatures from crossing over into our world, and helping preserve the species. While the The Kaiju Preservation Society is more science fan service than hard science fiction (there are few Godzilla-sized plot holes when it comes to both biology and the multiverse) the novel does an impressive job exploring some key ecological concepts through skyscraper-sized dinosaur doppelgangers.