It currently feels extra relevant, kicking off at the start of the Covid pandemic, in New York. Our protagonist's working for an UberEats competitor, seeing an uptick in demand. And there's an explicit reference to the opening of the genre cult classic "Snow Crash". Which comes up again as a bit of a running joke. So too, a couple more pop sci-fi references.
The story soon escapes miserable reality. I thought, at first, that we were going to taken on an interesting deconstruction of monster movie tropes. Focusing on more realist management banalities and such. But it only goes half way…
On one hand: the crew studying (and aiming to protect) the giant monsters are, realistically, almost all scientists with a complementary array of doctorates. They run through why such massive animals are physically impossible. Then proffer some bio-eco-physio-logical embellishments that might help realise this trope.
On the other hand: the author couldn't resist throwing our protagonist straight into an unreasonable amount of close-call monster action. With excessive reliance on wizz-shwoop-nee-ooow-ca-boom helicopter antics.
Our protagonist appears to be a blatant foil for the target reader demographic: male millennial sci-fi nerd. He's apparently done his English masters dissertation on the topic. So it's a little conspicuous that he gets crowbarred into this situation. More so that he has as much influence as he does.
The main antagonist is a fairly standard super-rich sociopath. Kind of too conveniently behaved, in a way. But with with some insightful characterises that ring true, also. While the Scooby gang are ethnically and gender diverse. All good and fine.
So, overall, this book is an adequate diversion from reality, with a few laughs and chuckles.
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