Author John Scalzi likes a good, standard sci-fi trope, but in a certain way.

One of the things that I really like doing is just taking tropes that are well established, like giant monsters, and kind of flipping them.

It's Wednesday, January 3rd, but in another universe, it's also Science Friday.

I'm SciFri producer Charles Berkwist.

Earlier this year, the SciFright Book Club read John Scalzi's book,

The Kaiju Preservation Society.

And he joined them on a live stream to discuss his healthy obsession with

kaiju movies like Godzilla, how to weave science reality into science fiction, and why

it's so fun to write about alternative and parallel universes.

Here's SciFri, Experiences Manager, Diana Plasker.

John, thank you again so much for being here.

We have so enjoyed reading your book together.

How does this book sort of fit in?

What happens in Kaiju Preservation Society,

even for maybe for people who haven't read it yet?

How do you get people excited about the book?

But also, how does it fit in with your other writing?

I don't think it necessarily fits in with the other writing at all.

I mean, it was an accidental novel.

I was writing an entirely different novel in 2020, and it was going to be a dark and gritty political thriller in space.

And as it turns out, the 2020 was not the best year to be writing a dark and gritty political

thriller about anything, much less in space.

...