The Kaiju Preservation Society characters

Appears from the start

A New York doctoral dropout working for a food-delivery startup when the pandemic destroys both the job and the fragile life built around it. Jamie narrates the story and is deliberately never assigned a gender. Practical, adaptable, and willing to do unglamorous work, Jamie takes an opaque overseas animal-care job whose chief qualification seems to be lifting heavy objects.

Appears from the start

The wealthy founder of füdmüd, the food-delivery company where Jamie works. Smoothly self-confident and ruthlessly opportunistic, he takes over Jamie's position during the pandemic and sends Jamie back onto the streets as a delivery worker.

First appears in chapter 3

An old acquaintance of Jamie's who appears during a food delivery and offers an opening on his field team. Tom works for an animal-rights organization whose real purpose cannot be explained until Jamie accepts strict secrecy and travels to Greenland.

First appears in chapter 5

A scientist in Jamie's new intake group, specializing in astrobiology. Aparna is intellectually fearless, fascinated by the alien ecology awaiting them, and quick to treat Jamie as a trusted colleague despite the difference in their formal roles.

First appears in chapter 5

A member of Jamie's intake group whose scientific background is in chemistry. Niamh meets danger and the bizarre practicalities of fieldwork with dry composure and becomes part of the close four-person cohort arriving at the preserve together.

First appears in chapter 5

A physicist and member of the new field cohort. Kahurangi is thoughtful, technically adept, and better prepared than Jamie to understand the nuclear physics behind travel to the preserve, while remaining equally new to its living hazards.

First appears in chapter 8

The experienced administrator of Tanaka Base, the KPS station on the parallel Earth. Satie balances scientific priorities with the constant logistics of keeping a remote community alive in an ecosystem where nearly everything can be dangerous.

First appears in chapter 10

A colossal female kaiju monitored by the field teams near Tanaka Base. The name is a human convenience; Bella is a wild animal whose internal nuclear processes sustain an entire mobile ecosystem of parasites and symbionts.