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jdhacker's review against another edition
3.0
The sequal to Monster Earth! picks up in time where the previous collection left off. Some of your favorite authors may make a re-appearance here with additional tales of kaiju madness (see Erdelac's excellent 'A Haunt of Jackals'), others are fresh faces. As the alternate history timeline catches up with present day (as of publishing date at least) it starts to increasingly dovetail with real events. Unlike the first collection, there is an overall story arc being told here involving a worldwide illuminati like cult bent on using the kaiju to help usher in some sort of apocalypse/possibly welcome some sort of extraterrestrial kaiju? Its not exactly clear, honestly, and a little bit disappointing as it feels like its gradually descending into the realm of the Weird or even Bizarro by the end.
There are also some editing issues that could have made this a bit more readable...there's no index of the stories with titles/authors/page numbers...possibly because there are no page numbers either throughout the book? Maybe its an issue with the newer edition I got, as I couldn't track down the edition with the original cover art that more closely resembled the previous book.
Erdelac's story is outstanding, and I really enjoyed Beard's 'Big Juju' as an opener and McInnis' 'Reggie', but overall the collection was a let down, even as a big fan of its predecessor. The cult subplot, which isn't very well fleshed out or explained feels very forced throughout. I think trying to find some common thread to bind the stories together, besides just retelling historical events in this new world, was a big detractor. Read it if you really love one of the authors involved, but otherwise probably skip it.
There are also some editing issues that could have made this a bit more readable...there's no index of the stories with titles/authors/page numbers...possibly because there are no page numbers either throughout the book? Maybe its an issue with the newer edition I got, as I couldn't track down the edition with the original cover art that more closely resembled the previous book.
Erdelac's story is outstanding, and I really enjoyed Beard's 'Big Juju' as an opener and McInnis' 'Reggie', but overall the collection was a let down, even as a big fan of its predecessor. The cult subplot, which isn't very well fleshed out or explained feels very forced throughout. I think trying to find some common thread to bind the stories together, besides just retelling historical events in this new world, was a big detractor. Read it if you really love one of the authors involved, but otherwise probably skip it.
jdhacker's review
3.0
The sequal to Monster Earth! picks up in time where the previous collection left off. Some of your favorite authors may make a re-appearance here with additional tales of kaiju madness (see Erdelac's excellent 'A Haunt of Jackals'), others are fresh faces. As the alternate history timeline catches up with present day (as of publishing date at least) it starts to increasingly dovetail with real events. Unlike the first collection, there is an overall story arc being told here involving a worldwide illuminati like cult bent on using the kaiju to help usher in some sort of apocalypse/possibly welcome some sort of extraterrestrial kaiju? Its not exactly clear, honestly, and a little bit disappointing as it feels like its gradually descending into the realm of the Weird or even Bizarro by the end.
There are also some editing issues that could have made this a bit more readable...there's no index of the stories with titles/authors/page numbers...possibly because there are no page numbers either throughout the book? Maybe its an issue with the newer edition I got, as I couldn't track down the edition with the original cover art that more closely resembled the previous book.
Erdelac's story is outstanding, and I really enjoyed Beard's 'Big Juju' as an opener and McInnis' 'Reggie', but overall the collection was a let down, even as a big fan of its predecessor. The cult subplot, which isn't very well fleshed out or explained feels very forced throughout. I think trying to find some common thread to bind the stories together, besides just retelling historical events in this new world, was a big detractor. Read it if you really love one of the authors involved, but otherwise probably skip it.
There are also some editing issues that could have made this a bit more readable...there's no index of the stories with titles/authors/page numbers...possibly because there are no page numbers either throughout the book? Maybe its an issue with the newer edition I got, as I couldn't track down the edition with the original cover art that more closely resembled the previous book.
Erdelac's story is outstanding, and I really enjoyed Beard's 'Big Juju' as an opener and McInnis' 'Reggie', but overall the collection was a let down, even as a big fan of its predecessor. The cult subplot, which isn't very well fleshed out or explained feels very forced throughout. I think trying to find some common thread to bind the stories together, besides just retelling historical events in this new world, was a big detractor. Read it if you really love one of the authors involved, but otherwise probably skip it.
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