Review by andrew_matteson - Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon

andrew_matteson 's review for:

Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon by Matt Dinniman

2.0

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon (KBS) by Matt Dinniman features a kidnapped artist, forced to play a gruesome, immersive VR game in order to survive. Blending elements of Extreme Horror and Psychological Horror within a LitRPG framework, it tries to be many things, but fails to stick the landing on any of them.

The much discussed, “Chapter 24”, is one of the most gruesome things I’ve read outside of books specifically in the Extreme Horror genre. My issue is not the gore, I’ve enjoyed gore, torture, and trauma in other books. Rather, the chapter creates an unevenness in the larger narrative. Our main character stumbles into a torture scenario with a “whoops, now I’m in it” lack of build up, then moves on with little serious reflection. The speed at which the book jumps back onto the RPG grind/treadmill undermines the potential emotional arc coming out of the experience of torture.

The lack-of-arc critique is not unique to this one moment. The donkey milk, the surgeries, the flashbacks, and even the final reveal all arrive abruptly and resolve just as quickly. They register more as video game cut-scenes, that Dinniman explicitly references throughout the book, rather than moments driving emotional challenge or growth.

I came to KBS after binging the first several books of Dungeon Crawler Carl. There’s a significant contrast between the two, both in tone, but also in Dinniman’s choices to maintain an emotional arc within DCC. While dark (and getting darker as the series goes on), DCC doesn’t make an effort to deal out peak trauma moments every couple of chapters. Carl grows and we get a gradually deepening sense of the horror he experiences.

I wouldn’t generally recommend KBS, especially to fans of DCC. Its extreme horror moments may repel some readers, but for me, they failed to land for lack of build up and resolution. Ultimately, the “cut-scene” like tone of the book’s traumatic moments undermine any lasting impact the narrative had the potential to deliver.

Content Warnings