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A review by sersi
Pacific Rim: The Official Movie Novelization by Alexander C. Irvine
4.0
As with Tales from Year Zero, I don’t really think there’s any way for me to evaluate this entirely on its own. With the film so fresh in my mind (and having quickly been sucked into the fandom), my entire experience is very much shaded by things other than just the book. That said, this novelization was more than serviceable and while having seen the movie is definitely going to enhance the experience, I don’t think it’s entirely incapable of standing on it’s own.
The writing is pleasant, with Irvine doing a good job of reshaping the film’s narrative to better fit a book format. In particular, I admired his willingness to ditch extended descriptions of the fights in favor of either following characters not currently in Jaegers or simply picking up the story after the fight (usually with someone providing a brief recap of the final toll). Having seen the movie, the obvious draw (aside from wanting to relive the glory) was the potential for further expansion of the film’s universe. While not quite as backstory heavy as Tales from Year Zero, this novelization does offer some choice bits of information and does an excellent job of offering a greater look at the psychology of some of the film’s characters. The treatment of the aftermath of Yancy’s death was particularly affecting—I found myself blinking back tears and I almost never cry because of books or movies.
My one real qualm with this novelization is the ending. It differs from the movie in one major way (you can probably guess what) and is more than slightly jarring, especially as the relationship in question had felt even less sexualized than in the movie up until this point. However, knowing that this was the film’s original ending, I can kind of let it go, although, ngl, I’d kill for a revised edition that matches the film ending.
The writing is pleasant, with Irvine doing a good job of reshaping the film’s narrative to better fit a book format. In particular, I admired his willingness to ditch extended descriptions of the fights in favor of either following characters not currently in Jaegers or simply picking up the story after the fight (usually with someone providing a brief recap of the final toll). Having seen the movie, the obvious draw (aside from wanting to relive the glory) was the potential for further expansion of the film’s universe. While not quite as backstory heavy as Tales from Year Zero, this novelization does offer some choice bits of information and does an excellent job of offering a greater look at the psychology of some of the film’s characters. The treatment of the aftermath of Yancy’s death was particularly affecting—I found myself blinking back tears and I almost never cry because of books or movies.
My one real qualm with this novelization is the ending. It differs from the movie in one major way (you can probably guess what) and is more than slightly jarring, especially as the relationship in question had felt even less sexualized than in the movie up until this point. However, knowing that this was the film’s original ending, I can kind of let it go, although, ngl, I’d kill for a revised edition that matches the film ending.