Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Godzilla Digest Novel Series #1

by Scott Ciencin

Inspired by the 1954 movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters, this middle-grade novel recounts Godzilla's first appearance and treats readers to the story of his origins. Legends say twentieth century nuclear testing transformed the lone surviving Godzillasaurus dinosaur into a towering monster who can deliver an atomic blast with his breath and topple whole buildings with his tail--which is just what he does when he rises from the Pacific and pays his first visit to Tokyo, Japan.  

97 pages, Paperback

First published October 29, 1996

About the author

Scott Ciencin was a New York Times best-selling novelist of 90+ books. He wrote adult and children's fiction and worked in a variety of mediums including comic books. He created programs for Scholastic Books, designed trading cards, consulted on video games, directed and produced audio programs & TV commercials, and wrote in the medical field about neurosurgery and neurology. He first worked in TV production as a writer, producer and director. He lived in Sarasota, Florida with his wife (and sometimes co-author) Denise.

(Also wrote under the pseudonyms Nick Baron and L.J. Oliver)

Reviews

[Chris Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this series when I was a kid, absolutely loved it back then and I’m happy to say I still love it now. It took some serious searching and luck to acquire quality copies of these books and I couldn’t find them all but I found a few. It’s definitely an easy read but it’s not cheesy or childish in any way. Godzilla is just as brutal as ever, but still is correctly portrayed as not the villain but just a consequence of stupid human behavior that is in the end our fault and not the “monsters.” Humans are the true monsters.

[Tor Domay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can tell I never actually read this book before despite owning it since I was a kid. Despite the cover, this is, in fact, a kid friendly story that has the most wholesome ending. It's a 70s kaiju story that literally shouldn't be judged by its cover.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reveals the core truth about Godzilla.

HE JUST WANTS TO DANCE!

Very fun kids book that does do some interesting work on delving a bit deeper into Japanese culture, still clearly written from a North American but it does try.

[Gabriel Benitez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Primer libro de una serie de Godzilla enfocado en el público pre y adolecente.
Libremente basada en la película de 1954, Ciencin escribe una historia desangelada y genérica sitauda en los noventas, sobre un dinosaurio (un godzillasaurus) transformado por una prueba nuclear en un monstruo radioactivo gigante. Cinco chicos se enfrentarán a la amenaza de este Godzilla descafeinado y además de todo, querrán protegerlo porque lo considera una criatura incomprendida. Por supuesto, los adultos y militares solo quieren acabar con la amenaza al cualquier costo. Las fuerzas de autodefensa cuentan con una arma secreta, que presumiblemente puede acabar con Godzilla, pero ¿lograrán sus objetivos?
El libro fue una desilusión total . Mucha portada para tan poco libro.

[Donavon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having the internal thoughts of Godzilla was interesting.

The ending was a little odd.

This continuity is aimed at younger readers and really does not acknowledge the movies at all.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun fact; this novel features Godzilla blasting his breath into the sky decades before Godzilla: King of the Monsters would put it on all their posters.