Fantastic Four: The Coming of Galactus Prose Novel

by James Lovegrove

The Fantastic Four’s first encounter with Galactus and his herald, the Silver Surfer, is modernised and expanded by New York Times-bestselling author James Lovegrove.

The sky is on fire. Across the globe, the people are convinced that the end is nigh. They’re right. Galactus is coming. His herald, the Silver Surfer, has come to Earth and judged it perfect for his master’s needs. And his master is hungry.

The odds are impossible, the outcome is certain—nothing can stop the devourer of worlds. When all seems lost, Earth looks to its Mightiest Heroes to save the day. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes look to the Fantastic Four. They’ll find a way to stop Galactus and save the world. They have to.

Genres: Fiction

336 pages, Paperback

Published July 8, 2025

About the author

James Lovegrove is the author of several acclaimed novels and books for children.

James was born on Christmas Eve 1965 and, having dabbled in writing at school, first took to it seriously while at university. A short story of his won a college competition. The prize was £15, and it had cost £18 to get the story professionally typed. This taught him a hard but necessary lesson in the harsh economic realities of a literary career.

Straight after graduating from Oxford with a degree in English Literature, James set himself the goal of getting a novel written and sold within two years. In the event, it took two months. The Hope was completed in six weeks and accepted by Macmillan a fortnight later. The seed for the idea for the novel — a world in microcosm on an ocean liner — was planted during a cross-Channel ferry journey.

James blew his modest advance for The Hope on a round-the-world trip which took him to, among other places, Thailand. His experiences there, particularly what he witnessed of the sex industry in Bangkok, provided much of the inspiration for The Foreigners.

Escardy Gap was co-written with Pete Crowther over a period of a year and a half, the two authors playing a game of creative tag, each completing a section in turn and leaving the other to carry the story on. The result has proved a cult favourite, and was voted by readers of SFX one of the top fifty SF/Fantasy novels of all time.

Days, a satire on consumerism, was shortlisted for the 1998 Arthur C. Clarke Award (losing to Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow). The book’s genesis most probably lies in the many visits James used to make as a child to the Oxford Street department store owned by his grandfather. It was written over a period of nine months while James was living in the north-west suburbs of Chicago.

Subsequent works have all been published to great acclaim. These include Untied Kingdom, Worldstorm, Provender Gleed, The Age Of Ra and the back-to-back double-novella Gig. James has also written for children. Wings, a short novel for reluctant readers, was short-listed for several awards, while his fantasy series for teens, The Clouded World, written under the pseudonym Jay Amory, has been translated into 7 other languages so far. A five-book series for reluctant readers, The 5 Lords Of Pain, is appearing at two-monthly intervals throughout 2010.

He also reviews fiction for the Financial Times, specialising in the Young Adult, children’s, science fiction, fantasy, horror and graphic novel genres.

Currently James resides in Eastbourne on the Sussex Coast, having moved there in August 2007 with his wife Lou, sons Monty and Theo, and cat Ozzy. He has a terrific view of the sea from his study window, which he doesn’t sit staring out at all day when he should be working. Honest.

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novelization of FF #'s 48-50 but with some extras added to it. It is a fun retelling of those crazy events published so long ago. I guess the character development is "good" (such as it is - how can you truly develop a character in a novelization of something that occurred years ago)? I think, though, the author does manage to develop the Fantastic Four characters a little bit while doing a better job developing "lesser" or "secondary characters." The "action" is okay; the ending was decent.

There were some changes in what I remember of the story in the comics (read through reprints - sadly, I don't have the original comics, hahahah!). I do not remember the "shield" of asteroids/rocks surrounding the Earth being used as a weapon to attack the Surfer. I just remember it being used as a disguise to hide the Earth from view.

Also, it was crazy to me that the Surfer left the Andromeda galaxy to come to the Milky Way galaxy just to find a new planet for Galactus. That made zero sense to me as there should have been plenty of planets for Galactus to feed on in the Andromeda galaxy. It was amusing that the Skrulls encouraged the Silver Surfer to travel through the Kree Empire as they were hoping Galactus would devour multiple Kree worlds and maybe even Hala itself. Granted, Galactus would eventually devour Tarnax IV, capital of the Skrull Empire.

I vaguely remember Alicia interacting with the Surfer, and that her interactions with him encouraged him to turn on Galactus and fight to save the Earth. I thought the author did a good job writing this part of the book as I felt like Alicia was probably the best-developed character in the book (granted, the author had a lot of future stories to use as the basis for expanding her character in this novelization).

I did like that Sue was more assertive than I remember her being in the early comics. She seemed like she was more of a "damsel in distress" than a valued member of the team in the comics whereas in this story she seemed like she was able to hold her own. So that was pretty cool to read.

It was also interesting to read about Reed interacting with Captain America and Nick Fury for a moment or two. I was not expecting that although it does make sense that both men would be reaching out to Reed - Nick for more answers and Captain America to see if the Avengers might be able to help or not in some way. This was during the time of Cap's Kooky Quartet, so had Wanda been written better she might have been of some use in the battle with Galactus, I suppose.

I also liked how the author described Johnny's troubles looking for the Ultimate Nullifier on Galactus's ship. I don't recall the issues describing Johnny's troubles, but the author has Johnny remembering the skills of his teammates to help him get through various defense mechanisms designed to protect Galactus's ship.

The author also discusses Galactus's origin as well as the Surfer's in the novel, which is fine. It was also interesting to read about how a Watcher nearly chose to interfere and kill Galactus before he became the World Devourer. That was interesting to find out, and it would be fun to find out if it is a "retcon" or not.

The perspective on the fight between the Surfer and Galactus was a take I had not really considered. On the one hand, I always wondered by Galactus did not merely take back the Power Cosmic he had infused Norin Radd with to become the Silver Surfer. It would have made more sense to completely drain the Surfer of his powers and energy than to leave him alive, but the author presents this as Galactus having some sort of "feelings" or "loyalty" to the Surfer that prevents him from essentially killing the Surfer. Neither the Surfer or Galactus really want this fight, and it shows as Galactus refuses to kill his formerly faithful servant for the Surfer's act of rebellion. I did think the author did a nice job of describing the impact of Galactus's punishment upon Norin Radd by imprisoning him upon the Earth and preventing the Surfer from soaring through the spaceways as a free man. The Surfer took that punishment quite hard! Granted, he is lucky that Galactus let him live instead of absorbing all of his energy and draining him dry.

It was a fun book to read. It took me longer to read than expected, and I was able to put it down without any issues or feeling a need to pick it up right away to continue reading it. So I cannot say it was "exciting" (probably because I knew what the final result would be), but it was an interesting perspective on the "Galactus Trilogy" introduced in the early years of the Fantastic Four. I am glad I took a chance on reading this book.

[TheGeeksAttic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad story overall, but it took a while for me to really get interested. The heroes feel flat. Galactus and the Silver Surfer were pretty interesting! The plot was pretty straight forward.

Maybe I’m just not a Marvel book guy? I’ll give it a C+.

[M. K. French · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the sky seems to light on fire, it's taken as a sign of the apocalypse. The Silver Surfer arrives as the herald and scout for Galactus, the devourer of worlds. The Silver Surfer knows that Earth is just what Galactus needs, but the Fantastic Four will find a way to stop him and save the world.

Following the comics, we get a chronological retelling of the Galactus arc. While this is being published in time for the Fantastic Four movie, the cinematic universe is a multiverse now, and won't exactly match the comic line. Based on the description of Director Fury, it's the original 616 version, not the Ultimates.

We start at the beginning, prior to the birth of the 616 universe and the creation of Galactus himself. The novel incorporates the comic lines, from an overly intellectual and emotionally insensitive Reed Richards, distant Silver Surfer and Watcher, and maternal Sue Storm. The Fantastic Four are based in New York City and don't have any secret identities. The novel explains all characters' thoughts and feelings, their actions, and motivations. The first half of the book has the build-up about Galactus, the approach of the Silver Surfer, and the heroes on the ground living life and starting to hear about the dangers.

Once the Silver Surfer arrives around the halfway point of the novel, the action ramps up. We're no longer in the preparatory phase, but in the active defense stage. While there's a sprinkling of other New York City heroes, this is a Fantastic Four novel, and their comic was the one featuring Galactus. The Four are the ones leading the charge, and the novel follows all of them as they try to save Earth. If you know the comics, there's a little less tension because you know how the story ends, but we follow the characters and what they know. We feel the tension that they do, and the triumph of the conclusion.

[Donavan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short fun retelling of a classic Marvel story

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good adaptation
nice easy read

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not exactly sure how or when it happened, but I've become a huge Marvel fan and I've fully taken the plunge into the prose novels they publish. This one is an adaptation of the Fantastic Four's iconic battle against Galactus as originally captured in the comic series by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, which has now been adapted to film. And I loved it! It's not the most action-packed of Marvel stories and the ending leaves much to be desired (though I think the version they came up with for the new movie is much better), but I just love these characters so much, even those in supporting roles like Alicia Masters. The Silver Surfer is also one of the coolest characters from the entire Marvel world. Overall, an enjoyable read that definitely prepared me for the film.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mostly enjoyed reading this Kindle eBook. I like the characters, the dialogue, the descriptions, the pace, and most of the plot in this novel. Seven of the sentences in this Kindle eBook aren’t grammatically correct. Two of the descriptions in two of the sentences in this novel are repetitive. I rate this Kindle eBook four out of five stars.