Atomic Rex

Atomic Rex #1

by Matthew Dennion

The war is over, humanity has lost, and the Kaiju rule the earth. Three years have passed since the US government attempted to use giant mechs to fight off an incursion of kaiju. The eight most powerful kaiju have carved up North America into their respective territories and their mutant offspring also roam the continent. The remnants of humanity are gathered in a remote settlement with Steel Samurai, the last of the remaining mechs, as their only protection. The mech is piloted by Captain Chris Myers who realizes that humanity will not survive if they stay at the settlement. In order to preserve the human race, he leaves the settlement unprotected as he engages on a desperate plan to draw the eight kaiju into each other's territories. His hope is that the kaiju will destroy each other. Chris will encounter horrors including the amorphous Amebos, Tortiraus the Giant turtle , and the nuclear powered mutant dinosaur Atomic Rex! Will his quest save humanity or doom it to extinction?

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror

167 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 8, 2015

Reviews

[Arun Divakar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes you just got to give in to guilty pleasure and take a plunge into territories you had not explored yet in reading. With my head buzzing from reading Pankaj Mishra and Timothy Snyder I jumped straight into Matthew Dennion’s world of Kaiju monsters battling each other. In a world left devastated by the Kaiju, humanity is shunted to the borderlands and à la Pacific Rim there have been giant robots who battled these monsters. All but one of these robots are destroyed and the pilot of the robot is the last protector of a rag tag bunch of survivors. Then again continental United States is ruled by a radioactive T-rex called Atomic Rex who is always trying to expand his territory by battling other monsters. The rest is all out action with fragments of a story hanging in somewhere inside all of it.

Atomic Rex is a very thinly veiled replica of Godzilla and is portrayed as a great leveller when compared to the other monsters. There is a thread of a survival story amidst all of this but it is lost among the heady rush of monster battles. There are typographical and editorial errors, paper thin human characters and scenarios which might seem more at home in a video game from the 80’s. However all of these were things I anticipated before beginning to read and as to delivering on the monster battle part, the author does a good job.

Unless you are in the mood to read a totally illogical yet completely fun book, I would not recommend this to you. Not every day do you get a mutant T-rex stomping all over the US !

[Don Massi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great action packed story! I loved the nods to Godzilla and Gamera. Humanity has almost been wiped out because of the rise of the giant monsters. One man has a desperate idea to save mankind, but if he fails, the last people on earth will die. We get to see some fantastic monster fights and action from the kaiju's perspective. Definitive ending, but the door is still open for a possible sequel, how about it Matthew Dennion!

[Mkittysamom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good Kaiju story!

I think it was entertaining and an easy read. It reminded me of several different stories and movies I’ve already seen or read, mashed together into something new. So while it wasn’t a huge surprise, I could say I got my money’s worth. I wanted a story about monsters fighting monsters and got it. While not the greatest piece of literature it wasn’t full of mistakes either. So I’m giving it 3 stars meaning a good read if you like Kaiju, Monsters, Horror, Dystopian, and a tad bit of Romance. Not a huge amount of background information but significant enough for the story. Nothing seemed missing and no cliffhanger, so I have no complaints in those departments. Readable and entertaining!

[wayne peters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of this book.

Definitely not your ordinary monster book. The cunning way that he chose to fight the monsters was truly unique. The fact that it worked was stunning! The first part of the book is deceptive. Like a movie that I recently saw on television. From there it took off and soared. He added another concept later in the book which really put the story into a real by the edge of your seat category! Two completely different dangers to keep the reader off balance. Superb thinking and plotting. An excellent book. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys this genre.

[FictionFreak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun kaiju romp

Atomic Rex is a fast paced, fun kaiju romp through a kaiju devastated future. I had fun with this book and look forward to reading more by this author. If you like giant monsters, check it out!

[Patrick Niese · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but needs some cleaning

This would be a 4 star , but the book needs a little tweaking. I like the story but a good proofreading / editing would have benefited the story 100%. Recommended for fans of good old fashioned cheesy monster movies.

[Alexander Draganov · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. Too silly and I enjoyed Carnosaur!

[Baragon301 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the book that made me want to become a writer.

[Luke Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

Atomic Rex is a dystopian, apocalyptic action adventure that pits the last of humankind's robotic 'mechs' against the giant Kaiju that have carved the North American continent into distinct territories they control and defend at all costs. Without the resources to defeat even a single Kaiju one on one, the last Mech pilot on Earth takes a risky gamble as he makes a bold move to turn the monsters against each other. He begins his journey, knowing that sooner or later he must face the mightiest of the Kaiju, a giant snapping turtle that has taken up residence in the gulf of Mexico, and Atomic Rex, a mutated Tyrannosaur with hidden power s and strength. Or maybe, just maybe, he'll get one of them to do the job for him.

As a fan of both Pacific Rim, and of course, dinosaurs, this book had immediate appeal for me. I also heard the author interviewed on the SasWhat podcast and quickly ordered a copy.

My favourite character in the book was ultimately the creature that lends its name to the title. Atomic Rex is a creature that has tenacity, strength of character, resilience and even a code of survival that is hard not to respect and admire. In contrast, I found the human characters a little two dimensional and less engaging.

It would be hard to describe the story as anything new in this genre, but it was certainly pacey and action packed. There is rarely a dull moment, but there is also rarely a level of satisfying detail, especially when it comes to the mech's fight scenes.

The narrative also suffered due to the distraction of numerous typos and spelling mistakes it contained, surprising given the official publisher it comes from.

Overall, a robotic romp aimed squarely at the teen market, with aims to take a significant bite out of the Kaiju genre, and happily nods to the many films and comics from influenced it, and were sadly considerably better.

[Logan Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun book! The writing is pretty good considering it is a book about giant monsters and I really enjoyed all the references to films like Godzilla and Gamera. People on amazon complain that is not original but what were they expecting from a book they picked up for 2 bucks? Calm down and enjoy the ride.

[Karen Chmielewski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Read!

I couldn't put my fire down not even to charge it. I liked that the hero could admit to himself that he made mistakes and kept on going, even when he didn't think he was going to succeed.