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The Kaiju Survival Guide
The Kaiju Survival Guide is your only option when it comes to preparing for a giant monster attack. Developed by members of the Kaiju Research and Survival Department (KRSD), this illustrated guide is the number one Kaiju resource in the world. Inside you will find all there is to know about these behemoths, • Origins, biology, abilities, and most importantly weaknesses • The classification system used by scientists to identify the most dangerous Kaiju• Military support; such as firepower, vehicles, and even giant robots• Proven survivalist tactics to use when they attack• Living off the land, how to survive in a Kaiju filled world when all else failsThis text also features first-hand accounts from survivors of almost every recorded attack since the 1930s. Hear their stories and learn from their experiences, so that you and your loved ones survive the Kaiju menace!
- GenresScience Fiction
290 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 9, 2018
218 people are currently reading
133 people want to read
About the author
Wes Parker
1 book4 followersWes Parker was born in Rochester Hills, MI. From the moment he could talk, Wes was telling stories. Whether it was to his mother, his friends, or the family dog, Wes just liked to tell stories. Today Wes spends his time writing these stories and adventuring with his beautiful wife Tiffany. Together, they have two giant Labradors, who haven’t quite realized they aren’t lap dogs. The Kaiju Survival Guide is his debut novel
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 7, 2018
Interesting as a passion project, but definitely not as good as I expected.
The book definitely takes inspiration from other works that write about apocalyptic scenarios, mostly World War Z. Even though the subject is refreshing (I'd take Kaiju over Zombie literature almost every day) it still reads very amateurish. Several sections of the book read like the author was trying to convince us that he did his homework and researched in depth. The result is that they read more like encyclopedic articles and not like an enjoyable work of fiction.
The fictional interviews with Kaiju survivors seem a bit bloated and I believe the book could do without them. This book is supposedly a survival guide for a universe where Kaiju attack humans regularly; it doesn't make sense (in-universe) to load a survival guide with extraneous information. There's also the fact that those accounts are very samey (person encounters monster and, despite the odds, survives) and don't tell us much about the Kaiju-infested world at large. Compare with the fictional interviews in World War Z, where the characters themselves are a window into how the world had evolved post-zombies.
The Kindle edition that I bought is also peppered with typos. I marked at least five instances of "more then" instead of "more than". I don't know whose fault is this, but I believe it to be a major fault for a commercial release.
The book definitely takes inspiration from other works that write about apocalyptic scenarios, mostly World War Z. Even though the subject is refreshing (I'd take Kaiju over Zombie literature almost every day) it still reads very amateurish. Several sections of the book read like the author was trying to convince us that he did his homework and researched in depth. The result is that they read more like encyclopedic articles and not like an enjoyable work of fiction.
The fictional interviews with Kaiju survivors seem a bit bloated and I believe the book could do without them. This book is supposedly a survival guide for a universe where Kaiju attack humans regularly; it doesn't make sense (in-universe) to load a survival guide with extraneous information. There's also the fact that those accounts are very samey (person encounters monster and, despite the odds, survives) and don't tell us much about the Kaiju-infested world at large. Compare with the fictional interviews in World War Z, where the characters themselves are a window into how the world had evolved post-zombies.
The Kindle edition that I bought is also peppered with typos. I marked at least five instances of "more then" instead of "more than". I don't know whose fault is this, but I believe it to be a major fault for a commercial release.
February 2, 2022
As a fan of Kaiju I was really looking forward to reading this though I just came off really really boring at times I feel like I was reading a textbook there are points and I thought it was OK but most of it just dragged on for me this is something I’d recommend passing on.
September 23, 2018
Read this review (and others) at: https://literatureislife.com/2018/09/...
The Kaiju Survival Guide seems pretty heavily influenced by The Zombie Survival Guide with a dash of World War Z. In that sense, the book is a bit more down-to-earth than the average kaiju film. As opposed to “the only thing that can beat a giant monster is another giant monster (or robot)” rule, The Kaiju Survival Guide tackles what we would do if this actually happened. A real-life military response, as opposed to a convenient plot device, as well as how civilians can survive. These matter-of-fact sections are also broken up with survivor stories from in-universe kaiju encounters.
The term “kaiju” is used a little loosely in this book. Instead of focusing exclusively on giant, Godzilla-sized creatures, the book covers various categories of monsters. These classifications are based on size as well as physical abilities. Monsters can range from something the size of a moose to building crushing behemoths. The Survival Guide advises that smaller creatures can be defeated by local militia while bigger targets are a military matter. There is a good amount of thought put into these tips, from detailed suggestions on finding weaknesses to simple tips like “aim for the eyes”.
Since many monsters require military-grade weaponry to destroy, parts of this book read like a regular survival guide. The Kaiju Survival Guide treats kaiju like a force of nature, so surviving one is treated similarly to surviving something like a tornado or earthquake. There is general useful information in here like getting a survival kit together. Survival tips vary depending on what type of monster you are dealing with. For huge kaiju, you hope you are not in its direct path and get out while you can. In other scenarios, you might have to fight your way past smaller monsters.
There are a lot of allusions to famous monster movies in The Kaiju Survival Guide. The “first contact” incident, for example, is a homage to the original King Kong film. Another parodies the film Them! And the frequently mentioned “worst-case scenario” monster attack is clearly a Godzilla reference. Other sections were either unique or I have not seen the films they were referring to. All in all, The Kaiju Survival Guide is excellent for any fan of monster movies. Finding another book that can keep pace with How To Survive a Sharknado was a surprise, but a pleasant one.
The Kaiju Survival Guide seems pretty heavily influenced by The Zombie Survival Guide with a dash of World War Z. In that sense, the book is a bit more down-to-earth than the average kaiju film. As opposed to “the only thing that can beat a giant monster is another giant monster (or robot)” rule, The Kaiju Survival Guide tackles what we would do if this actually happened. A real-life military response, as opposed to a convenient plot device, as well as how civilians can survive. These matter-of-fact sections are also broken up with survivor stories from in-universe kaiju encounters.
The term “kaiju” is used a little loosely in this book. Instead of focusing exclusively on giant, Godzilla-sized creatures, the book covers various categories of monsters. These classifications are based on size as well as physical abilities. Monsters can range from something the size of a moose to building crushing behemoths. The Survival Guide advises that smaller creatures can be defeated by local militia while bigger targets are a military matter. There is a good amount of thought put into these tips, from detailed suggestions on finding weaknesses to simple tips like “aim for the eyes”.
Since many monsters require military-grade weaponry to destroy, parts of this book read like a regular survival guide. The Kaiju Survival Guide treats kaiju like a force of nature, so surviving one is treated similarly to surviving something like a tornado or earthquake. There is general useful information in here like getting a survival kit together. Survival tips vary depending on what type of monster you are dealing with. For huge kaiju, you hope you are not in its direct path and get out while you can. In other scenarios, you might have to fight your way past smaller monsters.
There are a lot of allusions to famous monster movies in The Kaiju Survival Guide. The “first contact” incident, for example, is a homage to the original King Kong film. Another parodies the film Them! And the frequently mentioned “worst-case scenario” monster attack is clearly a Godzilla reference. Other sections were either unique or I have not seen the films they were referring to. All in all, The Kaiju Survival Guide is excellent for any fan of monster movies. Finding another book that can keep pace with How To Survive a Sharknado was a surprise, but a pleasant one.
July 12, 2019
Frustrating waste of a good idea.
I am a huge fan of Kaiju. It's clear this author is too. That's sadly part of the problem.
The book takes the form of guide featuring interviews with survivors and advice on living through a Man in attack. There are a few major issues with the set up
-The interviews are mostly obvious takes on famous monster movies. This means a bunch of them feel like someone is describing a plot of a movie you've already seen. It's frustrating because there are much more original an enjoyable examples scattered throughout. I feel the authors passion for these movies means he can't help himself. King Kong, Them, Godzilla Cloverfield, even the 90's Gamera reboot gets a shout out.
- A lot of the advice section is pointless. There are whole pages dedicated to explaining what a tank is or what the difference is between rifles and shotguns. This is exacerbated by the advice almost always being "don't bother". Then why would it be in the textbook at all?
- The book contradicts itself. A lot. There is a large section about how reproduction is a mystery alongside multiple stories about monster reproduction. The quoted increase in naval sizes grows from doubling to be increased by ten times by the end of the book. There are simultaneously no nuclear monsters and all monsters are radioactive/attracted to power stations.
The overall effect is the overwhelming feeling of a good idea underserved. At the risk of sounding cliche, I'm not mad, just disappointed.
Just to end on a more positive note the (sadly small) sections of art are great.
I am a huge fan of Kaiju. It's clear this author is too. That's sadly part of the problem.
The book takes the form of guide featuring interviews with survivors and advice on living through a Man in attack. There are a few major issues with the set up
-The interviews are mostly obvious takes on famous monster movies. This means a bunch of them feel like someone is describing a plot of a movie you've already seen. It's frustrating because there are much more original an enjoyable examples scattered throughout. I feel the authors passion for these movies means he can't help himself. King Kong, Them, Godzilla Cloverfield, even the 90's Gamera reboot gets a shout out.
- A lot of the advice section is pointless. There are whole pages dedicated to explaining what a tank is or what the difference is between rifles and shotguns. This is exacerbated by the advice almost always being "don't bother". Then why would it be in the textbook at all?
- The book contradicts itself. A lot. There is a large section about how reproduction is a mystery alongside multiple stories about monster reproduction. The quoted increase in naval sizes grows from doubling to be increased by ten times by the end of the book. There are simultaneously no nuclear monsters and all monsters are radioactive/attracted to power stations.
The overall effect is the overwhelming feeling of a good idea underserved. At the risk of sounding cliche, I'm not mad, just disappointed.
Just to end on a more positive note the (sadly small) sections of art are great.
October 19, 2019
75% survival/prepper guide, 25% monster manual/movie overviews/original attack stories
Overall very good reading. I was hoping for more information on the kaiju, but a good portion of the prepper stuff is good information to consider for basic disaster prep. Growing up in a house with a well and then living in a mountain town that gets a lot of water main breaks from ice damage and such, I can say the water recommendations are good, although most people aren't used to watching their water use and will therefore need a good deal more.
Formatting on the kindle edition is a little odd. I'm assuming that the pages with little text and lots of white space were supposed to have pictures on them, which would have been nice to tie things together. I'm therefore not holding that against it, since that's a common thing with kindle books for whatever reason. However, I did detract points for the many spelling and grammar issues. At first it just seemed like it was a translated book, often those have issues from picking the wrong word when more than one fits the translation, but then there were just basic spelling goofs. Nothing was huge or destroyed the reading experience, but it was enough to be somewhat distracting. I've been told those kinds of things stick out more to me then other people, so pleaser don't think it's a good enough reason to skip the book, because you might not even notice most of them. I've just done a lot of editing for friends who can't spell or mix up tenses so I can't help but find the errors.
Overall very good reading. I was hoping for more information on the kaiju, but a good portion of the prepper stuff is good information to consider for basic disaster prep. Growing up in a house with a well and then living in a mountain town that gets a lot of water main breaks from ice damage and such, I can say the water recommendations are good, although most people aren't used to watching their water use and will therefore need a good deal more.
Formatting on the kindle edition is a little odd. I'm assuming that the pages with little text and lots of white space were supposed to have pictures on them, which would have been nice to tie things together. I'm therefore not holding that against it, since that's a common thing with kindle books for whatever reason. However, I did detract points for the many spelling and grammar issues. At first it just seemed like it was a translated book, often those have issues from picking the wrong word when more than one fits the translation, but then there were just basic spelling goofs. Nothing was huge or destroyed the reading experience, but it was enough to be somewhat distracting. I've been told those kinds of things stick out more to me then other people, so pleaser don't think it's a good enough reason to skip the book, because you might not even notice most of them. I've just done a lot of editing for friends who can't spell or mix up tenses so I can't help but find the errors.
November 9, 2019
There was a fair bit I liked in the book,
And a fair bit that I was more meh about.
Not much I actually disliked though.
The narratives about individual Kaiju attacks were ace. Somehow reminded me a little of World War Z with the different perspectives of the same events and I'd have gladly read an entire book dedicated to these stories.
Also the whole narrative of the book and it's 'in-universe' reason for existing was fun, as was the frequent nods to popular kaiju in pop culture.
On the other hand bits of the advice were, I dunno, pointless? As an actual survival guide there were a lot of points made that didn't really go anywhere (quite a lot of the advice just boiled down to how screwed people were).
And there was the occasional contradiction in things, none major but a few bits that confused me or made me wonder why the 'KRSD' hadn't researched it further; For example the elephant Kaiju that seemed to act in protection of wildlife, it attacks other Kaiju and Poachers (threats to wildlife) but left the crew and villagers alone (not threats).
Also the book hinted at some stories that would have been nice to read, who doesn't want to know about these people who took down Kaiju single handed with blades?
Overall it was fun, but it reminded me of World War Z and I think my opinion of the book can be best made in the comparison,
What World War Z did in 2 books (Survivor stories and then a guide) this did in one, and I feel it would have benefitted from having those as separate things.
Still good though.
And a fair bit that I was more meh about.
Not much I actually disliked though.
The narratives about individual Kaiju attacks were ace. Somehow reminded me a little of World War Z with the different perspectives of the same events and I'd have gladly read an entire book dedicated to these stories.
Also the whole narrative of the book and it's 'in-universe' reason for existing was fun, as was the frequent nods to popular kaiju in pop culture.
On the other hand bits of the advice were, I dunno, pointless? As an actual survival guide there were a lot of points made that didn't really go anywhere (quite a lot of the advice just boiled down to how screwed people were).
And there was the occasional contradiction in things, none major but a few bits that confused me or made me wonder why the 'KRSD' hadn't researched it further; For example the elephant Kaiju that seemed to act in protection of wildlife, it attacks other Kaiju and Poachers (threats to wildlife) but left the crew and villagers alone (not threats).
Also the book hinted at some stories that would have been nice to read, who doesn't want to know about these people who took down Kaiju single handed with blades?
Overall it was fun, but it reminded me of World War Z and I think my opinion of the book can be best made in the comparison,
What World War Z did in 2 books (Survivor stories and then a guide) this did in one, and I feel it would have benefitted from having those as separate things.
Still good though.
May 28, 2023
I dont know if I was just busy, or if the book was worse than I think it was, but this took me a long time to finish.
Its a mashup between World War Z and the Zombie Survival Guide written with kaiju instead of zombies, but much worse than either of them for its individual parts. The survival tips, tricks, and gear doesnt really make sense in genre and the parts of it that do work are literally just watered down versions of what you can find either in the previously mentioned books or any survival guide online. And the survivor short stories where still the best part are seriously lacking compared to similar monster (even kaiju) short stories on reddit writing prompts.
Loses a few extra points for calling nearly every type of movie monster larger than 10 feet tall a kaiju.
Its a mashup between World War Z and the Zombie Survival Guide written with kaiju instead of zombies, but much worse than either of them for its individual parts. The survival tips, tricks, and gear doesnt really make sense in genre and the parts of it that do work are literally just watered down versions of what you can find either in the previously mentioned books or any survival guide online. And the survivor short stories where still the best part are seriously lacking compared to similar monster (even kaiju) short stories on reddit writing prompts.
Loses a few extra points for calling nearly every type of movie monster larger than 10 feet tall a kaiju.
March 15, 2023
Libro que cumple con dar lo que ofrece: Un guia para sobrevir un eventual ataque de un Kaiju o monstruo gigante. Escrito a la manera de un libro de texto, contiene "cronicas" muy entretenidas sobre enfrentamientos a todo tipo de kaijus, y con un extenso reperterio de instrucciones claras de qué hacer en esa situación. He leído otras "guías" de supervivencia contra zombies, aliens, vampiros, etc, y este libro definitivamente sigue esta línea. Este libro no es novedad en sí, salvo en lo entretenido que resultan esas cronicas. Es como ver películas del tema. No esperé una maravilla, y no defraudó en líneas generales. Recomendable para interesados en el tema kaiju.
November 27, 2018
I really liked the beginning of the book, where it talked about what the Kaiju were, and loved the stories and accounts. I did not so much enjoy the extensive amounts of military jargon or the fact that most of the book was used to explain military tactics than tell us about the kaiju. I think this book would be great as a tie-in piece to another book, but as a standalone it is not a very good read.
June 9, 2019
A fantastic look into the monster ruled world
This was a beautiful book to read.
As a fan of giant monsters since my childhood with super Sentai and power rangers both being watched in my household the idea of how everyday people managed in such a world has always intrigued me, this book is excellent for delving into just that and leaves you wanting more first hand accounts of giant monster attacks.
This was a beautiful book to read.
As a fan of giant monsters since my childhood with super Sentai and power rangers both being watched in my household the idea of how everyday people managed in such a world has always intrigued me, this book is excellent for delving into just that and leaves you wanting more first hand accounts of giant monster attacks.
July 10, 2020
Not bad. An interesting approach to the Kaiju genre, with nice allusions to some of the earliest "Big Monster" movies. Also a nice summary of prepping for any major disaster.
It has a few grammatical roughs spots to polish, and a glaring error that I can't ignore: Zulu time is the same as UTC and GMT. 0300 Zulu would be noon in Japan, not the early morning as it's written.
Other than that, it's a good read.
It has a few grammatical roughs spots to polish, and a glaring error that I can't ignore: Zulu time is the same as UTC and GMT. 0300 Zulu would be noon in Japan, not the early morning as it's written.
Other than that, it's a good read.
July 18, 2019
As a fellow writer in the subject there is a lot of great content from Wes Parker's debut book. The fictional interviews showcased through the novel are the main highlight and help to offer some incredible bits of world building. Definitely worth checking out for fans of giant monsters.
January 28, 2019
As a huge fan of Kaiju books and movies, I found this to be an enjoyable and uniquely fun addition to the genre.
June 24, 2019
Boring and derivative.
July 19, 2021
Muy buen libro, divertido y lleno de referencias a películas clásicas.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews