Godzilla at World's End

Godzilla #3

by Marc Cerasini

This sophisticated sci-fi thriller is set in the year 2001. A team of young science students makes an eerie discovery. Miles below the surface of the South Pole, the Ancient Ones, a race of crystalline beings, have awakened after a million years, horrified to find "their" world infected by a plague of humans. To eliminate humanity, the Ancient Ones create an army of cybernetic monsters who lay waste to South America, China, and Russia before descending upon Japan to do battle with Godzilla. The young scientists in Antarctica and Godzilla, King of the Monsters, are humanity's last line of defense against the giant monster army of the Ancient Ones.  Nonstop action and thrilling battles will keep young adult readers glued to the page!  

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult, Novels

321 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 31, 1998

About the author

Best-selling author, Marc Cerasini has spent time on the New York Times and USA Today best-seller's lists. His writing spans from children's picture books and young adult novels to adult mystery and military nonfiction. Along the way, he's managed to ghostwrite for Tom Clancy.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third of four Godzilla novels that Cerasini wrote, and perhaps the weakest of the lot. It features an improbable race of crystalline beings who awaken under the Antarctic ice and manipulate an army of kaiju to wipe the human infection from the planet. Godzilla and his pals oppose them, and monster mayhem ensues. The human characters aren't as sympathetic in this one. It's very Pacific Rim-ish. We have a sort of B-list roster here, the bigger names having been introduced and used in the previous volume. Gigan and Megallon and Manda and Varan just don't have the same impact as King Ghidorah. But... it's still a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it! (Cue the Godzilla March... but...where's the giant flying turtle when you need him?)

[Kev Bow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book as a child & now reading it about 15+ years later I still enjoy it. At times I felt like the pace of the book was slow, and at other times fast.... but hey that is Godzilla for you. There are a large number of main characters that I enjoyed, but I felt let down. The book is to short for for it's own good. On the positive side, the description of each monster is amazing.

[Will Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this almost as much as I did Carasini’s other Godzilla novels, but this one had a few glaring issues that I just wanna air out. In this 300 page book over 200 and pages of it is set up in a lot of that set up feels like padding . The monster stuff is great but I wanted more of it. This book could’ve easily been 4 to 500 pages instead of 300 .Sadly for me this is my last Carasini Godzilla book as only four of them exist in this series( they where all great ) it would be nice to find the lost fifth book ( Godzilla and the lost continent) out there somewhere but unless someone has a unofficial copy of an PDF of it I don’t think I’ll ever get a chance to read it. There is even a sample of it in “ Robot Monsters” so my thought would be that he had finished it.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The weakest of the Godzilla novels. With the journey our heroes take there is a decent Jules Verne meets giant monsters vibe, but the characters were weak and it felt like the writer had used all the good monsters and picked these two because they were the few he hadn't already used.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

why isn't this plot in one of the movies?
characters you care about
good fight scenes
twists at the end

[Michael Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have written a number of books and considered writing a Godzilla type monster book. But not now.
Cerasini had a good try but reading a book just does not begin to compare with watching giant monsters battling on screen, with not just the fantastic visual effects but also the great music of Godzilla films, etc.
An increasingly large hole opens up in Antarctica. Monsters appear and after destroying most communications satellites in space, the cyborg monster Gigan helps the other monsters attack mankind while Godzilla enters the fight and sort of helps mankind.
Huge damage is done an many thousands are killed while a dirigible heads to the huge hole in the world, finding Ancient beings deep under the ice who are responsible.

[uzhuj · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not expect quality writing in a Godzilla book, so this was a surprise. First half of the book is pretty well done. Second half falls apart a bit writingwise and some events feel veeery rushed. Human characters kinda interesting, which is ususally the weak point of the movies. All-in-all decent book, gorgeous cover art.

factual error (?): I believe Cerasini mistakenly writes that the word ORDOG (name of a ship in the book) is a word for devil from Russian language, or at least I did not find any source of that. It's a Hungarian word of unknown origin.

[Jacopo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun continuation of the previous two chapters of this saga, loses itself in right-wingish commentaries that betray an ancap predisposition of the author. The monsters in this book are many, maybe too many, with too little attention paid to them. The story itself is interesting, some ideas seem to have been used in the recent MonsterVerse movies. All in all my least favorite of the series for now.

[Jasher Drake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the sprawling cast of characters and kaiju that this follows, as well as the really creative use of location and timezone in every chapter.

And the monster fights?! Was skeptical that the huge battles we’re used to in Godzilla flicks wouldn’t translate well to paper, but boy was I wrong. Some of the most exhilarating and intense action I’ve read in years.

[Wes K. · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you want a Godzilla novel with cheap, Tom Clancy-aping thrills, execrable libertarian politics, a hearty dose of colonialism, and a weird obsession with seventeen-year-old girls, boy howdy is this the book for you.

[City Mist · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are about six decent story ideas in this cluttered novel that cannot decide what plot it wants to focus on, which characters it wants to be the protagonists, or which kaiju it wants to have any relevance.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly fun but well written. lots of Kaiju and action near the end of the book. just a tad boring in the beginning but not bad. I would. reccomend for those who enjoy Godzilla books in the first place.

[Zachary Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're a fan, READ THESE BOOKS

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book takes way, WAY too long to get going with its consistent Kaiju action, instead following the blandest, most forgettable human characters in the entire Godzilla franchise. And when the monsters finally arrive, their destruction is strangely very cynical and depressing, going into more graphic detail than usual on the way their rampage harms people, which I guess is realistic since these particular books are aimed at older readers but...I'm reading a book about giant monsters, I'm fine without the horrible ways people are getting killed. When Godzilla and the other "less bad" monsters show up to battle the "bad" monsters, it becomes so much better, with a climax that takes place in the Antarctic (snowy settings being a rare treat in Kaiju films), with Godzilla battling Biollante. What ruins the awesomeness that has been happening for the last one hundred pages or so is the out-of-nowhere twist that effectively ruins the whole story. To avoid spoilers (for the most part), I'll just say the general synopsis for the book is a lie. As fantastic as Godzilla is, as usual, the best parts of the book are, arguably, the Gigan sequences, with some of the best military action in a book like this, and the fight with Anguirus. As someone whose first Godzilla movie was "Godzilla vs. Gigan", which as a young kid I rented on VHS and watched too many times, and then bought said VHS and watched way too many times, seeing Anguirus beat and kill Gigan is incredibly satisfying. Overall, easily the worst in the Marc Cerasini Godzilla series.
Long live the King!

[Caleb E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't normally read extended universe books, but because I like Godzilla (and it was only $0.50 at the thrift store) I figured I'd give it a shot. I didn't think it would be anything more than poorly-written fan fiction.
I was so very wrong. This book is of surprisingly high quality. Godzilla is a very visual universe, and for this book to emulate that perfectly is astonishing. And it isn't just the visual aspect that this book masters, but the "Godzilla formula", from the films, is also followed with incredible talent. (Any fan of the film series will know what I mean...)

I only have two complaints with this book.

1. Because there are so many things happening at once, this book jumps around a-lot from one happening to another, and you lose even more interest in the already forgettable characters. (There are just too many people in this book and only one of them has any impact on the plot.)

2. Marc Cerasini, the author, is not the most eloquent of fellows. Most of the grand spectacles, giant monsters fighting, mass destruction, etc., was written very well. But there were a few parts where these goings-on were really quite dull. Not because what was happening was boring, but the writing wasn't doing it justice.

All in all, I really liked this book and plan on reading the other books in the series.

[LA · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was fun and did a great job of epically explaining the encounters with monsters... you really get excited when the author is talking about Godzilla. Now, I get that this is a Godzilla book, but the plot was filled with holes and was totally rushed in the last 75 pages. The final battle, I felt, was less epic than it should have been. The characters, however,were still interesting... there were too many, however, to do any real justice.
He also likes the word katabatic a bit much.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pretty good, but unlike the other two books it had some really annoying libertarian style rants in it that really detract from the book. You'd have several pages of awesome monster fights, and then a break for some Fox News expy talking about how bad government is. Seriously, if you're inventing fictional calamities and showing how bad a job the politicians you don't like are doing at fixing them, the problem is with you, not them.

[Rhea · Rating 2 out of 5]

In my opinion, this book is interesting to read, especially beginning. However, the wording might be too difficult to understand, at least for me. But it was as okay book.