Read the (somehow) very first English translation of the first two Godzilla novels, GODZILLA and GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN. Originally written in 1954 by Shigeru Kayama who was also one of the original films’ creators. The novelizations came immediately after the films we shown in an effort to further capitalize on their massive success.

As such they read a lot like one might describe the films as they play out on screen. There is very little in the way of additional character development or lore. It’s mostly: People in a boat are having a good time. Godzilla shows up. People freak out. Godzilla smashes some stuff. Bang! Zoom! Crunch! And goes away. People worry about him coming back and what they can do to stop him. Godzilla comes back and messes more stuff up. Whoosh! Zoom! Kablammo! Now the people really need to do something and say so over and over until a very unlikely solution suddenly appears and Godzilla is defeated, the end, we will not be taking any further questions.

Sure, there is a bit more depth than that, but if you’re going into these books in the hopes of really getting to know the “why” and “how” of Godzilla, you won’t find it much beyond “bombs did it.” Which is fair.

As far as I can tell the translation is great, and in fact translator Jeffery Angles’ afterword commentary was the highlight for me. He goes over a bit of Kayama’s early history, the making of the films, the writing of the books, and Kayama’s own feelings about Godzilla’s success overall. Considering that Kayama doesn’t have his own Wikipedia entry (in fact the entry for this book has far more info about him than you can easily find elsewhere) this might be the only place to find this information in English.

Side note: This was published by the University of Minnesota Press who also published the nearly award winning cookbook I had a part in bringing to life.

(Opening page. An example of understatement.)