All-Monster Action! [Paperback]

Cody Goodfellow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 11, 2012

"A tour-de-force! Goodfellow's latest is his best yet. Compulsive, breakneck reading!" -BRIAN KEENE, author of The Rising and Ghoul

IT'S THEIR WORLD... NOW GET THE FUCK OFF!

Whether on the sun-kissed beaches of a nameless South Pacific paradise or in the suffocating dungeons of retail Hell, the misfits of evolution and mistakes of misbegotten science are battling, breeding, and feeding. And they're looking at you...

COMING ATTRACTIONS!

They came seeking cheap thrills and interspecies recreational sex, but they reaped a whirlwind of clusterfuckery when they toyed with the unspeakable forces of monster lust. From the idyllic nostalgia of WW2 to the thoroughly bat-shit future, witness the wages of sin and mutation as you've never seen them before (unless you read them previously in the periodicals or anthologies in which they first appeared)!

OUR MAIN FEATURE!

The world gave him a blank check and a demand: Create giant monsters to fight our wars. But Dr. Otaku was not satisfied with mere chaos and mass destruction.... Even as his subversively delicious kaiju creatures undermined the very fabric of American life, he hatched a scheme to animate the cities themselves and inaugurate a new dark age of mega-monster abominations who would finally give humanity the ass-whipping it deserved. Now only one man, riding inside the skull of a much larger man, stands between us and the planet-devastating madness of...

ALL-MONSTER ACTION!

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"ALL-MONSTER ACTION! is hilarious, action-packed, and way too much fun. Over-the-top and wild! Highly recommended." -- JONATHAN MABERRY, New York Times Bestselling author of Dust & Decay and Assassin's Code

"In terms of sheer scope of over-the-top outrageous imaginings--something that they'll NEVER be able to afford the special effects budget to film and if they did it'd make Michael Bay say, "Dude, too much!'--ALL-MONSTER ACTION! utterly takes the cake."--THE HORROR FICTION REVIEW

"This is your chance. You only think you're hip--but you haven't read this Cody Goodfellow book, so you're not yet. Now you can be hip, and read something crazy entertaining too. You can't go wrong, man, I'm telling you. You've got to read this thing. I mean, if a book rocks, it rocks, that's all." --JOHN SHIRLEY, author of A Song Called Youth

"Cody Goodfellow's writing etches itself inside your eyelids and chases your brain back into the dark corners where you can't escape. ALL-MONSTER ACTION! has more high concepts in a paragraph than a whole summer of blockbusters: a mad scientist who's passed on like the flu; biotech mutants harvested for fun and profit; and a giant monster arms race that ends in a showdown on the moon. This book is a human's-eye view of the future coming down hard on us, like a Tokyo resident gazing up at the sky and seeing only the outline of a giant foot." --CHRISTOPHER FARNSWORTH, author of Blood Oath and The President's Vampire

"ALL-MONSTER ACTION! is a dirty bomb right to the cerebral cortex--it's sharp, smart, scary, scarring, sexy and brutally funny. And like any good bomb, it's got specific targets in mind: Genre and gender, racism, colonialism, ageism and classism. ALL-MONSTER ACTION! demonstrates again that Cody Goodfellow is some kind of mad-ass genius." --LISA MORTON, author of The Castle of Los Angeles and Monsters of L.A. and Four-Time Winner of the Bram Stoker Award

"One of the most unique and creative works I've ever read. The author is quite obviously insane, but like Colonel Kurtz, he's got a plan. ALL-MONSTER ACTION! is packed with wild, driving energy that carries the reader along like an out-of-control Disney ride. Cody Goodfellow combines genres and crazed pop-cult tropes with finesse and style. Old Mr. Yeats kept bitchin' about 'the centre cannot hold.' Bullshit. With ALL-MONSTER ACTION! Cody Goodfellow proves he can hold the center together and play lead guitar at the same time. Filled with crazed, strange characters drawn from pop-cult, z-grade cinema and zillions of comic books, the pace is frantic and the imagery often makes you laugh while you cringe. What impresses me most with ALL-MONSTER ACTION! is Cody's ability to take cultural icons and clichés and turn them into a funny, intelligent, satiric story that perhaps Max Ernst would have written if he fronted Black Flag. ALL-MONSTER ACTION! made me remember those late nights as a kid, watching amazingly strange films and thrilling to every minute. Cody Goodfellow must have caught those films, too, because his fevered stories have one foot in the past and one foot in the present. Reading ALL-MONSTER ACTION! gave me the same pleasure as the first time I saw 'The Navy vs. the Night Monsters.' Brilliant!"--RICKY LEE GROVE, The Greatest Character Actor Ever (Army Of Darkness, Point Break, Scanner Cop) and the Pizza Delivery Man in Your Mom's Recurring Wet Dreams

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Swallowdown Press (April 11, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933929073
• ISBN-13: 978-1933929071
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #207,195 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Cody Goodfellow is a hollow, wasted shell of a human being.
His appearance, since he realized he only had to groom himself for occasional author photos, would shame an island castaway.
His conversational skills--since he discovered that any idea, emotion or anecdote worth sharing is also a valuable commodity--have atrophied to functional nonexistence. He sits, stares, listens, hoping to steal yours.
His real life experiences are insignificant in the face of those he imagines for himself and others.
His loved ones are hostages.
He is, for all intents and purposes, a patient undergoing a lifelong operation; and also the surgeon, methodically transplanting all his major organs into affordable trade paperback canopic jars.
He lives in Los Angeles.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars So Well Written it's a Revelation March 2, 2013

By Lee Widener

Format:Paperback

All Monster Action! by Cody Goodfellow surprised the heck out of me. It was startling not only in its wildly imaginative subject matter, but more importantly, in the fundamental quality of its writing.

Right from the very first page I realized I was reading an author unlike any other. Every single word on the page was filled with electricity, with passion, with purpose. Goodfellow was so efficient in his word choices, so original in his concepts, that I was swept away on a journey of great power and immense pleasure. Time and again I found myself thinking "How did he think of saying that in just that way? It's perfect."

This volume contains a couple of short tales and several inter-connected stories that make up one narrative. The first story, involving a giant flying monster and some WWII soldiers on an out of the way Pacific Island, evokes time and place so well, and so effectively, I was transported in time. It was so good I was mad when it was over.

This anger ended as soon as I began the next story, which was so different from the first it was difficult to believe I was reading the same author. This time I was treated to a noirish inner-city tale of debauchery and corruption, featuring a sexual monster that reminded me of nothing less than an old Harlan Ellison story, and that's high praise.

The main event of the book makes use of the kaiju concept for its core, but it takes giant monster stories so far away from the original, he turns the concept on its head and makes them relevent to the world today. Along the way he manages to blend in Wayne Newton and an Arthur C. Clarke-ish twist. By the end of the book, not only have the major cities of the world been turned into giant ambulatory monsters imbued with the characteristics of each individual city, but the world itself has been destroyed, and a new man-god-moon has been born.

Cody Goodfellow doesn't hold back. These stories are startling and challenging, but thwy're also wonderfully entertaining and rewarding to read. I not only enjoyed the stories, I enjoyed the writing. I enjoyed it so much I was to reread it, just in hopes some of his craft will rub off on me.

This book also includes illustrations by Mike Dubisch and Nick Gucker who are so talented they are more than equal the task of bringing to life the creatures Goodfellow describes.

Get this book. It's fun, enriching and revelatory.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Monsters and Critters of All Shapes and Sizes April 23, 2012

By Crappy Reviews

Format:Paperback

This is just what the doctor ordered! An awesome collection of Giant Monster stories (and a few other critters) collected all together in one place with amazing full page art from Nick Gucker and Mike Dubisch. The cover alone is worth the price, but the art is all tied together with the intricate and poetic prose of Cody Goodfellow.

I've always been a fan of Giant monsters and this is indeed one collection that needed to happen. In a world overly swamped with vampires, zombies and like infestation it is about time that the Kaiju storm the Western Fronts once again and remind us that Godzilla is way more scary (and damn funny) then the atypical haunts of modern fiction. And after reading this I'm now a bonifide fan of Mr. Goodfellow, having only read Spores by him and John Skipp I know for a fact I'll have to now grab everything I can by him.

Now lets dive into this one (a bit), park your butt in a comfy chair and get ready for some drive-in action.

First we get the Coming Attractions...

Doorway to the Sky: A story set during World War Two as the service men stationed on some out of the way island find out a secret of the islanders as they celebrate around their camp fire.

Venus of Santa Cruz: The misadventures of Officer Friendly as he discovers his very own goddess one night.

The Wage of Dinosaurs: A Philip K. Dickesque story of one employee who chances upon the nature of snot, memory and dinosaurs.

The Care & Feeding of Sea Monkeys: In a futuristic world Ramdu Gul, who without the benefits of beauty takes it upon himself to find love at the beach; with some mighty consequences...

IMHO The Venus of Santa Cruz is the main highlight among these tales. Mostly due to the fact that I'm a bit of a sicko and this one had a nice abundance of bizarre perversion. The nature of the story is unique and the only other person I have every seen attempt it is Frank Grow with his film Love God. (Well worth tracking down if you can find a copy.) Also The Care & Feeding of Sea Monkeys fed quite nicely into my keen sense of perversion. There are enough little weird tidbits in this story it could easily fill a novel. I'd really like to read more about Ramdu's employer and his wife with the "milkmaid" implants.

Since I'm also a huge PKD fan the Wage of the Dinosaurs kicked some mega sci-fi ass. From talking kiosk's, time alteration and a lone man in a dead end job. It has all the fixings even if it wasn't written as an intentional ode to PKD.

Now that the trailers are over, grab yourself a few cold ones for the Main Attraction!

The main attraction is split into three tales; Kungmin Horangi: The People's Tiger, The Island of Dr. Otaku and All Cities Attack. The first two were previously published and the third All Cities Attack is (I assume) written for this collection. These three stories are the namesake of the collection and the highpoint of Giant Monster literature. I hate giving anything away in reviews, in fact reviews can many times ruin a good yarn, so with that I'm not even going to tell you a thing about these three; come on the damn book is cheap! BUY IT!

This was beyond a doubt an extremely entertaining and fun read. Cody is a fantastic writer who easily blends words into a rich tapestry that let my imagination run rampant. He has a unique voice that crosses over into several genres and yet never loses the voice he started with. I don't think that is an easy feat for any author.

I only hope it doesn't start to go downhill like the zombie, with every second book going up for sale either King Kong or a child friendly Rodan. That's right folks leave the Giant Monsters to the experts, leave them to Cody Goodfellow!

Great damn stuff!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Really great Godzilla inspired stories. January 21, 2013

By Meryl

Format:Paperback

This book is a collection of short stories combined with a larger novella that is the title piece. All Monster Action was the reason I bought this book but I also enjoyed the shorter stories as well. I was really excited when this book came out because it had "me" written all over it and I was right to look forward to it. All of the stories share a theme of giant monsters and they are quite good fun. As much as I liked the book, some of the sections contained metaphors and imagery that were too zany for me to really understand. But I did enjoy this book a lot, and recommend it to anyone into monster stories. Like a lot of bizarro stories it really clicked with me.