Customer Reviews

Godzilla (Monsters Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Okay, first off, I should confess. I have been a Godzillaphile for thirteen years now, ever since I was in 2nd Grade and first saw "King Kong Vs. Godzilla." Intrigued by this dinosaurian creature, and knowing next to nothing about him (besides the fact that there were about a gajillion Godzilla movies out there), I trotted to my Southdale Elementary School library, and Lo and Behold, there was a Godzilla book, written by Ian Thorne. As well as books on King Kong, Dracula, The Frankenstein Monster, the Wolfman, ditto ditto etc. etc. I must have read this book over a million times.

And today, I realize that it's actually a pretty dumb book. Now granted, the information available at the time couldn't have been much (written in the 1970's, even before TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA recieved its American release apparently), but still, there isn't much to offer fans other than some rather nice pictures. It's a children's book by and large, more or less describing the movies one by one, and giving a little (very very little) information about the filmmakers and when the movies were released.

But in addition to saying there were two endings to KING KONG VS. GODZILLA, the book also describes Gigantis as a female monster-- and from no other source have I ever heard that, the movie included. It also seems to make a clear distinction between Godzilla and Gigantis, when in fact the only difference is the American distributor's ill-fated idea of a name change. There is no mention of the actors involved in the movies (with possible exception of Raymond Burr), or those who played the monsters, or who all worked on these films. And of course, it's Ishiro Honda, not Inoshiro Honda (though to be fair, that's a correction that has only really become widely known in the last five years or so).

So by now, it's a pretty dumb book, and probably very rare-- I haven't seen a copy of the thing in nearly ten years, and I never found any for sale (otherwise I probably would have bought it). But it holds a special place in my heart-- until the Internet in the late 90's, this was the most informative source on Godzilla around. (Thank God for Stuart Galbraith IV!!)

So it's not

This book is overwrought with many errors in both the outcome of the films and even the names of some of the monsters. So, really, it probably deserves a low rating. I gave it five stars, however, because for many Godzilla fans this was the Holy Grail of library books back in the day... I checked it out countless times, and finally own my own copy. In the days before the internet, this was the best we could do for Godzilla information, since schools fail to teach such important matters to students.

I actually read this book in 1979 when I found it at my middle school library. It was one in a series of several books called the "Monsters Series". It was delightful because, at that time, it was one of the few English books written about Godzilla that a kid could easily find. I am delighted once again to find it.

This book really isn't all that good in the info department, but it does have alot of great pictures from the movie "Godzilla Raids Again" (1955). Thats is pretty much it. Everything else is pretty much incorrect. (Examples) There were 2 endings to "King Kong vs. Godzilla". They call Angilius "Anzilla". They call Gorosaurus "Baragon" (they could of gotten that confused because in "Destroy All Monsters" thats what the news guy calls him.)

Godzilla films are a subject of interest to many children, and it would have been nice to have an intelligent book on the subject written for a juvenile audience. Unfortunately, this book is a bare-bones look at the movies, and many of the author's facts are wrong. I can only reccomend this book to completists and for very small children.

This book really isn't all that good in the info department, but it does have alot of great pictures from the movie "Godzilla Raids Again" (1955). Thats is pretty much it. Everything else is pretty much incorrect. (Examples) There were 2 endings to "King Kong vs. Godzilla". They call Angilius "Anzilla". They call Gorosaurus "Baragon" (they could of gotten that confused because in "Destroy All Monsters" thats what the news guy calls him.)