Nemesis. A Review of a Western Kaiju (Monster) Novel.

Mini-review #13
This is a series of short reviews for military SF and mecha SF.  You will not see a review of something I don't like as it isn't worth writing about in that case, but I will tell you what works for me and what doesn't about the stories I did like.  

Not exactly a military SF book, but the military does show up!  Nemesis is a recent novel by Jeremy Robinson, the author of the Chess Team technothriller/thriller novels.  This novel is his homage to the giant monster destroying the countryside phenomena made popular by the Japanese Kaiju (monster) movies like Godzilla.  There have always been giant monster movies and such over here (Cloverfield anyone?), but not so many books, so I was pretty interested to see what he wrote.

No spoilers ahead.  The book starts with an unexpected discovery in Alaska by the military.  A man is murdered and I almost stopped reading at that point in chapter 1.  I wasn't too impressed by the opening and was wondering how the rest of the book was going to stack up with sub plots after this.  Anyhow, I kept reading and the story did pick up.  This is a giant monster story intertwined with some illegal genetics research, really bad black ops types, and a nasty villain.  It does have the reading flavour of the typical technothriller / action novel, especially in the last two thirds of the book, and you'll like the military scenes too.  The monster itself is pretty imaginative and it is definitely not your black and white monster as it "Nemesis" has it's own character.

Mr. Robinson has written a pretty fun story, and while the ending is kind of typical of "Western" monster and horror movies, it was a fun ride.  If you like monster stories or even technothrillers, give this one a read.


Does it have a cast of characters listing? 
Nope.  There are really two main characters with Jon Hudson of the Department of Homeland Security and Sheriff Collins, a real tough lady who can do hand to hand and use a machinegun.  There are plenty of other characters, but nothing that will confuse you.

What is the scope / scale of the story? 
The scope of the story really focuses on the two main character and the monster.  The monster scenes with the characters are well done and bring an element of interaction to the monster epic you don't usually get.  The monster grows and the more military elements are drawn in.  The response by the military is kind of disorganized though and plenty of losses ensue.

Does it have likeable characters?
Jon is a likeable, down to earth character, who basically runs a teeny little X-files type operation.  Lots of eccentric supporting characters due to the nature of the homeland security unit they work for.  Many poor smucks dying, getting eaten, and getting squished.

Does it have an entertaining storyline?
Yes.The story starts slow, but the action picks up after the first quarter of the book.  The action grows as the monster grows.  The story integrates the characters well into the narrative which could have been lost as the monster could have taken over the story completely.

How is the internal consistency / plausibility?
I liked the story as a fun monster crushes city kind of story.  The biology is pretty amazing, probably not very likely, especially with the growth rates, monster abilities, and such, but you forgive these things as it is a monster movie in written form.  The military response is a little poor, but even my favourite giant robot movie like Pacific Rim had these WTF moments.  Still a fun read though.

• A-10 Warthog engaging with 30mm gun vulcan that fires depleted uranium rounds that should have punch clean through the beasty in the early stages.
• AMRAAM missiles are really air to air weapons and not for punching through armoured hides even if they have a 60 lb explosive warhead.  Hey, they used the same mistake in the Independence Day movie and I liked that too!
• Tomahawk missiles seemed underpowered.
• F-22s closing in tight to use guns.  Are you kidding me!  But it looks cool.
• Apache gunships do not use mini-guns/vulcans.  They have 25 mm chain guns and don't need to come closer than a kilometre or two to engage you with cannon or Hellfire anti-tank missiles.

What cool bonus features are there?
The monster is cool.  Just read it to find out more.