Daikaiju!2 Revenge of the Giant Monsters

Editors Robert Hood and Robin Penn note in their preface that, in contrast to the original anthology, Daikaiju!2 contains, ‘more stories of a traditional monster-trashes-city kind’. And that’s certainly the case. If you count yourself more in the mainstream speculative fiction readership category, and not a giant monster aficionado per se, then from that perspective, Daikaiju!2 provides a mix of excellent stories, written by authors who play with the giant monster conventions and create some exciting and engaging works. Pieces by McArthur, Macrae, Lyn Battersby, and Nahrung were standouts for me. In amongst these, there are a number of more standard stories, written by people who are big monster fans first and writers second, and who consequently demonstrate less originality and writing skill in their work.

It’s all horses for courses really, but Daikaiju!2 is a lot of fun.