Man has always supposed that an alien invasion would come from the skies, they were wrong. When the breach opened in the depths of the Pacific, issuing forth gargantuan Kaiju, the loss of life was devastating. But humans are resilient and threw their ingenuity into the construction of Jaegers, giant robots who could go head to head with the invaders. The success of the project could not be denied, but then neither could the cost, a cost which threatened to bankrupt the world’s economies. So the world turned its back on the Jaegers, preferring to trust their safety to an enormous wall, but the Kaiju not only continued to keep coming, but the numbers of invaders was set to increase. Raleigh Becket had turned his back on the program when his brother was killed. Now the time has come for the final battle which will decide the fate of the world and Becket is brought back into the program...

Pacific Rim is the official novelization of the Guillermo Del Torro film. The novel was written by Alex Irvine who is no stranger to film novelizations.

As befits a novelisation the story substantially follows that of the film. We follow Becket through his traumatic final fight in the Gypsy Danger, the combat which killed his brother, made all the worse because in order to operate a Jaeger both pilots have to meld their minds together, when the Jaeger rips open the Gypsy’s pilot pod Becket felt his brother die in a way that was beyond personal.

Because the brothers had disobeyed a direct order, Becket is drummed out of the service and spends the next years working on the Pacific defence wall. With their funding cut, and a feeling of certainty that the final battle with the Kaiju, Becket returns to the Jaeger fold.

Now if you have seen the film you will know what follows, if not, then I’m not here to spoil your enjoyment of either the movie or the novelisation. One of the criticisms of the film was that, whilst the visuals and world building was good, the characterisations remained sketchy, creating the equivalent of an amazingly expensive children’s cartoon.

Irvine had the opportunity to really expand on the characters adding nuance and motivation. Whilst both are there and to a greater extent to that in the film, it still felt like a little bit of a missed opportunity. The book chugs along at a good pace and all the battles are there for you to relive, but I would have liked a few more pauses, in the relentless push forward, to get to know Becket and especially Mako.

Overall it’s a good read with a simplistic good vs. evil format and if you like reading about robots and monsters the size of skyscrapers, knocking seven bells out of each other; then you’re in for a treat. Irvine does a decent job of translating the film into a book, but it would have been better if we could have spent some more time with the humans.

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Charles Packer