Chris Strange’s Mayday Is the Perfect Halloween Read. Because Kaijus.

My Thoughts:

As I Began the Book:

Whoa, that is an awesome name for Kaijus!

The author named them Maydays and the book started with the last transmission from a cargo ship before it went down due to a Mayday attack. Then we find ourselves standing at the crime scene of one of the Maydays, Yllia. The protagonist is a PI who is with us at the scene, trying to see if there is a case for him. It is pouring, there is mud and the dead Kaiju lies in the middle of it all. I knew I was going to love this book and I was right because the next thing we find out is it is next to impossible to kill a Mayday but this one just keeled over. Then, our protag discovers that Yllia didn’t just die but that she was murdered.

Fairly into the Story:

Maybe he’d change by the end of the book…

I found out that I hated the PI. There were all sorts of things that were off-putting when it came to this guy. He cracked sexist jokes, he sucked at his job most of the time, and he decided to make the king of Kaijus, Tempest, kneel before interrogating him. The funny part is that I didn’t care! I was enjoying the story too much to give a damn.

I loved that the Kaijus all looked different even though they were part of the same race. From what I gathered, Yllia, was a winged insectoid Mayday, described in the following words:

“Yllia’s official data sheet said this Mayday was 72 metres high, or 136 metres from head to tail, with a 158 metre wingspan… White fur coated her from her bulbous head to the tips of her forked tail. Her four arms — each ending in three delicate scythed claws — were folded beneath her, sinking into the mud. Even lying down she towered over me like a tsunami about to break. One thin, butterfly-like wing lay open across her body; the other was folded up, out of sight.”

Grotesque, on the other hand, was crocodilian:

I’d heard Grotesque described as a gigantic crocodile before. I’d never really seen it — his snout was too flat, his tail too long and snake-like, arms and legs more like a tiger’s than a reptile’s. But seeing him come sprinting across the rubble on all fours, tail flicking back and forth as he moved, the comparison suddenly fit. His jaws sprung open, revealing layer after layer of piercing yellow teeth, made not to cut but to grab and hold on. His leathery skin was a pale greenish-yellow, the colour of sickness. On either side of the jagged spines on his back, large yellow pustules throbbed against his skin.

Tempest is arachnid-like:

Serraton is described as resembling a Chinese Dragon:

Nasir is said to the most humanoid of all the Kaijus. From the description, I imagine he’d look something like this:

What is scarier than a scary monster? A monster who is sadistic and cunning. Tempest lived up to his name and made my insides go all gooey with his smarts. He planned to reclaim his title and rule the world with his army of Kaijus. He was almost human in the way he displayed his hatred and furthered his ambition.

Right There To the End:

Tempest is Bae!

The fight scenes between the Kaijus were written in amazing detail. The author grabs you with his words and makes you stand with the shitty PI as you read them. I was having the kinda fun that I had while watching Pacific Rim and the action just would not let up.

Like all good monster stories, this one ended with the Kaijus in stasis and not dead or defeated. It made the book all the more enjoyable. Like most monster stories, the people in it fail to realize the implications of enslaving gigantic murderous creatures and making them fight for sport.

If you pick up this book, don’t read it for the story or the plot or even the dialogues. Read it for the love of Kaijus and monster flicks that thrives in you. Read it to see not one or two but five Kaijus go at it while puny humans run around trying to save the world.

The author included a note at the end, asking readers if he should continue with a sequel. I think I would love to read what other sadistic ways Tempest might come up with to torture us!

A Little Bit About Making Connections:

I received this book for free in exchange for this review through Making Connections (MC). MC is all kinds of awesome because it highlights indie authors and offers their work up for review. They also do blog tours where different bloggers sign up to promote a certain book.