Pacific Rim: The Official Movie
Novelization (2013/Alex Irvine/Titan Paperback Books)
Book: B
Alan Dean Foster made his bones in the book business by being the king
of movie novelizations. He covered such
hallowed sci-fi ground as Terminator, Alien
Nation, Transformers, Chronicles of Riddick, and many others. A pro’s pro, Mr. Foster knows his way around
a script. While Alan Dean Foster did not
write the novelization of Pacific Rim, Alex Irvine did, and just may supplant
Mr. Foster in his role as go-to sci-fi film scribe.
A good movie novelization gives you a little more. It takes you not only to what might have been
left on the cutting room floor, but maybe also shows things that never even got
filmed. That’s the reason for
reading--looking at the movie from another angle. Mr. Irvine’s book does just this with
creative use of chapter breaks that range from personnel and machine dossiers,
to media reports, to excerpts from in-universe books on the Jaeger
project. With these tidbits we get a
little more of the universe than we might have gleaned from the movie
itself.
Particularly effective is Irvine’s treatment of the scientist Newt’s
first drift with the Kaiju brain material.
The creepy and otherworldly visions he gets of the monster birthing
facilities across dimensional space serve to make these foes of mankind even
more monstrous and threatening.
Greater insights into character thoughts naturally result when a story
goes from the screen to the printed word. Readers will no doubt crack a smile at central
protagonist Raleigh Becket when he catches himself feeling guilty over his
admiration of the fighting qualities of a Jaeger other than his own. The bond between Jaeger pilots is strong in this
story, but that bond also translates to a pilot’s relationship with his massive
machine.
Told from a strong 3rd person omniscient perspective, Alex Irvine does
Pacific Rim does justice while bringing it to a new audience of readers and
fans. Fans of the film and this book can
only hope that Mr. Irvine has a shot at adapting a sequel!
- Scott Pyle