As a casual onlooker, you might be surprised to discover that there are numerous authors currently dedicated to writing kaiju prose fiction. Matthew Dennion, Neil Riebe, Dustin Dreyling, Jeremy Robinson, Steve Alten and Eric S. Brown (among others) are doing their best to grow readership and push the genre forward. 

The biggest obstacle they face is the lack of outlets for their work. Short stories are compiled in fanzines with limited print runs, and novels are usually indie or self-published endeavors that get lost in the Amazon algorithms. Based in Australia, Severed Press is arguably the tippy-top publisher of kaiju fiction. 

That’s why I’m happy to see Wild Hunt Press step up and take ownership of the Attack of the Kaiju anthology series. By continuing the series, they’re providing yet another platform for aspiring authors to tell their giant monster tales. 

Volume 3: Giants on the Rampage begins with a Matthew Dennion story about the end of mankind. Experts tell us that computers will likely match (or exceed) human intelligence in the next 20 years. Depending on who you listen to, this singularity event will either be a boon or a death knell for everyone living on the planet.  

In “The Island of the Ape,” the singularity has occurred and is systematically wiping humanity off the face of the Earth. An atoll west of Sumatra has become the last outpost for mankind. 

The sentient computer is baffled when it discovers a 300-foot-tall giant ape living on the island. It cannot comprehend the existence of such a creature. The ape is a god (or maybe a king?), says an islander addressing the computer. “It is beyond the understanding of a lifeless thing such as yourself.”

“Titanic Terror” by Zach Cole is a fun Elseworlds-like adventure involving the RMS Titanic. Instead of colliding with an iceberg, the luxury ocean liner is sunk by a sea serpent more than twice its size. “It could have been only one of two things,” reasons one terrified passenger: “a prehistoric beast that missed extinction by dwelling deep within the ocean, or something not of this world.” 

Other fun stories include “Moving On” by Joshua Brafman that features a jaw-dropping final sentence, and “The God Complex” by Kevin Heim about a mysterious warehouse in France containing bits of Gorgo, Konga, Fin Fang Foom and perhaps King Kong. I also enjoyed the fanfic and mecha contributions from Skip Peel and Nathan Marchand.  

My favorite story, however, comes from publisher Christofer Nigro himself. “A Bug in the System” is the third installment in his ongoing serial featuring a daikaiju-fightin’ superhero called the Blue King. Fans of Ultraman will get a kick out of Nigro reinterpreting the greatest kyodai hero of all time.

[ Attack of the Kaiju, Vol. 3: Giants on the Rampage / Edited by Christofer Nigro / First Printing: September 2025 / ISBN: 9798990366176 ]