Pacific Rim – Yes there’s a book and it’s worth reading
Pacific Rim is a love letter to Godzilla and a visual feast. However, it’s still a big budget action movie full of explosions and monsters that leaves very little room for actual story and character development. So when I received my copy of the novel from Titan Books, I was a bit skeptical about what I was committing myself to. What Alex Irvine has done with this novel adds a whole new dimension to the spectacle that Pacific Rim already is. The pacing is excellent, the story gains a new depth, and the characters become much more human. If you enjoyed the film and sci-fi in general, you really should pick up this book and find out what you didn’t get to see on the screen.
The whole Pacific Rim
The world of Pacific Rim is one marred by a decade of monsters and tragedy by the time the story really hits its stride. While clearly centering on protagonists Raleigh Becket and Mako Mori, Irvine’s novel also fleshes out a people forged in hardship and terror. Through numerous snippets added in between chapters, we find that not everyone has had the same desire to destroy the kaiju and keep the world safe. Numerous cults have risen up to worship the kaiju and believe they are sent to cleanse a corrupt people from the world. One group is briefly shown in the film, but the scope of their devotion is nowhere near apparent. It’s no wonder that they have set up their creepy, death welcoming monster worship inside of a boneslum (sites where the still irradiated bones of early kaiju still remain) where only the desperate would dare call home. Another point of interest that we are introduced to through the novel is the jaeger graveyard, Oblivion Bay, where all of the fallen jaegers are brought and left to rust. All but one, that is.
Actual characters
The problem with the visual medium is that it makes it harder to get inside a character’s head, especially in a short amount of time. Irvine is able to take the effort needed to make me care about the rangers of Pacific Rim in a way that I hadn’t during the film. The relationships between Mako Mori & Stacker Pentacost and Herc & Chuck Hansen have very deep roots that really develop them as people and not just pilots or officers. Raleigh also gets a much needed look inside his head showing the depth of his anguish and a look at his childhood. The experience of being in the Drift (which is still a terrible name regardless of medium) is so much more fully fleshed out than the short bursts of images shown on screen. That’s shouldn’t be surprising at all given the stark differences between the mediums. Novels in general, and this one in particular, are far better suited to detailing the thought processes and motivations of a character while they act than film can ever be.
The full story
Entire scenes that were important (at least I thought so) to the story never made it into the film. Clearly we’d need an intermission during the 5-6 hour spectacle that would ensue. Thankfully the novel covers the extended story of Raleigh’s decision to leave Alaska and the full mental journeys into the Anteverse of the kaiju science department. Explanations are offered for the body scarring and the sickness brought on as a result of piloting a jaeger solo. The extended sequences of what characters experience while drifting is probably one of the most powerful things that this novel brings to the table. Irvine also gives us an explanation of the briefly mentioned “kaiju blue” which, as it turns out, is a serious problem and a large part of why jaegers are deployed a mile from coastlines to fight the kaiju. Though personally, one of my favorite parts of the novel is addressing the more practical aspects of the jaegers such as dealing with questions about their venting systems while deep under the ocean.
The only complaint I have is that there’s very sparse description of the jaegers and kaiju offered. In that, it’s best to use the film as a sort of visual CliffsNotes. I can completely understand that approach, especially given how many people saw me reading the novel in public and were surprised to learn that it exists. Even so, this book is a must read for any fan of Pacific Rim that wants a deeper, richer experience in that world. Irvine completely transformed a film about giant robots punching monsters into one of internal human struggling and triumph. Pacific Rim is a good sci-fi novel on its own, but I suggest seeing the movie as well.
