For those who are monster-curious, alternate history buffs, or outright fans of Godzilla and other kaiju, this may be an anthology to your taste.

While most stories are not about kaiju, one of the best, in this anthology of consistently good to great stories, is very much a tale that belongs in the franchise.

Beyond that, like the Titan hunters in the Monsterverse, there are many monsters from many cultures and traditions that could be integrated into the continuity.

I didn’t know what to expect of this anthology, I’d never heard of the editor, Henry Herz, but several science fiction and even some Treklit authors on my auto-buy list were identified as contributors in the early promotional announcements. So, I preordered on spec.

While many science fiction anthologies from independent publishers are uneven, this one has not only no duds, there isn’t a single story that is less than good, some are excellent and potentially classics.

The stories are presented in chronological order, covering the entire theatre of the Second World War, providing a loosely coherent narrative of unseen happenings in between known historical events.

The editor has successfully attracted a diverse range of authors, including ones who write from the perspective of Indigenous and colonized peoples. The book opens and closes with original poems by Janet Yolen. The well known alternate history and science fiction authors have put in the effort with none of the disappointments found in other recent anthologies where some of them seem to be ‘phoning it in.’ One can only credit the editor for holding all these writers to a high standard.

The book itself is physically appealing with an original small pen and ink drawing topping each of the stories.

I’m definitely looking forward to future anthologies Henry Herz will edit. My partner an alternate history buff, who zipped through the book over a weekend once I’d finished my more leisurely read, is ready to autobuy from this editor.

It seems that the reviewer at Locus magazine had a similar assessment in their spoilery review.

Fortunately for Kaiju fans, Herz has co-edited a new Kaiju-specific anthology coming out in hard cover this June from Titanbooks : Big Bad Book of Kaiju: Seventeen city-smashing stories of monsters.