Books about giant monsters are not the kind of books that you can easily find at a Barnes and Noble store. You may find a book about Godzilla, but most of those were children books. Nobody really took the time to come up with an original idea. Jeremy Robinson decided to take that challenge to create not just one book, but a series of books dedicated to the giant monster genre by creating the "first" American kaiju. I will be honest, I was hesitant in getting the book because a book like this was new to me and you can say that so many things can go wrong while putting together a story like this. How was this handled overall?
The story is about Jon Hudson, the lead investigator for the Homeland Security's Fusion Center-P (mainly the government's paranormal division), thinks his job is a joke. He was sent to Maine after there were reports of Bigfoot sightings in the backwoods of Maine until he came across an abandoned NIKE missile site. After investigating the site with Sheriff Ashley Collins, they find out that there was more than what they were looking for. A young girl named, Maigo, whom was murdered by her own father, was cloned with DNA from an unknown fossil and then mutated into a man eating monster called, Nemesis. As Nemesis rampages towards Boston, Jon must find a way to stop Nemesis before she kills millions of people. When reading the book, I felt like that this was a sort of love letter to the giant monster genre. It was written as though I was reading a script for a movie more than an actual book. At the same time, I found it very easy to visualize everything happening from beginning to end. If this story was a movie it would be given an R rating in a heart beat because it gives a lot of explicit details on the gore and there is some cussing. What I liked is how in some chapters it breaks away from the main story and gives a little story of other characters, what Nemesis is thinking, and side stories of the victims that were attacked and killed by Nemesis.
The name is based on the Greek mythology of Nemesis, the Godess of Rhamnous, who enacted retribution against those that succumbed to hubris. That is exactly what the monster, Nemesis, does. When she judges people guilty, only death and destruction is left behind. This is what I like about the monster in this story. You never see Godzilla eating or judging people over their mistakes and even though the monster in The Host ate people the movie never explained why it was attacking people. Nemesis doesn't see people as just ants as you would normally see in a monster film. She hunts and eats people to satiate her hunger or to get rid of the voices of people who are committing sinful acts. Nemesis raises the terror bar by taking risks to add more nightmare fuel to her bloody and fiery destruction that it leaves behind. Nemesis is not some misunderstood prehistoric animal, she is a malevolent creature that seeks justice against anybody who have committed sin or has done her wrong and will destroy and kill anyone and anything that stands in her way.
On the back of the book, you will find illustrations from comic book illustrator, Matt Frank. His illustrations really help visualize what Nemesis looks like in each of her forms throughout the whole book. In each book of "The Nemesis Series," you will find his artwork of all the monsters that have made their appearance and fan art submitted from DeviantArt showing their support for the book series.
Overall, this is a must read book for the fans. Project Nemesis raises the bar above expectations on how we see monsters. If you ever wanted an actual dark monster story, then this is the book to pick up.