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Scythian Frost and Other Stories
Can three men survive the perilous arctic, hunted by horrific predators?
Can a small outrigger outmaneuver a crazed leviathan?
Can a zoologist stop the exploitation of a unique creature, or face its wrath?
In an anthology from a world ruled by beasts, Daikaiju Yuki author Raffael Coronelli presents the perspectives of those caught in the monsters' path, scurrying underfoot and struggling to survive. From a distant epoch of the future, in civilizations built amongst the ruins, their stories can now be told.
With monstrous illustrations by artists Matt Frank and Danielle Fey.
Can a small outrigger outmaneuver a crazed leviathan?
Can a zoologist stop the exploitation of a unique creature, or face its wrath?
In an anthology from a world ruled by beasts, Daikaiju Yuki author Raffael Coronelli presents the perspectives of those caught in the monsters' path, scurrying underfoot and struggling to survive. From a distant epoch of the future, in civilizations built amongst the ruins, their stories can now be told.
With monstrous illustrations by artists Matt Frank and Danielle Fey.
- GenresFantasy
118 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2019
About the author
Raffael Coronelli
25 books15 followersRaffael Coronelli is a Chicago-based world adventurer and writer. His works include the How to Have an Adventure in… travel book series, several novels, and essays for Anime News Network and blu-ray releases from Arrow Video.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 21, 2019
One of the first things that struck me upon reading Daikaiju Yuki back in 2017 is that the world was obscenely rich. The world tour nature of the story allowed us fleeting glimpses into these cultures and locales as the story necessitated. Scythian Frost, however, gives us three distinct glances into the world of the Pantheon as well as glimpses into worlds beyond.
Each locale features exciting new elements either hinted at or suggested previously and with it comes new Kaiju to further flesh out this already mythic world. The stories move along at a pleasant pace, and pack a novel's worth of action into a few small sections.
The first, Scythian Frost, is undoubtedly my favorite. Blending bits of all the great pulp scifi and fantasy which choose the remote and cold settings of the world to unearth some ancient horrors. The Second gives us an adventure on the seas which conjures Jun Fukuda's Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (1966) as well as the age-old tale of man, in his infinite smallness, traversing one of the most unexplored arenas of our planet. The third is an adventure set within Akelbulan (introduced in Y2K along with the kaiju Mugonde who makes a cameo here) and follows protagonists looking for a myth within a world of myths. Part Indiana Jones and part Kaiju flick the third comes up as my close second favorite here.
Scythian Frost, like each entry into the series before it, appeals to the part of my brain in love with the Neo Mythic world of Daikaiju Yuki. I get to meet new varieties of creature and new kinds of people. The fascinating thing is seeing how these giant god-like beasts affect the lives of everyone from sailors to soldiers.
The final piece hints at even greater vistas and has me, and I'm sure a lot of people, hyped for Yuki's third outing which is coming out soon.
Each locale features exciting new elements either hinted at or suggested previously and with it comes new Kaiju to further flesh out this already mythic world. The stories move along at a pleasant pace, and pack a novel's worth of action into a few small sections.
The first, Scythian Frost, is undoubtedly my favorite. Blending bits of all the great pulp scifi and fantasy which choose the remote and cold settings of the world to unearth some ancient horrors. The Second gives us an adventure on the seas which conjures Jun Fukuda's Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (1966) as well as the age-old tale of man, in his infinite smallness, traversing one of the most unexplored arenas of our planet. The third is an adventure set within Akelbulan (introduced in Y2K along with the kaiju Mugonde who makes a cameo here) and follows protagonists looking for a myth within a world of myths. Part Indiana Jones and part Kaiju flick the third comes up as my close second favorite here.
Scythian Frost, like each entry into the series before it, appeals to the part of my brain in love with the Neo Mythic world of Daikaiju Yuki. I get to meet new varieties of creature and new kinds of people. The fascinating thing is seeing how these giant god-like beasts affect the lives of everyone from sailors to soldiers.
The final piece hints at even greater vistas and has me, and I'm sure a lot of people, hyped for Yuki's third outing which is coming out soon.
January 9, 2019
Bit by bit over the past couple years, Raffael Coronelli has been writing one of the more original takes on the kaiju genre in fiction. That world exists sometime after our present world has perished and the titans that are linked to the spirit of the earth – titans that play some role in both our salvation and destruction – have largely disappeared back into myth and religion. The stories (Daikaiju Yuki, Y2K: Yuki Conquers the World, Mowka, and now this collection) tell the tale of this fantastical world in small doses from multiple perspectives, with not one of the volumes thus far topping 250 pages. It’s an interesting but enjoyable way to present a new sci-fi/fantasy world – a world that is deep, well-drawn, and familiar yet also full of new discoveries. The manner in which Coronelli presents the world in these smaller, but regularly released volumes allows us to keep up with the story while also not becoming overwhelmed by any one particular chapter. With the latest release of the ongoing saga, we get four standalone stories set within the realm of Daikaiju Yuki, set some years prior to the events of the original book.
The title story, Scythian Frost, starts us off on the best possible note. Set in an arctic outpost, the story focuses on a trio of men who walk out onto the frozen tundra looking for a fabled temple that is rumored to house a dormant kaiju god. It’s a dark, somber story about men at the edge of the world venturing into the unknown. My kind of jam. This is the best story of the collection.
Also strong is story two, Outrigger, which is an oceanic adventure over troubled waters. A two-man vessel takes a ship over sleeping leviathans, disbelieving the maritime horror stories of their existence in these waters. But they probably should’ve charted a different course. Outrigger is thrilling and features a pair of unlikely kaiju antagonists that I quite enjoyed meeting.
Lair of the Devourer is a jungle river adventure looking for a fabled crocodile kaiju while threats of local warlords threaten all involved. This is the one story where I really felt like it could’ve benefited from a longer length and more depth. It’s not bad, but there’s a rushed quality to the story that’s not present in the first two stories.
The shortest story is Thyrus the Beast of Umbria (previously published in the Mokwa paperback), an action/horror chase sequence with a mother and daughter on the run from giant wolves in the night. I really like this one. It’s short but satisfying.
The collection finishes up with The Pantheon Arrives! which is about the escape from a place of work under attack by kaiju, with the desperate hope for the arrival of the land’s protector kaiju. This is the weirdest of the bunch, complete with bizarre clam kaiju and a ‘wait what?’ twist regarding its characters that has me asking a lot of questions. More than any of the other stories (including my favorite, Scythian Frost), this one seems to build the most lore for the world of the series its set in.
I quite enjoyed the collection. As with all anthologies, you’re going to have your favorites and least favorites, and I definitely have my picks. But on the whole it’s very solid. Coronelli has grown considerably as a writer in the two years since Daikaiju Yuki, here crafting some truly special science fiction/fantasy. For kaiju geeks like myself, the Scythian Frost collection is a real treat, giving us one strange story of adventure and wonder after the next.
The title story, Scythian Frost, starts us off on the best possible note. Set in an arctic outpost, the story focuses on a trio of men who walk out onto the frozen tundra looking for a fabled temple that is rumored to house a dormant kaiju god. It’s a dark, somber story about men at the edge of the world venturing into the unknown. My kind of jam. This is the best story of the collection.
Also strong is story two, Outrigger, which is an oceanic adventure over troubled waters. A two-man vessel takes a ship over sleeping leviathans, disbelieving the maritime horror stories of their existence in these waters. But they probably should’ve charted a different course. Outrigger is thrilling and features a pair of unlikely kaiju antagonists that I quite enjoyed meeting.
Lair of the Devourer is a jungle river adventure looking for a fabled crocodile kaiju while threats of local warlords threaten all involved. This is the one story where I really felt like it could’ve benefited from a longer length and more depth. It’s not bad, but there’s a rushed quality to the story that’s not present in the first two stories.
The shortest story is Thyrus the Beast of Umbria (previously published in the Mokwa paperback), an action/horror chase sequence with a mother and daughter on the run from giant wolves in the night. I really like this one. It’s short but satisfying.
The collection finishes up with The Pantheon Arrives! which is about the escape from a place of work under attack by kaiju, with the desperate hope for the arrival of the land’s protector kaiju. This is the weirdest of the bunch, complete with bizarre clam kaiju and a ‘wait what?’ twist regarding its characters that has me asking a lot of questions. More than any of the other stories (including my favorite, Scythian Frost), this one seems to build the most lore for the world of the series its set in.
I quite enjoyed the collection. As with all anthologies, you’re going to have your favorites and least favorites, and I definitely have my picks. But on the whole it’s very solid. Coronelli has grown considerably as a writer in the two years since Daikaiju Yuki, here crafting some truly special science fiction/fantasy. For kaiju geeks like myself, the Scythian Frost collection is a real treat, giving us one strange story of adventure and wonder after the next.
February 25, 2020
Eh
I wasn't very impressed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Just kind of boring, in my opinion.
I wasn't very impressed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Just kind of boring, in my opinion.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews