Christmas Recommendation Review: MM9

A review published as a holiday gift recommendation covered MM9, a novel by Hiroshi Yamamoto built around the premise that giant monsters are treated as a natural disaster alongside earthquakes and hurricanes. The book’s title refers to “Monster Magnitude,” a fictional 1-to-9 severity scale modeled on real disaster-rating systems such as the Richter scale, with monsters handled by a government agency, the Meteorological Agency Monsterological Measures Department (MMD), rather than a specialized combat force.

The review described MM9 as an ensemble piece told across five largely self-contained stories, centered on recurring MMD staff including field unit leader Ryo Haida, driver and monster-welfare advocate Sakura Fujisawa, astrophysicist and mother Yuri Anno, and department head Shoichi Kurihama, who takes the public blame when predictions go wrong. It summarized each story in turn, from an opening tale introducing the setting and its pseudo-science, through stories involving an unexplained giant girl, a migratory flying monster, a television crew’s ride-along with the MMD during a plant-like monster’s appearance, and a closing story in which the MMD confronts what may be the first-ever category-9 monster, one capable of ending the world.

The review recommended the book to readers who enjoy the daikaiju genre, while noting the character types were familiar from other media and the novel’s fight scenes were more restrained than a film adaptation might offer. It praised the thought put into the monsters and their surrounding scenarios, noted the story was translated into English from its original Japanese publication, and gave the book 3.5 out of 5 stars. The review closed by noting the book’s availability in paperback and on Kindle and Nook.