I wanted to love this. As someone who grew up watching Ultraman, I was hoping for a nostalgic thrill ride—big monsters, bold heroes, cosmic drama. Instead, I got a slow burn that never quite ignited.

Pat Cadigan clearly reveres the Ultraseven source material. The novel is packed with lore, expanded backstories, and nods longtime fans will likely appreciate. But that loyalty to the original show weighs the book down. The pacing drags, the action feels muted, and too much time is spent in the heads of characters I didn’t feel much for.

Even the aliens were more annoying than menacing—less “space invader” and more “space Karen.” I read the audiobook, and Derek Shoales’s narration is steady but flat - I can't tell if that is a reflection on his performance or the source material. For a series known for spectacle, the performance fell short of that.

In the end, like most books, it all depends on what you are looking for. The book has detailed world-building, expanded character backstories, and even glimpses into the aliens’ motivations. If you’ve memorized episode numbers or own Ultraman-themed sake cups, this book may be perfect for you.

But for readers like me—who grew up on the show and are nostalgic for giant, bug-eyed heroes and monster-smashing chaos, it came across as Ultraman with the brakes on—less monster mayhem, more emotional HR meeting.

Ultraman - Ultraseven is a very nice adaptation of the original hit TV series of the same name. This book is broken up into individual stories that have their own "villain" that the Ultras have to protect Earth from. I quite enjoyed this book as Ultraman has always been around in some form but I, personally, hadn't seen any of the material available. This felt like a very nice introduction to the Ultraman universe. While each story is self-contained, the stories do follow a timeline of Ultraseven's time on Earth, so it is best to read through from the beginning. As is with most superhero TV shows, this feels primarily geared for children, as is evident from some of the stories, though there were a few instances where the easy-to-read nature of the prose belied the nature of the crime taking place. All in all, a very quick and entertaining read. Perfect for anyone who's heard of Ultraman and wanted to know a bit more.

Received as an ARC from Netgalley:

This was very similar to Cadigan's Ultraman novel and while this book has a few similar issues, very much feeling like an episode by episode novelization as opposed to feeling like a cohesive hole, I still found this to be the better of the two novels.

The modernization seemed to fit a bit better this time around and just had an air of pure fun to it.

Loved going on adventures with this cast.