A devastating, blinding flash lights up the sky above a Polynesian atoll. The island is no more. All that is left is a towering mushroom cloud that slowly drifts away.

The Pacific Ocean boils and churns though there is no storm in sight. A fish-processing ship goes down, leaving only a single survivor: a catatonic sailor, too terrified to speak.

Gigantic footprints plow an ominous path through the Panamanian rain forest, crossing the isthmus from west to east and disappearing into the Atlantic Ocean.

Off the North Carolina coast, a ship suddenly capsizes and is dragged under the sea.

An inexorable wave of destruction, incessant and mysterious, is heading north, toward a tiny, densely populated island called Manhattan!

In the motion picture event of thedecade, the blockbuster filmmaker Dean Devlin adn Roland Emmerich bring the biggest monster of all time to the screen: "Godzilla!" As the towering terror methodically dismantles Manhattan, nuclear scientist Nick Tatopolous is called in to do what the combined forces of the U.S. Army and Air Force can't--

Stop him!

Nick's only hope--and New York's last chance--is to join forces with Phillipe Roache, an enigmatic insurance investigator leading a team of odd characters who are assessing the damages even as they occur. Neither team leader trusts the other, but they must bury their differences fast, before the marauding monster buries Manhattan under its own rubble. For like a genie from the bottle, Godzilla came to life with three wishes and all three are coming true: Destroy! Destroy! Destroy!

Capturing all the terror and grandeur of the spectacular film from the creators of the smashhit "Independence Day," this exciting novelization straight from the screenplay brings to life the most awesome movie monster ever. "Godzilla" is here in all his gruesome glory. He's about to reach out and touch someone.

Pray it isn't you.