In writing KING KONG: THE ISLAND OF THE SKULL, a prequel to Peter Jackson’s event film, Matthew Costello faced a unique challenge: How do you fashion a story around characters that can’t even meet yet? His solution: Write three of them.

In the North Atlantic, filmmaker Carl Denham (played by Jack Black in the movie) finds his grand plans for filming another on-location adventure epic sidelined when his cameraman is attacked and nearly dismembered by sea lions. Meanwhile, the ever-present threat of poverty forces struggling actress Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts’ role) to abandon her Broadway dreams for two-bit jobs in Atlantic City operating a submersible ride and mounting horses that dive off the pier for the public’s amusement.

Neither of these threads operate along a conventional plot; they simply function to place the characters at the point where Jackson’s film will begin, under circumstances of which we’re already aware, having seen earlier KING KONG flicks. No, ISLAND OF THE SKULL is largely the story of Sam Kelly – wholly invented by Costello and not in the film – a Navy diver who’s searching for a civilian job during the Great Depression, and acquires one of legally questionable status on a pearl ship. The craft navigates to an uncharted island in the Indian Ocean, where the crew runs afoul of the locals, few of which are human, not to mention of this time.

To answer the question on everyone’s mind, Kong himself does not appear, not even in a cameo. His name is whispered, his face is crudely drawn, but the ape never rears his giant, ugly head. That’s not to say ISLAND OF THE SKULL is lacking in the fantastic, however, as Kelly and Co. do battle with a host of prehistoric creatures, both underwater and on land, though this comes rather late in the game.

Costello’s tale – deserving of far better cover art, I might add – don’t amount to much more than 325 pages of backstory and foreshadowing, and there’s a subplot established in the prologue that isn’t wrapped up, but that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it. Indeed, I did, as he’s a fine enough writer, the pace is surprisingly brisk, the language modern instead of archaic and annoying – all in marked contrast to the original film’s tiresome novelization. ISLAND OF THE SKULL serves as a promotional tool for the surefire blockbuster and draws you into its own narrative, whereas most media tie-ins are content to just do the former.