Monster Hunter International

Full disclosure, I am biased. I think Larry Correia is a decent human being, I believe he has been slandered by the writing industry and authors at large for his views on 2A, politics and religion. I do have some criticisms of his writing style, but I figured I'd better make it clear where I stand before you read any further.Monster Hunter International takes place in the "relatively" modern-day Central and South-Eastern United States as of writing this review. The first book released in 2009 (Correction, 2007), so roughly it can be said that the events of this book take place around this time period.The main character, Owen Pitt, is an accountant working for a company late one night when his insufferable manager, recently turned werewolf, suddenly assaults him. By some miracle Owen is able to survive the ordeal in spite of the odds, however, this event opens the door to the world of the supernatural and paranormal for Owen. Ultimately, he receives a job offer from a company known as Monster Hunter International, and so begins the tale of Owen and his compatriots various ordeals as they fight to survive various types of undead, aliens from another dimension, and one ancient evil entity determined to tear open the veil between our world and the world of H.P. Lovecraft's Old Gods.The story itself is entertaining and highly action packed. There are multiple firefights that take place, and it's obvious Correia is drawing from his experience as a firearms instructor. Not being very familiar with firearms myself, I did at times find my eyes glazing over at a few lengthy explanations of how certain guns work. There were also a couple of fight sequences that seemed to drag at points as well, however, this had more to do with the conflicts being too serious in my opinion. One thing Correia does do very well is insert humor, even in more tense interactions, so my last criticism is mostly directed towards the final few fights where it's do or die.The cast of characters is really what keeps the story engaging. I want to avoid spoiling the story as much as possible, so in brief you have: A hardcore gun-wielding ex-stripper, a high-school Baptist teacher turned expert zombie killer, a mysterious helicopter pilot and his family all the way from the Eastern Steppes, a chain-smoking Tommie-gun loving ex-military member with quite an interesting history, and a comedic duo of gun/explosive loving nutjobs who chew through monsters like tissue-paper, both together and by themselves. There are a lot of reasons to enjoy the cast, and all of them each have their own personalities and interactions that make the whole book entertaining.Now to get to the part I found frustrating: I am not a fan of the romance triangle between Owen, his romantic interest, sharpshooter and granddaughter of the current owner of MHI Julie Shackleford, and her boyfriend Grant Jefferson. Owen has no qualms about expressing his attraction to Julie, which I have no problem with initially, it's when Grant gets introduced to the picture that things get annoying fast. Both Owen and Grant behave like idiots as they argue and fight over Julie, to the point where I believe it devalues both characters. Aside from one situation where Owen is left to die by Grant, every single interaction plays out about the same, and Owen's internal pettiness becomes exhausting to read. Grant really is only there as an obstacle for Owen to overcome in my opinion. The animosity between Owen and Grant over Julie continues all the way into book two, thankfully it stops after that. If there is one criticism I have, it's that Correia may want to either rethink or avoid complicated romantic relationships in his writing.Overall, aside from some of the main character's antics, I do highly recommend this book and series as a whole.

Exciting, engaging, unique read. Highly recommended for any fan of fast paced, monster killing. Writing is solid, action is well done. Fun read.

Loved this book! Can’t wait to start the next one TOMORROW. I am going to have to slow down or books 2-8 won’t last the whole Summer, but it is So hard to put it down!

IMPORTANT NOTE: There is a COMPILATION of the first three Monster Hunter International books, for $9 dollars. If you're going to purchase, I suggest getting the compilation. Save a ton of money.What I would have liked to know before I bought this book. (no spoilers) (Sorry its a long review. I had a lot to cover)1. What type of book is it: adventure, action, drama, etc? This book is a military urban fantasy action packed story from beginning to end. The tiny bits of melodrama are generally simplistic, cliché and secondary. It will be easy to endure them. I make a distinction between melodrama and drama, thus, the bits of drama aren't bad.2. What is the story about, in general? The story is about Owen Pitts, an extremely martially capable man that finally gets his chance at war when he gets thrown into the Monster Hunter business.3. What/Who is the target audience? The target audience is young adult males, those who appreciate good weapon descriptions (me, guilty) and fast military action fans. I don't think this story targets older adults very well.4. Is there character development? Nope. The main protagonist is two-dimensional. He has a particular attitude, manner of acting and perception. He doesn't evolve beyond them. He, literally, was introduced with all the necessary basic characteristics to become a Monster Hunter. He's also a bit like Dirty Harry in the ego sense.Most other characters fill a rigid role within the story without deviation. Thankfully, except for one character, that for a good percentage of the book is a flat one dimensional stooge, they aren't completely two dimensional. One secondary character has an extensive background and detailed emotional facets. In fact, said character is even -more- detailed than the protagonist! Go figure.5. Are the characters likable? The main protagonist, Pitt, is relatively likable, but he is more interesting than he's likable. The character is so competitive he sometimes comes across as an arse. Pretty cool the rest of the time.Many secondary characters have particular quirks that make them unique individuals, except for the cliché rival. I strongly dislike the flat one dimensional aspects of that one character because his scenes are, without exception, very predictable. Every plot twist involving him can be seen a mile away.6. Does the story keep its pacing? Wow, yes! Even the parts where it's all flavor text are usually written in a manner that's pretty interesting. Character backgrounds weren't boring narratives, but interactive conversations. Nicely done! More than one flavor text scene had pleasant surprises. The character interactions are full of funny little details that add color to the dialogue.There are some minor spelling errors that do `bump' the pacing, but not enough to be overly significant.7. Do you have to suspend disbelief? In a moderate amount. The rival for `the girl's' attention is so cliché that I could predict the form of his scenes before they occurred. That should not happen, and thus strained my disbelief.In addition, the main character triggers my disbelief. He's too perfect a hero; huge, can shoot better than almost anyone, great in arms to arms, 'special', very intelligent, blah blah....One scene provides a full and detailed explanation as to why it is smart to disregard ... some... simple precautions, in the face of creatures that will sense you anyways. I won't spoil the details, but ... wow. My disbelief hit the roof.8. Is the book worth the asking price? Keep in mind that I am well inside the target audience. I find the price a tiny bit on the high-side of acceptable, though I do not feel I wasted my money. Your choice to make.In conclusion: If you're looking for flaws in this book, you will definitely find them, but you can also find a heck of a story. This book doesn't get confused as to what it is: an action packed monster hunter story. The reader will not find rich language with perfect wording. The writing will be more contemporary, young, hip, full of nods to current culture and painted from a character driven conservative point of view. Characters are written with varying degrees of quality and likeability, from the very detailed multifaceted personalities to the one dimensional awful `eye-rolling' cliché idiots. Character synergy is entertaining, and makes most of the character interactions fun; though they don't really break out of their two-dimensional roles. There is exactly one three dimensional character in this book and it's not the protagonist. Some particulars strained my disbelief, but didn't break the story flow too much. The price for the ebook is not cheap, but it isn't overpriced either. I was a pretty entertaining story, but will rub some folk the wrong way because of character development quality inconsistencies and somewhat simplistically predictable melodrama.3.5 Stars

I enjoyed the book for the most part, but it got bogged down between the fight scenes. Never really could connect to the MC as he was pushed along in the plot, didnt feel like he was making any choices except rehashed overplayed tropes such as the hot girl boss that he falls in love with at first sight destined to be the hero of the group even though he just joined.That said the details of the fight scenes were the best part of the whole book, and I almost stopped reading it when it went into trying to explain the plot movements.I'm going to get booked to a try but it was sort of a good story but kind of forgettable definitely an easy airport read. The worst is the cringe dialogue in the overused, no surprise tropes the main character fell into.It's the first time I've ever read this author so I'm going to try to give him more of a chance and book 2.

I downloaded this because it was free and the intro sounded interesting. Pitt, an accountant, manages to throw his hitherto merely annoying but suddenly ferocious werewolf boss out of a fourteenth floor window during a fight for his life. He loses his job but is approached by a freelance monster killing agency who are recruiting.I soon felt like a sucker as it becomes obvious that the accountancy thing is just a wispy curtain to disguise the onset of a huge Mary Sue wish fulfilment of a plot. Pitt, far from being a humble office drone is revealed to be an ex cage fighter, a crack marksman and gun obsessed. He proves his manly class by hitting on the boss's daughter during his job interview thus demonstrating his advanced social skills.Of course once he joins the Monster Hunters, he is top of the class and a better shooter than his instructors. Of course he has the obligate falling out with the boyfriend of his crush. Of course they get fancy suits to wear. The monster hunters turn out to be a bunch of gung ho mercenaries with lots of big guns (all lovingly described) who go into action in helicopters without worrying about little details like intelligence gathering, mission planning or stealth.At this point I finally became overwhelmed by the testosterone and stopped reading. It's all so dumb, it makes the X men look like University Challenge.

An accountant/gun nut has written a book about an accountant/gun but who kills monsters.Lots wrong here...the pace of the story for one...it feels massively overlong....you just get tired of the incessant fights with monsters that all seem to follow the same tiresome pattern..which is pumping one round after another into a creature and when that weapon runs out picking up another..ad nauseum.You certainly will be bored, unless it’s your thing, with the technical explanations of the various fire-arms.Cliche corner is never far away...our hero...a 6 foot 2 accountant with two black belts , history of bouncing and illegal fights and training in fire-arms of all kinds, falls instantly for the woman of his dreams. She’s beautiful and great with a gun. But she’s got a boy-friend. Luckily he’s an idiot and a coward and nobody likes him so it’s okay to invoke the old testosterone cliche of kicking the butt of the girls boyfriend..you know, stalking with violence.Of course the the kick ass girls in the book are written poorly and could just as easily be boys....Julie, the love interest, describes the death of her brother “I saw his intestines pulled out” and “he died well”. I was crying with laughter at this crass macho garbage coming out of the mouth of a female character.I’ve an idea for Amazon categorise your books under an IQ rating. This one would be in the 0-80 range.

Great storytelling, in depth characters that oozed out through the pages with both the relatable characteristics that made you care for them combined with the super human elements that enables the reader to digest their ability to survive their other worldly challenges they face. Only criticisms were a couple of the early fight scenes were a little hard to follow but this may be just me adjusting to the authors style of writing, would gladly read again, highly recommended :)

Well, I loved this - and I don't even like vampires and werewolves etc. as a rule. Just great, fast-paced story-telling, with a thoroughly engaging main character and a super-diverse supporting cast - lots of action and fun, but also the odd poignant moment that genuinely brought a tear to my eye because I'd come to love these characters so much. You can't ask for more than that!

Excellent !!! A must read wasn't about this but thought it was worth a try and I wasn't disappointed I will be reading the rest of the monster books !!!