Today's post is on 'Monster Hunter International' by Larry Correia. It is 713 pages not including an excerpt from 'Witch Way to the Mall' edited by Esther M. Friesner. It is published by Baen Publishing with great cover art of two of the main characters shooting a monster on it. The intended readers are adults, over 18 because of the violence. Do not be put off by the page count. This is a fast read because everything happens so quick in it. But I will get back to that after my summary of the story so again- There be Spoilers Ahead.
Owen Zastava Pitt is just an accountant, a lowly CPA and the newest guy at his job. At that he is the whipping boy for the boss who needs to blame someone else for his mistakes. Well that is really not the best idea because Pitt is about 6 foot 6 inches and has some interesting things in his past like being a shooting champion. But Pitt is trying to be 'normal' whatever that is until one night he is working late because he is the low man at the job when his boss calls him into his office. The boss then goes on a villain speech before turning into a werewolf. Pitt has to fight it with a .357 Smith & Wesson snub-nose that he has on his ankle and then hand-to-hand combat. With luck, God and just fortune smiling on Pitt he wins. When he wakes up in the hospital being watched by agents of the Monster Control Bureau who tell him that they are going to watch him just in case he turns. While the two agents, Franks and Myers, are scaring him with the thought of killing him right there in the hospital Earl Harbringer walks in. Harbringer introduces himself as a monster hunter from Monster Hunter International. He also tells Pitt that he has made a nice piece of change by kills his werewolf boss. Harbringer tells Pitt and the agents that he is not going to be turn but Pitt should call him when he gets better. Pitt does not turn and he calls Harbringer who visits him with another hunter Julie Shackleford. Pitt sees her and is in love (important to note but I will talk about it more in my response to the novel after my summary). She and Harbringer convince him to join Monster Hunter International. Pitt finishes healing up then he moves to a small town in Alabama where MHI is housed. There is part of about 40 other survivors to learn how to hunt, kill and make money off of monsters. That is the basic plot of Monster Hunter International.
My review of this book is pretty good. It is very fast paced, the dialogue is snappy, the action is good and I will talk about this things one by one. By fast paced the book happens in about two weeks. Most of the chapters happen over the course of hours with time pasting in the blank spaces between chapters. One of my problems is the chapters are very long, with few breaks in the action, so you will be reading 20+ pages with no blank space to take a break with. The dialogue is very natural by that I mean I understand why the characters say what they say when they say it. The action is the real reason why you are going to read this book, that the gun porn. Correia himself says that he writes gun porn and he is not lying. The descriptions of the guns is very detailed. You can google the guns with the specs that Correia gives the reader and you can see just what the guns look like. My other complaint about the book is Pitt and Shackleford's relationship. It moves way too fast for me. It does not help that she is in another relationship when the books starts and still is at the half-way mark of the book. Butif you are willing to believe that normal humans can fight big bads then just go with it, that's what I did.
My overall rating for the book is 4 stars. I get nothing for my review not even the book because I borrowed it from my spouse.
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