International

Five days after Owen Zastava Pitt pushed his insufferable boss out of a fourteenth story window, he woke up in the hospital with a scarred face, an unbelievable memory, and a job offer. How can you argue with a description like that? Yes, chapter one involves a brawl between the above mentioned Owen Pitt, and his boss, who has become a monster of a completely different stripe than he had been. Let's just say that I would have considered throwing him out a window before he became a large furry sociopath. Yup. Pitt has to go toe-to-toe with a freaking werewolf. And he has no silver. After Pitt hands in his resignation the hard way, he has officially fallen down the rabbit hole. Monsters are real -- all of them. Pick a B-Movie horror film or a Lovecraftian monster. There are only two forces that deal with the legion of nightmares (that we see in this book). One is the Monster Control Bureau (MCB), a government bureaucracy that looks like it's run by either the Keystone cops, or whatever random thugs can be brought in off the street (though it'll turn out that they aren't random). The other group is Monster Hunter, a private organization dedicated to collecting bounties as they exterminate the world's nastier pests -- including vampires, giant spiders, and a few creatures from the black lagoon. And MHI offers Owen Pitt a job. The perks are good -- play with weapons, hang out with the stunning woman who recruited him, and the paychecks are insane -- and, well, why not? Unfortunately for Pitt, his first day on the job is going to get messy. He soon finds himself being haunted by an old Jewish ghost, is getting visions of an ancient entity called "the Cursed One"who just arrived on US soil, is hip deep in ghouls, vampires, flying killer gargoyles that bleed magma, and did we mention that the Cursed One might be about to end the world? MHI has a wonderfully colorful cast of characters. From a former Vegas stripper who is more vicious and bloodthirsty than the lot of them, to Julie, a member of MHI's founding family, who is also a sniper... and her physical description in the book reminds me a lot of Bayonetta, but we won't go there. There is a wonderfully broad collection of folks here, from the high school chemistry teacher who had to blow up his school filled with spiders, to the poor guy who had to kill his zombiefied students, to the explosive-happy Q-variant, to Earl Harbinger -- an old member of MHI's founding family with an interesting history. The characters are likable, the dialogue engaging, and I don't think I came across a single flaw in the execution. And yes, this book was awesome from start to finish. It didn't really slow down. Despite the constant description of these books as "gun porn," I have yet to be bogged down by a single page on guns. Most of the time, the weapon details are critical to the plot, considering what fresh new horrors they run into all the time. The chapters that amount to a large training montage are detailed and interesting, and establish the characters better than heading straight into the action. Then the shooting started, and didn't really stop for another three hundred pages or so. And just remember: vampires only sparkle when they're on fire.

Monster Hunter International is a delicious cheese burger, fries, and extra large shake kind of book. Pure 80s movie action. Badass dudes(and women) carrying heavy weapons blowing the hell out of all manner of evil blood sucking monstrosities. This isn’t some deep thinking character driven SciFi exploring the human condition or layered Fantasy epic focusing on the socio-political dynasties. What you have here is monsters getting their brains splattered across 1,000 pages of ass kicking action. Synopsis Owen Pitt is working as an accountant at some generic miserable firm under the oppressive thumb of his useless fat turd of a boss. One unfortunate night stuck working late at the office, Owen finds out that his boss is not only a complete jerk but a monstrous werewolf serial killer planning to make him his next victim. Violent badassery ensues ending with a dead werewolf being tossed out the office window. After recovering from the fight with his now deceased boss, Owen is visited by some friendly mercenary types. He comes to find out that monsters are real, vampires, ghouls, zombies, elves, trolls, orcs, and everything in between stalk humanity from the shadows and his new friends are members of a private, paramilitary contracting group called Monster Hunter International. Something like Blackwater but they spend their time hunting down beasties from the Monster Manual. Owen of course joins up, does some training, and proceeds to kill a cornucopia of monsters with his new buddies. Throw in a 500 year old evil conquistador, ancient Cthulhu-ish Old Ones, unspeakably evil ancient artifact, ancient artifact, Nazi Vampires, lots and lots of guns, sexy hunter chick, a HIND and you have one fun action novel. The Good MHI is a fun read filled with really cool action. The MHI mercenary team is filled with great characters and they go around blowing the s*** out of the Monster Manual. Larry Correia is a hardcore roleplaying geek and this novel read like an awesome D20 Modern adventure(anybody besides me like D20 Modern?). Guns blazing, magic flying, supernatural goo exploding everywhere. It also did a great job of capturing the feel of military people, the banter between the characters and a lot of their attitudes really reminded me of the Marines I deployed and trained with. The Bad Some reviews point out that Owen is kind of a Gary Stu wish fulfillment character. I can see that, but in this case I don’t feel like it holds the book down at all. MHI and Owen is written for a target audience that wants to hop into the mind of a wise cracking ugly badass that splatters monster brains for a living. In this regard it succeeds beyond a reasonable doubt because if monsters were real I would be sending my resume to MHI right away, they really need a good Corpsman. Where the book stumbles a bit is in the main plot. Super evil on top of super ancient evil wants to use a ancient evil artifact to destroy the world by opening a gate to Cthulhu land. Nothing new and exciting especially once you come across some chosen one stuff that really takes away from the fun of the book. The real sweet spot of the novel lies in the Monster Hunter team, the banter, and the exploration of strange hidden places filled with all sorts of evil monsters. Once the plot started focusing on saving the world from ancient evil it started to lose a bit of the fun and magic. I would of preferred the books focus remained on smaller monster outbreaks the big plot got in the way of the good stuff. Final Thoughts Even with a few flaws MHI was an awesome fun read. If you like action, cheesy 80s B movies, and things getting blown up I highly recommend it. I enjoyed this book and once I get through the rest of the books waiting on my kindle shelf I will gladly return to Owen Pitt and MHI.

So to start I may be biased but this is my favorite book series EVER. I won’t give any spoilers so don’t worry. Just to start the author is very talented, Larry Correia has other books and they’re all great but this one takes the cake for me personally. The story follows the main character doing exactly what the title says, hunting monsters. The author describes scenes in such detail I find myself imagining it and seeing it in my mind as I read cause of the picture it paints. If you’re someone who’s into firearms like me you’ll also appreciate the realism and accuracy of the descriptions. This goes from firearm brands and accessories to details in sound and malfunction that happens with those firearms. The gear is also very realistic for the “Circumstances” of the monster hunting profession. The books take place in the 2000s and the vehicles to the weapons to the clothes to just the characters is great. He really put research into the monsters and entity’s that he writes about as well. You’ll see favorites such as Frankenstein and the wolf man all the way to the blob if you get farther into the series as I have. The author gets you attached to some characters and cursing others as if they were your real enemy. Their are currently 8 books in the main series starting with this one. Their is also a 3 book prequel that I recommend reading after reading the first four of the main series for you to understand all the jokes. I currently have them all on audible and got this one in paperback just to hold it in my hand. I love these books and can’t recommend them enough. It’s 5 stars without question for me.

Adrenaline rush, bloody pure adrenalin rush. Seriously, started slow but once the action started it was nonstop. Loved it and loved some of the concepts. Got to know many things. There are some reviews about authors comments or something. But, as an Indian I don't care about US politics lol. So this was fun and if the series will be like this, I will read it.

L'inizio di questo libro è quantomeno disturbante. Disturbante nel senso che viene voglia di abbandonare subito la lettura, quando si legge che il protagonista, un contabile, viene aggredito di notte in ufficio dal suo mediocre capo, trasformato in licantropo, e reagisce non solo svuotandogli addosso il caricatore di una pistola, ma offrendogli anche un bis visto che gira con nella giacca un secondo caricatore, e poi finisce l'opera destreggiandosi in un combattimento all'arma bianca contro il mostro, riuscendo a eliminarlo. Insomma, assurdità galoppante. Ma se si resiste, arriva il bello. Perché ammettiamolo, quando scopriamo il background del protagonista, non si può non apprezzare il libro. Dal suo file segreto della Homeland Security ("Se il governo non voleva che venisse sottratto, non avrebbero dovuto lasciarlo lì dove qualunque genio hacker sarebbe potuto entrare a prenderlo") scopriamo infatti che è "cintura nera in due arti marziali, ha fatto wrestling alle superiori ottenendo il titolo di campione nazionale dei pesi massimi per due anni consecutivi, tenuto sotto controllo dalla Homeland Security perché considerato un militante di estrema destra folle per le armi. Ha cominciato a partecipare alle competizioni di tiro a segno a otto anni, e ha un punteggio da maestro all'International Practical Shooting. E' stato classificato tra i primi cinque in svariate competizioni nazionali tattiche con tre armi. Era classificato come uno dei migliori giovani tiratori della nazione, anche se ha abbandonato negli ultimi anni. Ha provato a unirsi all'esercito venendo scartato per problemi di salute minori. Ha partecipato in combattimenti clandestini e ha collaborato con organizzazioni di scommesse clandestine. In sei anni si è laureato e ha preso un master, col massimo dei voti, e ha passato l'esame del CPA al primo colpo. National Honor Society. Parla fluentemente cinque lingue, principalmente per via del suo background familiare variegato, e conosce abbastanza da potersela cavare in diverse altre lingue." Che, unito al fatto che suo padre è una leggenda dei berretti verdi che lo ha addestrato in stile "survivalist" fin da piccolo con esercitazioni e marce della morte, e che il fratello minore ha reagito a questo ambiente diventando un famoso chitarrista heavy metal, fa cambiare prospettiva. E fa vedere il libro quasi come una sorta di "Armata delle tenebre", una goliardica presa per i fondelli di un genere intero, sapendo di esserlo e giocando sulla cosa. Alla fine si rivela diverso. Non è la schifezza che sembrava dal primo capitolo, non è la geniale parodia che prometteva successivamente. E' un urban fantasy con pretese di serietà, ma che gioca molto sull'ironia e sulle esagerazioni per divertire. Una trama seria contornata da personaggi paradossali. C'è di peggio. Anche perché il ritmo è molto buono, e il libro si lascia leggere che è un piacere. Unici punti deboli: la prevedibilità estrema della storia, e il fatto che oltre ai protagonisti anche l'autore sia un patito delle armi, e ogni volta che si parla di una pistola o di un fucile parte il pippone che ne spiega la meraviglia tecnica, il numero di proiettili che spara, la vvelocità a cui lo fa, e un mare di dettagli di cui non interessa una benemerita e che tendenzialmente non si è in grado di capire. Ma a parte questo è divertente, grazie sopratutto al tono cazzone del libro.

It is really fun to read and mostly fast moving. Sometimes descriptions are a bit long but it didn't interrupt the story or my reading flow. In my opinion the writing really fits the narrators view. Owen isn't at all a highly eloquent speaker and that's what the authors writing style really gets represented. The names of the weapons mean nothing to me cause I have no idea what they are talking about, but the way Owen talks or thinks about them gives one the impression of how powerful they are or aren't. So, if you like action, monsters, a lot of deaths, blood and shootings go ahead, you will not be sorry!

Not the most complex bit of fiction but fun, engaging and meaty. Definitely aimed at a male audience, it nonetheless avoids the hypersexual pitfalls of others in the genre. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series!

I picked this book up simply because the summary mentioned the main character fulfilling every dissatisfied employee's fantasy of throwing their boss our a window....and his boss just happened to be a werewolf. Mr Correia's world is well conceived, filled with beasties of all kinds and packed with action. He pulls historical facts, bits of folklore and elements from Lovecraft and Tolkien to create a rich environment for surprisingly complex characters. Even the bad guys can be oddly sympathetic and equally compelling.