Monster Hunting Gone Corporate
A Review of Larry Correia’s First Two Monster Hunter
International books.
By Daniel Shultz
We live in
a world filled with evil, tangible human evil, but what if we lived in a world with
all of that human evil and with the horrible, ugly, grotesque monsters of legend?
What if vampires and werewolves were really out there prowling the streets?
Surely a police force already burdened by the overabundance of human crimes
couldn’t protect us from all these monsters as well? Fantasy author Larry
Correia offers an answer to that question with his Monster Hunter International
series in a very simple way: Corporate Monster Slaying.
The books
are told in the first person view point of a man named Owen Pitt, who after
fighting and then throwing his werewolf boss out of a high rise building, finds
himself recruited by Monster Hunter International. MHI is a company that kills
monsters for money. The Government offers bounties for these monsters in order
to keep the creatures existence a secret and keep the monsters at bay. The series
in a very non-subtle way provides a look at private citizens who manage to see
the evil around them and take action. While one might not agree with all of the
conclusions of the characters in the books, which seem to lean libertarian in
their viewpoint, one can see that the right of self-defense can even be elaborated
on in fantasy novels and even championed in a B movie plot with plenty of good-ole-boys
shootin-n-killin monsters.
The first
book in the series (Monster Hunter International) was self published by Mr.
Correia and found great success online due to its action packed nature and very
detailed description of firearms. Larry Correia, a former firearms instructor
and gun store owner, prides himself in detailing with great accuracy the use of
firearms in his books. This technical accuracy is quite informative and lends
itself well to readers who have a decent knowledge of firearms and their usage.
Because of the success that MHI found in self-publishing Mr. Correia was
offered a publishing contract with Baen books and since gone on to write over 10
novels for Baen in three different series .
The main
problem that I find with the first book in the series is that it was not a very
polished novel. Due to its self-published nature the novel suffers from pacing
problems and its length, over 700 paperback pages, can seem overwhelming at
times. Although the book clearly had problems the concept and desire to write simple
yet fun stories about people shooting monsters with automatic shotguns was
enough to make me buy the next book in the series.
In Monster
Hunter Vendetta Owen Pitt finds himself being targeted by an evil cult that
worships the monsters that he thwarted in the first book. The second book
expands on the promise of the first, but is improved by being only around 600
paperback pages.
Throughout
both of the books Correia subverts certain fantasy tropes and clichés, taking
what is expected and putting a unique fun spin on it. His portrayal of elves is
quite different than what we have come to expect since the days of the regal
splendor of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, making something utterly unique and
hilarious in the process.
Correia
manages to bring some much needed levity and simplicity to a genre that too
often takes itself overly serious. With the amount of “grimdark” and post
modern fantasy novels that are gracing the shelves of bookstores today Correia
has become a welcome shotgun blast to the genre. His books are fun and engaging
and provide an explosion of brightness in a time when most authors seem to only
be relishing in darkness.
While the
books definitely have problems, length and pacing being the biggest their
plotting and characterization are done pretty well and manage to keep a reader
pressing on through the slower bits to see more action and monster hunting. One
need only see that Correia has become a New York times best seller and
frequently sits in the top 20 fantasy authors on Amazon to see that his
popularity has blossomed since first releasing his self published debut. Along
with this success have come improvements in his writing, making his newer books
even better than these two already decent entries into his bibliography. One of
which we will explore in another review at some point in the future.
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