October 2022 Book Club: Monster Hunter International (Monster Hunter International, #1) by Larry Correia

  

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Content: Strong language, Off page sex

 

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.

It turns out that monsters are real. All the things from myth, legend, and B-movies are out there, waiting in the shadows. Officially secret, some of them are evil, and some are just hungry. On the other side are the people who kill monsters for a living. Monster Hunter International is the premier eradication company in the business. And now Owen is their newest recruit.

It’s actually a pretty sweet gig, except for one little problem. An ancient entity known as the Cursed One has returned to settle a centuries old vendetta. Should the Cursed One succeed, it means the end of the world, and MHI is the only thing standing in his way. With the clock ticking towards Armageddon, Owen finds himself trapped between legions of undead minions, belligerent federal agents, a cryptic ghost who has taken up residence inside his head, and the cursed family of the woman he loves.

Business is good... Welcome to Monster Hunter International.

 

I've seen this book around for years, but my sister-in-law is the one that got me interested in reading it. When she brought it as one of the book choices for book club and told us about how the tiny little towns in Mississippi and Alabama that my in-laws and my nephews live in are featured in the book, I decided to try it. And while I can assure you that my nephew's wife, who is from Booneville, MS, does not have pointy ears, or resemble any of the characters you will meet there in the book, it was loads of fun to read about towns I have been to and even somewhat know.

I liked the way this book started.  

"On one otherwise normal Tuesday evening I had the chance to live the American dream. I was able to throw my incompetent jackass of a boss from a fourteenth-story window."

That first line pulled me into the story, plus the book starts off right away with an action scene. There were quite a few things I liked about this book. The elves are not the typical elves, and I laughed a lot at them. The orcs are not the typical orcs, and I loved that. The little towns were a nice departure from the big city settings of most urban fantasy. The humor was nicely placed and helped to lighten a very action packed story. There were also some things I didn't like about it.

You know how Tolkien went on and on about the little details of trees or flowers in his books? Well, Larry Correia does that with guns. I didn't mind the guns to an extent, heck, I even like guns. I love going to range to shoot mine, but the amount of description of them in this book was excessive. There were also a LOT of action scenes. It felt like one of those blockbuster action movies with little character development. Every now and then the action would be paused for gun descriptions, insta-love, and the  occasional humorous incident. And yes, I said insta-love. The main character gushes over a woman he barely knows. He's head over heels at first sight. I liked Julie as a character, she was confident and capable, but the insta-love and the other trope involving this relationship—that I won't spoil here—was  annoying.

Overall, I thought this was a fun read that can only be described as brain candy, and there's nothing wrong with that if that's what you're looking for. I just ended up being disappointed because I thought this could have been more. It had the bones of a good urban fantasy, if only there had been less gun descriptions and action scenes, and more character and story development. The basic ideas are there. Too bad the author didn't slow down and explore them more. If only the elves, the orcs, and the villains, had been fleshed out and explored more, instead of feeling like cardboard cutouts. If only the love story had progressed more slowly. And if only the plot of this one book had been expanded over the course of maybe two or three, instead of rushed in this one book. That feels like a weird thing to say, considering this book is over 700 pages long. The thing is, it didn't need to be. It could have given us the same story at half the length. There was a lot of filler in there. Instead, we could have gotten more in those 700 pages, or two or three smaller books that did all the things I wish this one had. There are several other books in the series, that may address these issues, but after already reading over 700 pages and not feeling like I got enough out of them, I think I'm good with stopping here. That being said, I don't regret reading this. It wasn't bad, and it led to some good, fun discussion at book club.