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lilkatesbooknook's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
paranoidmarvin's review against another edition
4.0
I was really surprised with this one. I expected to have a meaningless, cheap thrill, gun-trotting, American hoo-hah. And I was kinda right. But I didn't expect it to be actually fun and kinda sorta interesting! The action was relentless and fluent. The deux-ex-machina moments were frequent and yet fun enough. And there were werewolves, vampires, and other monsters. At times it was like Witcher with guns! Will definitely continue the series.
jmarchek's review against another edition
3.0
My brother and I are both audible addicts, and while he occasionally asks me for recommendations, I realized that I don't often enough ask him for recommendations. So when I did, this is what he recommended. This is the opposite of chick lit - shall we call it dude lit?
The whole premise of the novel is that all sorts of monsters really exist, and that there is an organization of international free-lance monster hunters. They receive a bounty for each monster they kill, from a secret government fund.
After a narrow escape from his werewolf boss, accountant/super buff gun guy Owen Pitt is recruited by MHI. The author does have a good sense of humor, and so I did find it funny in places. His take on all the different monsters is quite interesting and I enjoyed all the setup. But there are a lot of battles, told in great detail. I think that over 1/2 of the book is a battle or more. Lots of talk about all the guns, which did not appeal to me, if you're a gun freak that's probably entertaining as well. There's even a love interest, which kept me going for a while.
Thankfully my audible app on my phone has a feature where you can increase the narrator speed. I finished the last 3rd at 2x speed. I doubt I'll read the rest of the series, but if I ever need to recommend a book to a hunter/gun fan this'll be it.
The whole premise of the novel is that all sorts of monsters really exist, and that there is an organization of international free-lance monster hunters. They receive a bounty for each monster they kill, from a secret government fund.
After a narrow escape from his werewolf boss, accountant/super buff gun guy Owen Pitt is recruited by MHI. The author does have a good sense of humor, and so I did find it funny in places. His take on all the different monsters is quite interesting and I enjoyed all the setup. But there are a lot of battles, told in great detail. I think that over 1/2 of the book is a battle or more. Lots of talk about all the guns, which did not appeal to me, if you're a gun freak that's probably entertaining as well. There's even a love interest, which kept me going for a while.
Thankfully my audible app on my phone has a feature where you can increase the narrator speed. I finished the last 3rd at 2x speed. I doubt I'll read the rest of the series, but if I ever need to recommend a book to a hunter/gun fan this'll be it.
lizh1008's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
a_writer_guy's review against another edition
3.0
I absolutely love Correia's Grimnoir Chronicle series. Some of my favorite books by a long shot.As such, I was incredibly excited to read Monster Hunter International. Unfortunately, it was just ok. It was entertaining, and I like it, but it was a little too heavy on the focus on weaponry and blowing crap up. I understand that Correia is a huge firearms fan and an instructor of them as well, but that's just not really my thing so, for me, it hurt the story just a tad. Not enough to make me hate it by any means, just enough to make me no terribly sure if I would read the rest of the series. I probably will because he mixed in fantastic fantasy elements with his talk of hi-tech weaponry and that was just fun. Overall, it was a pretty entertaining book, but if you're not knowledgeable about firearms, you'll probably be a little bored and lost in a few parts of this book.
topdragon's review against another edition
4.0
Boy, if you've ever wanted to read an all-out action book, I've found one for you. Monster Hunter International is about an ordinary guy, an accountant no less, who finds himself having to fight a werewolf on the very first page. The fact that the werewolf is his condescending boss makes it all the sweeter when he finally defeats him after a bloody battle. As a result, MHI (Monster Hunter Int'l) recruits our ordinary guy and trains him to go after vampires, ghouls, wights, gargoyles and assorted demons. There are lots of lengthy, bloody battles here, lots and lots of gunplay, more battles, more guns, and...well, you get the idea. I found reading this book to be akin to playing a video game or watching a Robert Romero zombie movie. Pretty cool stuff. And, believe it or not, the characters were pretty well fleshed out as well.
The only negative thing I have to say about the book is that there a few plot contrivances. In other words, it almost seemed the author wrote himself into a corner, an impossible situation, and had to resort to a trick to get out of it. I won't spell it out any more for fear of spoilers. And, like a video game, the horrific nature of the monsters made them seem impossible to kill...and yet it happened...and then the next monster was even worse...and yet the MHI teams triumphed...etc. Our hero gets mauled and mangled so badly he couldn't have been much more than a walking road rash and yet there he is fighting hard in the next scene. Good escapist summer reading. Nothing wrong with that. The end sets up a sequel or three and I suspect Hollywood and/or computer game design companies are on the move.
The only negative thing I have to say about the book is that there a few plot contrivances. In other words, it almost seemed the author wrote himself into a corner, an impossible situation, and had to resort to a trick to get out of it. I won't spell it out any more for fear of spoilers. And, like a video game, the horrific nature of the monsters made them seem impossible to kill...and yet it happened...and then the next monster was even worse...and yet the MHI teams triumphed...etc. Our hero gets mauled and mangled so badly he couldn't have been much more than a walking road rash and yet there he is fighting hard in the next scene. Good escapist summer reading. Nothing wrong with that. The end sets up a sequel or three and I suspect Hollywood and/or computer game design companies are on the move.
snuf's review against another edition
5.0
"We are about to walk into the valley of the shadow of death, but we will fear no evil because we are the baddest mother fuckers to ever set foot in this valley." -Earl
AMAZING book. Correia is the king of writing action scenes. I could not find one thing I did not like about this book. I am fully committed to the rest of this series now.
Second read:
This one was somehow even better the second time through. I can't find a single thing wrong with this book. Definitely snuck it's way into the all-time list.
AMAZING book. Correia is the king of writing action scenes. I could not find one thing I did not like about this book. I am fully committed to the rest of this series now.
Second read:
This one was somehow even better the second time through. I can't find a single thing wrong with this book. Definitely snuck it's way into the all-time list.
hdbblog's review against another edition
4.0
Okay, this book was pure fun. That might sound odd, seeing as I'm talking about a book that deals with killing monsters for a living, but it's the truth! I went into this book with no expectations at all, and that actually made it even better. My book club wanted something action packed, Goodreads suggested this, and I chose it just because the cover is some epic art. Oh, I'm so glad this made it on my radar. I have so much catching up to do.
The hilarious part of all of this is that this isn't just an action novel. Oh, sure, it's filled to the brim with epic monster fights and all manner of skirmishes. If you're at all squeamish, you might want to stay away from this series because Larry Correia pulls no punches when it comes to battle wounds. However this book is so much more than all of that. Correia also creates characters who you genuinely want to root for. Owen himself is especially easy to follow along with. He's just a normal guy, an accountant, who suddenly finds himself enmeshed in a world that is far beyond what he ever thought existed out there. Owen becomes a somewhat unwilling monster hunter, and it turns out that he's damn good at it too.
Even better, Holly, Julie, Tripp, and all the rest get these lush backstories that just makes you want to keep reading about them. Correia never does infodumps, which is so refreshing. Every piece of lore, every piece of monster related information, is placed in a manner that it feels completely organic. I learned right alongside the "newbie squad", as they prepared for their first fight. I saw how, no matter how much they studied, there is never any way to be 100% prepared. This story had me so committed to these characters, so invested in their lives, that I literally yelled out loud the first time someone died. As I said, this isn't a nice book when it comes to deaths. Death is bloody, violent and, because I loved these characters, often devastating.
What I loved even more was that this book doesn't take itself to seriously. There are bits of humor, silly puns, and every character has their own amazing personality. Everything about this story just wrapped me up in a world that I didn't even know I wanted to visit, and spit me back out on the other side as a total fangirl. I'd read this again in a heartbeat, if there weren't more books in this series to turn my attention to. Bravo Larry Correia! This may not have been my perfect read and gotten that last star, but damn was it fun read. I can't wait to get to the next one!
The hilarious part of all of this is that this isn't just an action novel. Oh, sure, it's filled to the brim with epic monster fights and all manner of skirmishes. If you're at all squeamish, you might want to stay away from this series because Larry Correia pulls no punches when it comes to battle wounds. However this book is so much more than all of that. Correia also creates characters who you genuinely want to root for. Owen himself is especially easy to follow along with. He's just a normal guy, an accountant, who suddenly finds himself enmeshed in a world that is far beyond what he ever thought existed out there. Owen becomes a somewhat unwilling monster hunter, and it turns out that he's damn good at it too.
Even better, Holly, Julie, Tripp, and all the rest get these lush backstories that just makes you want to keep reading about them. Correia never does infodumps, which is so refreshing. Every piece of lore, every piece of monster related information, is placed in a manner that it feels completely organic. I learned right alongside the "newbie squad", as they prepared for their first fight. I saw how, no matter how much they studied, there is never any way to be 100% prepared. This story had me so committed to these characters, so invested in their lives, that I literally yelled out loud the first time someone died. As I said, this isn't a nice book when it comes to deaths. Death is bloody, violent and, because I loved these characters, often devastating.
What I loved even more was that this book doesn't take itself to seriously. There are bits of humor, silly puns, and every character has their own amazing personality. Everything about this story just wrapped me up in a world that I didn't even know I wanted to visit, and spit me back out on the other side as a total fangirl. I'd read this again in a heartbeat, if there weren't more books in this series to turn my attention to. Bravo Larry Correia! This may not have been my perfect read and gotten that last star, but damn was it fun read. I can't wait to get to the next one!
screamweaver's review against another edition
3.0
I like the characters in this book, the setting, everything except the main character who seems to have everything fall into his lap way too easily. It's still a good read, lots of fun when it isn't beating you over the head with how perfect Owen is at everything.
kaiap33's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75