I’ve been hearing about Larry Correia for a few years now. He’s a self-publishing success-story who parlayed his success into not having to be a self-publishing success-story any more. He got his start in writing with a collaborative serial on a gun enthusiast forum. Encouraged by the amount of hits his serial was getting, he decided to try a full-blown novel. He sold over 2000 copies, and caught the attention of a bookseller who likes to champion independent authors. That bookseller sold enough of his books that he made it on a bestseller list without the help of a major publisher.
Before long Correia had a contract with Baen Books for “Monster Hunter International”. You could consider “MHI” urban fantasy, except it mostly takes place in rural Alabama. You could maybe consider it Paranormal Romance, except there’s a lot of gunfights, monster-hunting, and other assorted action getting in the way of the romance. So perhaps it could be considered Rural Paranormal Fantomance? Or perhaps “gun porn”. There’s certainly a lot of gun description and gun admiration, but it makes a certain amount of sense, as these monster hunters rely on their weapons. I didn’t feel it got in the way. The story is still king, and I enjoyed this story quite a bit.
And just what is the story, you ask? Let me tell you! Owen Zustava Pitt is an accountant (who put himself through school as an illegal pit fighter) whose boss is a real monster. And that’s before he turns into a werewolf and tries to kill him. Pitt, or “Z”, manages to kill the werewolf, but is seriously wounded–he technically dies on the operating table. While unconscious he is contacted by a mysterious, eastern European man who tells him he has been chosen for a task to stop the coming storm. When he awakens he is visited by two groups. The first is the government agency in charge of keeping monsters “under wraps” so as not to spook the public. They’re there to kill Pitt if it turns out he was made a werewolf himself. The second is a private company called Monster Hunter International who, having heard of his incredible feat of survival, have come to recruit him. One of the two MHI contacts is a beautiful, smart, gun-nut woman.
It shouldn’t be much of a spoiler to reveal that Pitt does not become a werewolf, so the government Monster Control Bureau can’t kill him, and that he joins MHI. But with the return of an ancient evil–and the old guy in his head–his troubles have only just begun.
Considering that Correia himself is an accountant and gun-nut, one could make a strong case for this being a “Mary Sue” novel. Pitt is certainly good at keeping himself–and everyone else–alive. On the other hand, he’s as dumb as a box of rocks at times, and has a terrible temper. If you didn’t know much about Correia you wouldn’t notice the obvious parallels. Knowing as much as I do, I still didn’t care.
I’ll need to issue a language and gore warning. Monster hunters are not known for polite language, and their work is messy. The latter was graphic enough to trigger the gore anxiety I developed after passing out in a rather graphic first aid class presentation once. But then I was listening to the audio book, which for some reason is more potent. I’ve read as bad in print and had no trouble at all. The language, violence, and gore would give it an “R” rating in movie form, but Correia avoids sex and descriptive nudity.
What you will see is accurate depictions of gun use. His guns have recoil, run out of bullets, break, jam, and create an awful lot of noise. If people don’t use ear protection they have difficulty hearing after a gunfight. Correia is, as I mentioned, is a gun enthusiast and a certified instructor. He got his start writing for gun enthusiasts, who would have picked him into shreds had he not gotten it right. So if this matters to you, Correia is your man.
Monster Hunter International blends action-adventure, humor, paranormal, a dose of Lovecraft, and para-military fiction together in a fun package. The book doesn’t take itself too seriously, and the pacing is lively. It includes a lively and varied cast of characters, exotic locales (if you consider Alabama exotic, which I do, being raised in the high deserts of Idaho), historical tie-ins, and a goodly portion of romance. I had a lot of fun with this one. More than I expected.
The audiobook is narrated by the ever-excellent Oliver Wyman. I understand Correia’s other series, “The Grimnoir Chronicles”, a fantasy noir, is voiced by Bronson Pinchot of “Perfect Strangers”, Balki Bartokimus fame (who I also understand is an amazing narrator).
I tried to read this in paperback, but had to quit after the freighter assault. Not because the book was bad, but because it was evocative enough that I knew I was going to have serious nightmares if I kept going…
Imagination is a powerful/dangerous thing. The freighter assault was probably the most intense part that I recall. A lot more dread and suspense there than any other time, except perhaps for the big final showdown. In the rest of the cases you’re not given so much time to build suspense before the action gets going. But yeah, there’s an underlying creepy element that never quite goes away. This is more Lovecraftian than Hollywood. Correia admits to having played RPGs in college. I suspect this grew out of “Call of Cthulhu”, but with better armaments.
Yeah, what I got through did feel like it grew out of a beloved homebrewed game setting. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but there was this underlying vibe of “I’m geeking out over my story every step of the way”, which is off-putting but when I think about it I don’t know why that puts me off. If anyone should be enthusiastic about a story, it’s the author.
Well, the RPG tie-in is pure speculation on my part. But as I mentioned, there does seem to be an element of wish-fulfillment to it. I either got used to it or the story outgrew it after a while. His main character is pretty good at getting the crap kicked out of him in spite of saving the day frequently. Oddly enough, and perhaps because of the “Mary Sue” elements, I found it rather satisfying that in the end he doesn’t win by being kick-butt, but by learning when to fold and when to duck.