Series Review: Monster Hunter International

Some authors are very much your typical "I grew up the sensitive intellectual and my writing is my means of sharing my ideas to the world" kind of people who spend their time making prose. Then you have Larry Correia: a former FFL (that means he sold guns for all you gun newbs), a SWAT instructor, a tabletop RPG nerd, a licensed firearm instructor, a cow farmer, a competition shooter... The list goes on. There's been a lot that people have said about him, and while not all of it could be considered flattering, one thing is for sure: he's absolutely unique and breaks the mold more than just about any other individual. Correia's Monster Hunter International series is an action-packed, balls out ridiculous universe pumped up with so much pulpy monster lore it may need triple heart bypass surgery.

For those who don't already know, I am a HUGE fan of Larry Correia's genre blurring Grimnoir Chronicles series. Since Grimnoir Chronicles and MHI are Correia's two most accomplished series, it raises the question: How do they stack up? This is difficult to answer. Whereas Grimnoir Chronicles is a more general story and one meant for more audiences, MHI is more niche. In fact, Grimnoir Chronicles the book series I recommend to everyone (along with Patrick Rothfuss's K'vothe series). Does this mean MHI should be overlooked? Absolutely not.

Edit: I met Larry Correia recently when he was touring his newest installation of the Monster Hunter International series, so I felt I'd revisit this and update it for the new book. I talked with him a good bit and he signed the new book for me.

Larry Correia's style of writing is extremely straightfoward. Like, here are the antagonists, here are the protagonists, now here is the action. This isn't a bad thing, as he doesn't spend any downtime on mercurial aspects which can trap a lot of writers. Everything is clearly established, but he focuses on what is actually happening in the story. The final result is that there is a constant flow from one direction to the next without really looking back. It's like being in a river (or, more accurately, being caught in class 5 rapids with a fuckton of gunpowder to go along with the adrenaline rush of a ride you're in for).

There is always has at least one aspect of his writing that's done exceptionally well in all his books, a shining example to writers of all types. In MHI, it is the supporting characters. Enter: the Shackleford family. Between being shrewd businessmen, they're also badass mercs who clawed their way to the top of the lucrative trade of monster hunting. Along the way, they employ whoever they find with 3 exceptions: 1) They must watch each others' backs no matter what; 2) They need to understand that just as there are good and bad people, there are also good and bad monsters; and 3) They can't be afraid to tell the federal government to fuck off. Several characters employed by the Shacklefords include Sam Haven, a testosterone fueled cowboy, and Milo Anderson, a heavy weapons supergenius and devout Mormon. As outlandish as these characters are, the main character's best friends are the ones who will resonate with you the most.

There's Holly Newcastle, who I honestly empathize with which is extremely rare for me. She was doing what she needed to in order to survive before a traumatic incident with monsters. Holly is a survivor though, instead of letting a victim mentality get to her she strives to be as capable as possible so she can help others. Then there's Trip Jones, who's like a black Gordon Freeman on steroids (except he uses a pickaxe to brain zombies instead of a crowbar). Beneath his extreme physical prowess and high intellectual capacity, Trip demonstrates a lot of loyalty despite the personal things he's dealing with. He'll never turn his back on a friend in need, which is the one thing that keeps him, Holly, and main character together.

The main character, Owen Pitt, is a seamless mix of lovable doofus and gun toting badass. We can guffaw at his social ineptitude without feeling like he's ever underqualified or incapable of getting the job done. I can definitely see influence from Jayne Cobb in Owen's character, but then again Correia does have Adam Baldwin narrating some of his audiobooks (the Tom Stranger series). With as many colorful characters, it's a testament to the books' quality how we never lose sight of the main character.

This artwork's source is here and the picture is called "Down Boy"

The entire crew of characters isn't the only thing that makes overlooking MHI's flaws easy, either. There are tons of fantastical monsters such as orcs, gnomes, and elves, but Corriea hasn't written a single traditional monster in the series. He takes something familiar and does something unfamiliar with it. Though, you will certainly see some lesser known monsters such as a Go Dakkaebi, golems, and assorted fey to compliment the more mainstream stuff like werewolves, vampires,  and your Lovecraftian Great Old Ones. Similarly, there's a ton of gunplay. As I mentioned at the start, Correia has a lot of experience with firearms (I even cited him as a source in my post combining a bunch of information on conceal carry for people looking to get into guns). As a result, the gunplay is fantastic. It's very clear and easy to follow, the ballistics are accurate, it's utterly devoid of hollywood logic... To give you an idea, Correia has gone out of his way to include the characters' earpro they wear when shooting the monsters so that they don't go deaf. This is something people who aren't familiar with guns overlook- standing next to a jet engine is quieter than listening to most types of gunfire, you need hearing protection or silencers to avoid blowing your eardrums out. (Yes I believe silencers, or more accurately suppressors, are necessary safety devices and I live for the day integrated suppressors are the norm for commercially available compact handguns for every day carry.)

A valid complaint about MHI is how it can seem too samey. However, I don't think that's a bad thing- Correia's writing flows incredibly well and remains incredibly pulpy throughout the series. Again, it does have its flaws but his style avoids any common traps you'd usually see good writing fall into.

I wanted to talk about each individual book in the series, as well:

International: This is his first book, so one would expect it to be a lot rougher around the edges than it actually is. Everything is clearly established, there isn't any wasted time, and the eBook version is free on Amazon.

Vendetta: Everything a good sequel should be, using what was in the first as a jumping off point. I especially liked how it provided closure for certain characters without coming up with half assed explanations like "This was just magically here the whole time".

Alpha: Great for people who want delve deeper into the series, but it doesn't stand out to me like the first 2 books did. Earl Harbinger is already a well enough established character that the book had to spend more time getting the wheels spinning than any other in the series. Because of that, I'd say this one is the weakest.

Legion: Much like Alpha, this isn't bad by any stretch but doesn't really stand out the way the first two books did. You could probably skip these 2 and not miss terribly much.

Nemesis: While Earl Harbinger is an interesting character, his entourage is characters we already regularly see. Having to move him to an entirely different location bogged down Alpha a lot. Franks on the other hand has his own entourage that can be expanded on, and I'm glad that it gave more exposition to characters who wouldn't have gotten it otherwise. Much like with Toru in the Grimnoir Chronicles, Correia has demonstrated that a villain can be as dynamic and profound as the hero and that conflicts usually aren't as simple as someone just being the bad guy. Though it probably provided Correia with the greatest challenge of his life- make people sympathize with government agents.

Siege: And here is where we get to the falling action! In Nemesis everything was reaching a climax which is why Correia chose to divulge Franks's true identity. Everything from here onwards is going to be the pieces falling into place. The real bad guy gets revealed, we have a confrontation, we have loose ends being wrapped up in preparation for a final battle. In spite of all this, there are still personal stakes. Correia is smart enough to understand that assembling an army only for the main character to mono y mono with the bad guy would be a little contradictory for all the themes in the series.

This is still an ongoing series, and I'll be updating this as it completes. And on that note: Correia will be retiring from writing soon. He is finishing up MHI and has a new trilogy focusing on magic (first one in the series is Son of the Black Sword which I highly recommend to anyone who has more than a passing interest in dark fantasy). Then that will be it for his run as an author. I'd highly recommend Grimnoir Chronicles but MHI is by no means worth overlooking, especially if you're into shooting like I am.

The last thing I wanted to add to this is that there have been talks of a television adaptation or similar, so I wanted to shamelessly plug some actors who I think would fill some of the rolls perfectly.

Owen Pitt - Tait Fletcher
Julie Shackleford - Lizzy Caplan
Agent Franks - Dave Bautista
Agent Myers - Ethan Hawke
Skippy the Orc - Vin Diesal
Milo Anderson - Fran Kranz
Grant Jefferson - Chris Pine
Dorcas Peabody - Linda Hamilton