Monster Hunter International

Damn, this is such a fun book, I just feel like I have to review it now, after my second time reading it.

Owen is a bit of a weird dude. He is an accountant, but he used to be an illegal cage fighter. His dad is a war hero and raised both him and his brother to be super tough because of his paranoia about some huge, apocalyptic fuckup in the future. Typical. Crazy dad.
Then one day, while working at his office, Owen gets attacked by his werewolf-ified boss. What does he do? Well, he protects himself and through that scores a new job being a monster hunter. Then the fun begins.

From Lovecraftian horrors to trailer park elves, Correia does a brilliant job fitting supernatural abominations into a fun, action packed universe. I mean we have seen so much of this. Urban fantasy. Vampires. Werewolves. Blagh. But I can tell you, he adds the exact kinds of twists that made me laugh out loud and bounce with joy. Orcs who do magic healing with roadkill and think of metal bands as deities? Come oooon.
If you are willing to embrace the silly, you are going to have a great time with it.

Said silly is absolutely necessary, though, because some moments just kick your heart in the butt. Some things about it are just so dark, which actually adds a lot of the characterisation of the people. Why? Because I can buy that wild, mindless fun is something these people would try to have when they are on the brink of death or worse every day. The one-liners and bizarre situations are believable because they there to oppose all the horrible things.
And man, the characters are great. Not saying they are all fleshed out 100%, firstly because there are just so many, secondly because this is the first book. But they are so memorable. An incredibly cheerful Mormon weapons expert? A stripper-turned monster hunter with some serious anger issues and a foul mouth? The fact all the characters had a “normal” life before becoming monster hunters just adds so much to this mishmash of a group and Mr. Correia really utilises it. If you like stories with an assorted group of weirdos working together to save the world... this ones goes to you, my friend.
(I have read other books from the author, this is a consistent thing with him. He does a bunch of different characters and they are all fascinating and entertaining.)

Most authors seem to have some specific thing they love that they can't help putting into their books. With Tolkien, it was plants and linguistics. With Correia... it's GUNS. He knows his stuff as he is apparently a competitive shooter, gun store owner and he also used to teach gun proficiency classes.
Now I know some people just go into fits at the thought of that. Those people should not read this book. I did not grow up in the US and never been near guns, but my personal opinion is that more accurate knowledge about guns is not going to make you less safe, but more so. From what I have heard from people who do know firearms, Correia knows what he is talking about, so I can respect that.

Because I have already read all the currently available books, I know for a fact that I love this whole series. I am going on for sure and preparing for this summer when book eight is supposedly coming, which I have no reason to doubt, as another great point for Mr. Correia, he is a very consistent and extremely productive author. You can trust him to release things.

I've reviewed these separately at FanLit: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/fantasy-author/correialarry