Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge

Publisher's Summary

Two multiple New York Times best-selling authors team up to expand Larry Correia's Monster Hunter universe!

When marine private Oliver Chadwick Gardenier is killed in the marine barrack bombing in Beirut, somebody who might be Saint Peter gives him a choice: Go to heaven, which, while nice, might be a little boring, or return to earth. The Boss has a mission for him, and he's to look for a sign. He's a marine: He'll choose the mission.

Unfortunately, the sign he's to look for is "57". Which, given the food services contract in Bethesda Hospital, creates some difficulty. Eventually it appears that God's will is for Chad to join a group called Monster Hunters International and protect people from things that go bump in the night. From there, things trend downhill.

Monster Hunter Memoirs is the (mostly) true story of the life and times of one of MHI's most effective - and flamboyant - hunters. Protips for up-and-coming hunters range from how to dress appropriately for jogging (low-profile body armor and multiple weapons) to how to develop contacts among the Japanese yakuza to why it's not a good idea to make billy goat jokes to trolls.

Grunge harkens back to the Golden Days of Monster Hunting, when Reagan was in office, Ray and Susan Shackleford were top hunters, and Seattle sushi was authentic.

©2016 Larry Correia and John Ringo (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

My first in the monster hunter series

This was not a very interesting book. The main character was very one demential and so full of himself, that it was a constant distraction from the book. The entire storyline of monster hunting sounded like it would be fun, and I will probably try a different one that Larry Correia wrote alone.

I think the reader did a good job on this book considering he was being paid to read such drivel. I hope to hear him again in another book soon.

88 of 97 people found this review helpful

Disappointed

I love the MHI series. This one, not so much. I really got tired of Chad's sexcapades. It would have been much better if the authors would have built the Lt. Shaw and Chad relationship. The book just kind of wandered. Not as good as the previous books.

23 of 25 people found this review helpful

This Abomination Broke My Heart

What would have made Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge better?

If Larry Correia had written it on his own.

What do you think your next listen will be?

A re-listen of the previous MHI books so I can remember how good this series can be.

What does Oliver Wyman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Oliver Wyman is a wonderful performer and has always done an excellent job with the MHI books.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge?

Pretty much everything with and about Chad.

Any additional comments?

I am a huge fan of the MHI series but I was very disappointed with this book. One of my favorite things about Larry Correia's writing is his character development. The characters of MHI and The Grimnoir Chronicles are awesome and developed to the point where you feel like they're real people. The characters in this book were not. The main character is annoying most of the time and I wasn't able to get on his side. He spends a good portion of the book whining about his mother who is supposed to be someone you hate, but is so one dimensional I found myself rolling my eyes whenever she popped up. Larry Correia has always written amazing, strong female characters (even the villains) and I was disheartened to see that in this book all the other female characters are merely plot devices for the main character; someone for him to sleep with or think about sleeping with. Also, for this to be a MHI book, there is very little monster hunting taking place. The main character spends so much time talking about how great he is that he doesn't really have time to tell about the cases he has worked. With respect to both authors, I hope this partnership is short lived. I would love to see Mr. Correia write more MHI.

29 of 32 people found this review helpful

Very disappointed.

This was a tough one to finish. I have been a huge fan of the Monster Hunter series and Larry Correa's work until this point. I can't say for certain or if it was the dual authors or simply the side step of the story.
My thoughts were repeated through every chapter. " I get it! Chad is a horny badass genius with mommy issues."
I'm not sure if I'll pick up the next book in the series.

12 of 13 people found this review helpful

meh... don't bother with this fan fiction.

It's more like a soft core porno interspersed with some monster hunting by a main character with no flaws. don't bother.

18 of 20 people found this review helpful

Juvenile

Chad is an over-the-top character who's a master at linguistics, gun smithing, marksmanship, swordsmanship, and even the violin. Girls will jump in bed with him after a couple of stupidly transparent pickup lines. The overall tone is smug and his encounter with a Faerie queen is just laughable. Read Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - Winter Queen Mab would've left this clown gibbering and broken, if she let him live at all. I kept hoping the book would end by us looking in on a room of REAL monster hunters laughing at this memoir they had just read aloud and talking about how delusional this guy had gotten over the years.

18 of 20 people found this review helpful

Worst of The Series

I absolutely love The Monster Hunter Series, Grimnoir is one if my all time top five and I currently consider Son of The Black Sword the best Fantasy Fiction if the last ten years.
But this book did not live up to expectations.
The main character is a Mary Sue composition of Dirk Pitt, Owen Zastava Pitt and Batman without any of the good traits that make those characters awesome.
The first 1/4 if the book is his hyper polarized world view and iteration after iteration of how smart and awesome he is. No character who disagrees with or has a different world view is portrayed as anything less than a complete moron or evil.
The book then goes on the meat which is battle after battle, but they lack the normal awesomeness and detail we normally get from Mr. Correia.
I would guess that John Ringo wrote the book and Larry only edited it. Because this book does not feel like it comes from one of my top five authors.

18 of 20 people found this review helpful

Oof!

Have you listened to any of Oliver Wyman’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Wyman's narration is the only good thing about this abomination.

Any additional comments?

Loved the MHI books. The main character in this book is the whiniest, douchiest a-hole I've ever endured. It seems unlikely that the author was trying to write a character that would make me root for the monsters but if he was and I have completely misunderstood this book, bravo.

17 of 19 people found this review helpful

Not as good as previous MHI books.

The first hour has a really weird feel to it, like it's style doesn't fit the rest of the series. The story does get better.

11 of 12 people found this review helpful

Not good

I had to fight the urge to just stop listening to this book. At the time, I just didn't have anything else to listen to, so I kept going. My hope for some climatic pay-off died along with some 2-dimensional side character.

16 of 18 people found this review helpful

great series

Very much enjoyed this (Grunge) and the second book (Sinners) which left quite a few questions unanswered, however, having just gone onto the writers blog I see that there will be a third and last book in the series which I hope will answer the queries in my other review. It seems the last book 'Saints' will be released in July 2018. :)

Love the narration by oliver wyman, really grabs your attention. There are some very funny one liners and laugh out loud moments in both books.

Overall, I have enjoyed the series of monster hunter books and hope they will continue

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

loved it

Well written and engaging story with plenty of detail even when you don't want it :-)

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A good edition to the Monster Hunter International story

A good and easy read. Even though it is not need I would advise reading a least one of the novella from the Monster Hunter series as it will give you a better flavour and understanding of Larry world of Monsters & Myths

Good story

Good story with some good laughs and some really interesting story telling well worth listening to

0 of 1 people found this review helpful