Monster Hunter International

By: Larry Correia

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 24 hrs

Publisher's summary

Five days after Owen Zastava Pitt pushed his insufferable boss out of a 14th story window, he woke up in the hospital with a scarred face, an unbelievable memory, and a job offer.

It turns out that monsters are real. All the things from myth, legend, and B-movies are out there, waiting in the shadows. Officially secret, some of them are evil, and some are just hungry. On the other side are the people who kill monsters for a living. Monster Hunter International is the premier eradication company in the business. And now Owen is their newest recruit.

It's actually a pretty sweet gig, except for one little problem. An ancient entity known as the Cursed One has returned to settle a centuries-old vendetta. Should the Cursed One succeed, it means the end of the world, and MHI is the only thing standing in his way.

With the clock ticking towards Armageddon, Owen finds himself trapped between legions of undead minions, belligerent federal agents, a cryptic ghost who has taken up residence inside his head, and the cursed family of the woman he loves. Business is good.... Welcome to Monster Hunter International.

©2009 Larry Correia (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Just Plain Fun!

I can't believe I've waited so long to try this series. Forget monsters as metaphor, objects of romance or other emotional angst, this book gives you vampires, zombies, werewolves and any number of other more obscure things that go bump in the night as baddies, after your blood, your soul, or worse. But luckily, as long as there have been monsters, there have been men and women who have gone into the dark to hunt them. And nowadays, they have all the firepower you could imagine with which to do it, loaded with silver bullets, of course.
The author has plenty of firearms knowhow to draw upon, and the book brims with terrific details and exciting gunplay. Funny little world-building breaks about common misconceptions about the supernatural world in this universe also provide countless moments that might actually make someone with a passing familiarity with genre tropes laugh out loud. The only hang up might be the drawn out nature of some of the action sequences, which have a noticeable effect on pacing when they slam against slower plot development. Also, don't be surprised if you figure things out before the author quite tips his hand, much less before the characters work it out. All in all though, this first installment delivers a solidly entertaining, action-packed fusion of sci-fi and fantasy that offers the promise of only better things to come, which the series has so far vindicated.
Oliver Wyman is without doubt the ideal narrator for this series, imparting just the right amount of emphasis on the first-person narrative's humorous asides and doing a surprisingly good job with the broad range of character voices.
If you're looking for a fun paranormal thrill-ride written by someone that knows the difference between 45 ACP and 45 Colt, look no further and be prepared for a few chuckles along the way.

Monsters beware.. Killer accountant approaching.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, this is a fun action-packed book. It is well written and the narrarator is spot on.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Monster Hunter International?

towards the beginning when he finds out his boss really IS a monster.

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

Just this series, but he does an awsome job. he captures the humor and emotion and has a wide range of voices for characters.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

No.. it really isn't that kind of book.

Any additional comments?

Nice to see a series where monsters actually are monsters and not simply misunderstood people.

not for me

Well written and well read, but just not a story that I'm interested in finishing.

... really? Cliché and arms

Any additional comments?

Here comes your standard american tough guy with the no-bs attitude, cliché dripping "insights" and 1-dimensional "opinions". If there is a problem, the gun will solve it. Thinking is for p-ssies.Oh and the weapons. He couldn't just said: "Then he drew his shotgun and fired ten bullets into the vampire". He has to say (regularly) something along the lines of: "Then he drew is 8-4-2-inch-special-force-xYZ-2p from his holster and fired a couple of special-yadda-yadda-2.5-9-yadda-yadda-whatnotkindoffancyammo into the vamp". A solid third of all fight scenes is useless glibberish unless you have a weapon catalog at your disposal or you have the wrong hobby.

I wanted to like it, but it didn't like me back.

I really wanted to read this a fun action oriented romp into the supernatural, but it told me to go f**k myself because it wanted to be a librarian's with fulfillment circle jerk.

I can stand the main character being an insipid Gary-stu author avatar. I could stand the author's bizarre gun fetish. I could stand the 2D characters who's motivations and actions are practically stapled to their fore head. I could stand the mind numbing love interest/romance and I really loved the action segments and some of the ideas for the monsters. I wanted to like this book, I really did!


but dear mother of pearl why did every paragraph have to be laced with the author's ridiculous need to shove in his views on politics, women and race as heavy handed and awkward as possible. Every other sentence out of a the character's mouth's basically boiled down to "f**k the government" , on top of that the government is depicted with blithering incompetence and the author makes sure you know that, every single character from the government is arrogant, idiotic, a total jerk, or just a mindless grunt and the main characters are never wrong while having this grating "I told you so" attitude about it.

There is plenty of other things too, at one point the NRA literally shows up to save the day and the quip about gun laws before it rides off into the sunset and for some god awful reason this book constantly feels the need to make sure the reader know it's not racist even though the it's entirely unprovoked and unnecessary at best, and borderline racist at worst. The book literally stops at one point so the main female character to go into some diatribe about how unracist the south is, it was like a fist of full of pants on head retarded that comes out of know where and just smashes you int he face. They're literally about to be descended on by powerful vampires but for whatever reason really need to share their views on slavery right at that moment.

This book was frustrating to say the least. Every time it would give you a little nugget of some thing delightful (which their where alot of them) it immediately would beat you over the head with a club as it tried to bury the author's nonsensical propaganda into your head.

No sequels for me

It started off as fun, seemed promising, but was sorely lacking in plot or believability. Our hero died but a time-warp brought him back like new, he was beaten to a pulp but was miraculously healed when the story warranted it. Too much gun talk and adoration, too much fighting, too many kinds of monsters and oddball creatures. I am not a fantasy fan. This is just not my cup of tea, or rather, whiskey.

Outstanding start to 3/4 of an outstanding series

I say "3/4 of an outstanding series" because I thought the 3rd book stunk. But this one definitely does not; this is an incredibly good audiobook, combining an excellent, exciting, extremely creative book with the kind of performance that elevates mere reading into life; each character has a distinct, believable voice, and the pacing and emphasis are as perfect as human endeavors get.

Larry Correia manages to roll out a fairly large cast of characters without being confusing or leaving the reader constantly thinking, "Now wait, who's this guy?" The main character, Owen Z Pitt, finds out the hard way that monsters are real, that werewolves really do exist. He goes on to discover that there's a whole business of monster hunting, and his upbringing turns out to have been perfect for him to excel as a monster hunter.

The characters are fairly complex for an action/thriller/monster book and they sound like real people talking. The monsters are seriously monstrous, a mix of the familiar (vampires, werewolves) and some brand new doozies right out of Correia's subconscious --I'd hate to do a ride-along in one of his nightmares!

This & the second & fourth of the MHI books are just great, fun, stick-to-the-earbuds books that beg to be described as "rollicking," if the word was still used (#3, I fear, was just boring, though still well-read). Misters Correia & Wyman together have created great examples of how audiobooks CAN be, but all too often aren't. They make a high bar, though, and are a real treat for the listener!

More monsters than you can shake a stick at!

Where does Monster Hunter International rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the best!

What other book might you compare Monster Hunter International to and why?

In a class by itself!

What three words best describe Oliver Wyman’s voice?

A little more emotion might have helped the experience.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Nothing

Any additional comments?

Can't wait for the next one.

Solid fun, surprisingly interesting story

Would you consider the audio edition of Monster Hunter International to be better than the print version?

The reader's performance is great, adding depth to Owen that wouldn't be there in the text alone.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Monster Hunter International?

The gargoyle attack was pretty awesome.

What about Oliver Wyman???s performance did you like?

Oliver brings life to Larry Correia's words in much the same way that a skilled actor brings his script to life.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I wasn't particularly moved by any point in this book; it was like a roller coaster or an action/horror movie. It was exciting and a lot of fun.

Any additional comments?

This series reminded me of the Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries. It's nowhere near as sexually charged as that series, but it has the same sense of pulpy fun. This book isn't putting on airs and trying to be great literature, instead it is great at being a fun book to listen to. Many times through the story I found myself laughing out loud, exclaiming in surprised fear at the situation or cheering on the characters as they battle forward. All in all, it was a good read.

awesome

I have read it 3 times and its still good holds my attention every time