The Monster Hunter Files

By: Larry Correia, Jonathan Maberry, Faith Hunter, Jim Butcher

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Bailey Carr, Khristine Hvam

Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

For well over a century, Monster Hunter International has kept the world safe from supernatural threats small and large - and, in some cases, very, very large. Now, join us as MHI opens their archives for the first time. From experienced hunters on their toughest cases to total newbies' initial encounters with the supernatural, The Monster Hunter Files reveals the secret history of the world's most elite monster fighting force.

Discover what happened when Agent Franks took on the Nazis in World War II. Uncover how the Vatican's Combat Exorcists deal with Old Ones in Mexico. And find out exactly what takes place in a turf war between trailer park elves and gnomes. From the most powerful of mystical beings to MHI's humble janitor, see the world of professional monster hunting like never before.

Featuring 17 all new tales based on Larry Correia's best-selling series, from New York Times best-selling authors Jim Butcher, John Ringo, Jessica Day George, Jonathan Maberry, Faith Hunter, and many more.

Also includes stories by Larry Correia, John C. Wright, Jody Lynn Nye, Mike Kupari, and Brad R. Torgersen.

©2017 Larry Correia. All stories 2017 by Larry Correia, except "She Bitch, Killer of Kits" 2017 by Larry Correia and Faith Hunter. (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

I LIKE THESE COLLECTIONS

This collection of Monster Hunter short
storys was a fun and fine addition to the
Monster hunter series. I actually enjoy
the short stories better than the full length
versions. Some of the long version, get
bogged down. Not all of these shorties are
great, but if you don't like one it's over in a
little while.
This is a fine collection of short stories.

decent but disappointing

I love the MHI series, so giving fewer than five stars was hard. This is a short story collection, and it is expected for some stories to be stronger than others. There were two that stuck out as poor, or at least jarring and distinctly not feeling like part of the monster hunter universe.
one was a story that read like Japanese light fiction featuring a kitsune as the point of view character. despite featuring Franks, it felt very out of place in the MHI universe.
another was a story featuring a skinwalker bounty hunter that read like a horror romance story and had the most threadbare connection to the MHI universe of the entire collection. it was beyond sub par.

However there were many gems in the collection. Those that stick out are a story of a young girl that moves into the enchanted forest trailer park and befriends the queen of the elves. It felt perfectly in world, and despite having almost no action it was a wonderful story that gave me chuckles and happily used and expanded on the MHI world I have come to know and love.

My final gripe is more on the composition of the collection in general than on the stories themselves. When I was young I enjoyed the Dragonlance 'Tales' series and so that is the format I am used to. In each of those books the first 4/5 or so were short stories, and the back 1/5 of the book to 1/4 of the book was a novella, usually written by the key authors of the universe. I very much missed this in the construction of this collection. If a couple of the weaker stories were cut and replaced by a longer side Story entry by Larry Correia, then it would have been a five star shoe in.

there is a whole lot of meat on the bone here and the keynote stories are probably worth the price of entry, however the collection is far from perfect. Jim Butcher's story will probably draw in some new readers to the world, but it is far from a proper entry point to the MHI universe.

I gave it three stars based off of the strong stories, and removed one star for the pair of really jarring stories. In a collection like this, each story should feel like it is in the universe that they are in. I removed the second star because of a lack of a strong novella to anchor the collection and lend it weight.

If you love the MHI universe and want more and everything in the series, then snag it, but if you are a newcomer to the series, do yourself a favor and start with the core Monster Hunter International books. You will be glad you did.

Like most short story collections, a mixed bag

Performances were well done. Most stories were a big intro and a battle and ended, not much more to them than that. They were entertaining, some more than others, but not enough to merit a full 5 stars for story.

Need a few more stars!

I bought this book for several reasons:
1) I happened to watch a panel discussion off YouTube that was recorded at a recent convention. I have read most of the Monster Hunter series and have a fondness for those characters.
2) But I am an avid follower of Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock series, so I had to have it for Jane alone.
3) I am also a fan of Jim Butcher’s writing style, so I was also looking forward to his story as sort of a bonus prize.

However, I just expanded my list of authors who’s work I need to research because I enjoyed so many of these stories.

The Monster Hunter International Files is a grand anthology. Every story is interesting and entertaining. One of my most beloved elements in the MHI series are the dashes of humor even when the monsters are enormous and doom seems inevitable. Many of these stories continue that tradition brilliantly. But if you prefer the dark side of fantasy horror, you have content to enjoy as well.

The authors have done a good job of providing enough back ground that I think that someone unfamiliar with the series would still enjoy it.

In terms of my personal enjoyment, the outstanding stories in the collection were:
• Small Problems by Jim Butcher
• She Bitch, Killer of Kits by Faith Hunter
• Hunter Born by Sarah Hoyt
• Keep Kaiju Weird by Kim May
• Sons of the Father by Quincy Allen
• The Case of the Ghastly Specter by John Ringo
• Huffman Strikes Back -by Bryan Thomas Schmidt & Julie Frost
• Thistle by Larry Correia
• A Knight of the Enchanted Forest by Jessica Day George

I had planned to read this book on my Kindle, but somehow, I got the Audible version going and finished out listening rather than reading. Most of the performers were new to me. While all the narrators did an excellent job, I believe the women did especially well at playing their characters.

A worthy distraction

Recommended for a commuter fan of the genre. These jerks require fifteen words to post a review.

Correia and Butcher and Maberry, OH MY!

And Hoyt and Torgersen, too!
This is some of the best hours of audio your audible credit can buy!
You get solo stories of Owen, Julie, Tripp and Agent Franks!
You get a story with Ben Franklin!
Three different narrators do a great job.
A highly enjoyable expansion of the MHI universe.
This will go into frequently revisited pile.

Varied stories from various authors

The Monster Hunter Files
(Monster Hunter International)
by Larry Correia (Author, Editor)
I love the Monster Files and this has different author's stories. I like these authors but I felt some of these stories were only about 3 stars and some 4 stars. Most 3 stars! I liked them just not what I am used to with Monster Files.
The narration varied also with each story.

awsome

its got franks in his own story. that makes it one of the best books

Variable story quality

This has 18 stories and each storyline and concept are wildly different. Some were good but a few didn't measure up to the quality I have been used to.

Eh.

A Lot of the stories and performances were hit-and-miss for me. I'm a big fan of this series, but not so much of this book. It was neat to get some insight into the expanded universe in different characters and their backstories, but for me a lot of the stories and performances were hit-and-miss.

BTW this is the first book in this series I have not completely 5 *...

Great Book

A great selection of monster hunting stories from some of the best urban fantasy writers around today.

Loved the series, but...

I've really enjoyed this series, but couldn't get into a lot of these short stores. In some cases it felt like I'd walked into a story half way through and couldn't get my head round what was going on.

Let down by bad casting

Yet another audible book where instead of hiring a Jamaican narrator a white man is used. Resulting in the most ridiculous and distracting Jamaican accent I have ever heard. We had American, Scottish, South African, Russian, and Dutch accents. Seriously!? Kudos to the narrator for trying his best, not his fault the editor and director couldn't be bothered to hire a Jamaican. I could barely stand listening to the story "the dead yard" because of this.

Very Light Weight

I'm a big fan of Larry Correia but this collection, mainly by other authors, is very poor. Don't waste your money

more please

awesome as usual great stories and great narration cannot wait for the next books to be released

Monster Hunter files

have a great book from a selection of great authors keep up the good work guys

nice

Good selection of related Short stories. a few wernt to my liking but there plenty others I enjoyed