Monster Hunter International review

First off, I promise I won’t drop any serious spoilers in here, so it’ll be safe for you to read this review, and the book will stay intact.  The second plug is to make sure you tune in to Gun Nuts Radio on Tuesday, because the author of MHI will be appearing live on the show to talk about the book, his background, and 3-gun!

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the book itself for a second.  I downloaded it my iPhone’s Stanza app on Tuesday, and I finished reading it last night.  I read this book whenever I had a chance, which meant I spent a bit more time reading it when I should have been making phone calls to vendors and prospective customers, but whatever.  Clearly, I enjoyed the book, but I couldn’t quite figure out why, because I’ve never been a big fan of fantasy fiction.  Vamps and werewolves were never really my cup of tea, but you know what is?  Interesting characters and well written action scenes.

That’s the strength of this book – the characters, while in some cases a little cartoony, are believable in their roles; and most importantly the action is well scripted.  To draw a comparison that I’m sure some of my readers will get, remember the BattleTech novels authored by Michael Stackpole?  How his writing would put in the cockpit, and you could feel the heat Kai Allard-Liao’s Centurion as it struggled against other ‘mechs?  It’s like that.  Because of Larry’s background in 3-gun competition, he “gets” how to write the sort of one-sided gunfight you’d be having when your foes don’t shoot back (they just try to eat you).

I give Monster Hunter International an enthusiastic “two trigger fingers up” for bitchin’ fantasy action and non-stop vampire murder.  Seriously, if you’re tired of sissified candy-ass vampires, and you want to see some old school vampire killing with heavy artillery, this book is right up your alley.  When they shell vamps with an 81mm mortar…well, I’ve said too much now.