Tag: vampires

Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia

Owen Zastava Pitt wants nothing more than to be a mild-mannered accountant with a comfortable, boring life.  Unfortunately, fate has other plans.  His father–a retired green beret–brought him up to be a killing machine, with or without a firearm.  To pay for college, Owen worked alternately as a bouncer and a highly illegal cage fighter.  But all that’s behind him now; he has a respectable job–one where he isn’t required to kill things for a living.

When his boss turns out to be a werewolf, however, and Owen single-handedly kills him, all of that changes.  A guy shows up at the hospital with a business card for a company called “Monster Hunter International,” and promises to help him make a lot of money killing things for a living.  It turns out that vampires, wights, werewolves, and evil tentacled monsters are real, and the business of monster hunting is quite lucrative.

At first, Owen is hesitant.  But when an old Jewish man starts showing up in his dreams, telling him about an ancient, evil plot to subjugate the world,  he realizes that he has little choice in the matter.  Fate has given him a calling–or, as the old man likes to say, the “short end of stick.”

If  you’re a gun fanatic or a B-movie connoisseur, you’ll love this book.  It’s basically Men in Black meets Van Helsing, with enough firearms and weapons to make Rambo look tame.  Hundreds of mindless zombie wights?  Bring out your automatic 12 gauge shotgun.  Giant flying gargoyles the size of semi-trucks?  Hope you brought enough RPGs and grenade launchers to go around.  Hordes of undead swarming across Alabama?  Better arm the 5-kiloton tactical nukes.

The story was quite entertaining, with enough comedic and romantic subplots to keep things interesting.  The battle between good and evil was pretty clear cut and unambiguous, with evil being measured by how many tentacles a thing has, but some of the monsters (such as the vampires) were much more complex.  When you have to decapitate your buddies after they die, to make sure they don’t come back as something that will kill you, that makes things interesting.

I felt that the second half of the novel lagged a little, especially with the number of false endings.  However, the ending itself was quite satisfying, with an interesting twist that caught me a little by surprise.  The quality of Correia’s writing was a little weak in places, but the story was more about killing the bad guys than crafting beautiful prose.  In any case, I don’t think his intended audience will mind.

Overall, it was an entertaining, surprisingly fast read.  It’s not the type of thing I usually read, but I enjoyed it.  If you’re looking for deep, meaningful literature that changes the way you view the world, or a clean, wholesome read that’s free of excessive language or violence (Gamila, I’m talking to you), this book probably isn’t for you, but if you’re looking for an entertaining story about undead monsters where the good guys aren’t pussy-footing idiots, you’ll probably enjoy this book.  If you own more than one firearm, it’s a must-read.

The Madness Season by C. S. Friedman

In the 21st century, Earth was conquered by an alien collective consciousness known as the Tyr.  Now, five hundred years later, humankind has been scattered across the Tyr-occupied worlds as slaves.  It is a dark and uncertain existence, under the rule of masters who do not care whether their charges live or die.

For the last five hundred years, Daetrin has been a survivor.  An anomaly among humans–a man with the power to live indefinitely–Daetrin is used to keeping his true nature hidden.  But when the Tyr learn of his strange abilities and take him away for further study, he finds himself on the run, out in the open.

In order to survive, however, he must face his greatest fear–the fear that he isn’t entirely human.

This book was interesting.  C. S. Friedman’s prose is quite good, and her main character has a very unique and engaging voice.  For some reason, she wrote all of Daetrin’s stuff in first person, while the other characters in third person.  I think that the main reason for this was to preserve the sense of surprise and horror when he made certain discoveries while at the same time revealing certain critical aspects of her world that the reader absolutely needed to know in order for the story to make sense.  It didn’t bother me–in fact, I think she did it quite well–but it might not work for you.

In terms of story, this book was interesting but a little confusing.  It lagged at times, especially towards the beginning, and towards the end so many things came together at once that it was difficult for me to keep track of them.  I’m not entirely sure why that was, but I think it’s related to the fact that I never felt a very clear sense of progression.  Plotwise, things happened, but I didn’t see how one led necessarily to the next, or where things were going overall.

That said, the ending was satisfying, and I enjoyed reading this book.  You don’t realize it until the end, but the whole book is basically Friedman’s sf take on a certain type of well known, very popular mythical monster.  I won’t spoil the book by telling you which one, but when I saw it, it made me smile.

In terms of science fiction, there are a lot of old tropes with very few new ideas, except for the shapeshifting alien species known as the Marra.  Their culture was interesting, and I thought Friedman did a very good job conveying both the familiarity and the alien-ness of that species.  The Tyr weren’t quite as interesting, because they were basically just the Borg with scales and spikes, but the Hraas and the Tekk (who are a type of human) were also well done.

This is definitely the kind of book you’d want to sit down and read, rather than take everywhere with you and read whenever you get a spare moment.  Without sitting down and dedicating some time to it, it’s very difficult to really get into the story or feel immersed in the world.  I made that mistake, and it took me nearly a month to finish it.  That said, it was a good book; I’ll definitely be reading some Friedman again.