Monster Hunter Legion

Originally posted at FanLit. http://www.fantasyliterature.com/

What???s more fun than hanging out with Owen ???Big Z??? Pitt, Earl Harbinger, Julie, Milo, Holly, Trip, Mosh Pitt, and Skippy the orc at the MHI compound in rural Alabama? How about MHI meeting up with teams from all over the world at a monster hunter conference in Las Vegas? And how about if that ancient Lovecraftian god that Big Z pissed off three books ago decides to unleash his wrath right about now? And how about if those incompetent federal agents who keep trying to cover up the monster attacks want to make sure that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, so they quarantine all those monster hunters in a luxury hotel?

Well, if you???re already a fan of Larry Correia???s MONSTER HUNTER INTERNATIONAL series, I???m sure my description above is ???nuff said for you. I don???t even need to mention guns, explosions, a brawl in a rotating restaurant, shattering windows, explosions, hotel rooms containing extradimensional spaces, guns, gigantic spiders, WWII weapons experiments, a chocolate fountain, mad science, explosions, slot machines, harrowing helicopter rides, Faberge eggs, explosions, guns, dragons and, best of all, Agent Franks.

So if you???ve already enjoyed the first three books, go ahead and get Monster Hunter Legion because this story is just as exciting as the previous ones. Correia widens the plot, further develops the characters, keeps up the fast and furious action, and continues to make us laugh. The whole thing is still a little too violent for me, but at least Monster Hunter Legion is less gory than Monster Hunter Alpha ??? more guns and explosives, fewer fangs and claws. The ending makes clear that this series isn???t finished yet. I???m looking forward to book five.

If you haven???t read the previous books, Monster Hunter International, Monster Hunter Vendetta, and Monster Hunter Alpha, you should give them a try, especially if you like great characters, cool monsters, black humor, tight plotting, nail-biting tension, and some serious gun porn. I recommend the awesome audio productions being produced by Audible Frontiers and narrated by Oliver Wyman.

Newsflash, I still freaking adore this series and nobody can tell me I am wrong to do that. This book in specific, is possibly my favourite. Then again, I love all of them. But there is just something ridiculously hilarious about this one. I also love dragons.

In Las Vegas they organise the first international convention for monster hunters, so MHI needs to take part, right? Hunters work hard, party hard, earn big money they enjoy spending as well, the fight each other, because hey, they are all alpha as hell, which you need to go against unearthly powers. (Doesn't help that right next door someone has a huge gun trade show thing. Go figure.)
Then... monsters start popping up. Ones that have absolutely no place in Las Vegas. Why? How? What do we do now???

At this point we have so many cool characters and a convention is exactly the kind of place where they all can hang out and interact with each other.
Bonus points for more Mosh. He is a disaster and I love him.

Not much else to say about this, it's more like a monster-of-the-week thing with introducing a bigger context and setting things up. You could almost call it filler. BUT. It's the best kind, where you just fall in love with the characters even more than you did before. I needed it. The story needed it.
You would think we can't do much else interesting after the whole cosmic horror of book 2, but this is just different. After that stuff you hardly feel like characters can't handle this, it's still a lot of excitement and fun.

All in all, to me this is hall of fame, best stuff, highest shelf.