Monster Hunter Nemesis

There is no way that any review I write about Monster Hunter Nemesis is going to have any sort of effect on anybody???s decision to read it. If you???re a fan of the extremely popular MONSTER HUNTER series, then you???re going to read Monster Hunter Nemesis, the fifth book. If you???re not, you won???t. And if you???re not in one of those two camps, you have no reason to be reading this review. But still I have to write it, because that???s my job.
So, for those of you who ARE fans, what you can expect here is exactly what Correia has given us so far: great characters, a fascinating story, witty dialogue, and brutal violence. This particular installment features my favorite character: AGENT FRANKS! He???s a huge indestructible man(?) who works for the U.S. Monster Control Bureau, a government agency that fights monsters and sometimes works with or against Monster Hunter International. In Monster Hunter Nemesis we get his backstory. How old is he? Where did he come from? Why does he work for MCB? Why is he so loyal to the United States? How is he indestructible? You???ll find out in Monster Hunter Nemesis as Agent Franks takes on a bureaucrat who???s also a mad scientist. I have to say that I was completely surprised by the revelations and what they may mean for the ongoing MONSTER HUNTER story.
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Fans will be happy to see a little bit of our old friends at MHI, the gangsta gnomes, and Heather the werewolf. Several new intriguing characters are introduced, too, and I look forward to seeing them in future installments. One main character is tragically killed and there is a delightfully promising plot twist at the end.

For those of you who haven???t yet started the MONSTER HUNTER series, I can highly recommend it if you love monsters, guns, engaging heroes, tons of action, clever plotting, and just the right amount of humor. I must warn you that it???s gory and violent (a little too much for me, honestly) and that Larry Correia???s libertarian views are occasionally on display, especially when he disrespects the government and the president of the United States (who is obviously President Obama).

If you???re going to try MONSTER HUNTER, start with the first book (Monster Hunter International) and continue in publication order. I also highly recommend Audible Studios??? versions which are brilliantly narrated by Oliver Wyman who totally ???gets??? this series and gives us a perfect performance for each character, and especially for Agent Franks. If you???re not an audio reader, this one could definitely change your mind.

Agent Franks is a dick. You know it, I know it. Everyone does. But Agent Franks would never do bullshit, backstabbing, cowardly things out of selfishness. So when he gets set up to look like he went to destroy the MHB, he needs to do anything he could (and the dude can do many insane things) to prove he is innocent and find out who and why is trying to make him look like he basically betrayed everyone and everything.

It was time to humanise the MHB and Mr. Correia did one hell of a job. Owen and MHI in general doesn't trust the government and at heart, they want to be left alone to do their thing instead of waiting to some asshole to look up in the government issued handbook how to do it according to politicians. Then again, that's pretty much a returning theme in all of this author's books and I can respect that. The government isn't infallible. The procedure isn't always perfect and I'm really against the idea that any one of us can become the loss that's calculated as acceptable when the rules are made.
When dealing with a huge volume of human beings, you can not just completely ignore that, the human factor. How we are awkward, clumsy creatures who don't always make the best decision. Who will act batshit insane or just criminally stupid sometimes. Who will be unpredictable.

Here comes Agent Franks, though. He isn't human. He can't understand things like getting emotional over a case, having biases or acting in a surprising way. He comes, he fights, he closes the case and he leaves.
But then what will happen when the enemy is not working according to any moral code and even uses creatures that are very familiar to Franks?

When the series started, we were told the MHB is one block of government funded assholes. Sure, we have seen some of them being human, some hints here and there as time went on, but at the same time it was rare to see them interact with each other without it being filtered though the eyes of Owen and Co. Here a bunch of them do exactly that. They apparently have Christmas parties with Secret Santa, they bitch about their assignments. Many of them are actually unhappy about many of the things they have to do to the survivors. Archer and Grant are downright funny.

It was interesting to see how Franks was basically forced to compromise; he realised that to fulfill his big goal of protecting humanity, he needed to do things he found distasteful and deal with people he finds weak. Then again, everyone is weak to him.
I will go there; sometimes Franks was downright charming with how he is totally inhuman and just does his best. Yes, yes, he is not a good person, but he is kind of... not even a person. His past was interesting too.

This one fleshed out a lot of things about the world. If you think the Non-Owen-Centric books are not essential, think again. They are an absolute joy every time.