REVIEW: Monster Hunter Memoirs: Fever, by Correia/Cordova

The newest batch of characters adds a fresh punch to a well-loved series.

We’ve seen examples of popular, established series by fantasy authors who slow down their release schedule and start farming their IPs out to collaborators. This is a big risk for authors (unless diminishing returns aren’t a concern) and an equal risk for readers, who love to see a series maintain its quality and conclude with good taste.

Larry Correia has been pleasing his Monster Hunter International fans with regular installments since 2009. John Ringo was the first author to famously draft a trilogy of tie-in novels set in the 80s, and once Correia edited them to conform to series canon, the MHI collaborations were born. We’d later get The Monster Hunter Files, a wildly successful anthology of short stories set in-universe, spanning the globe and even time; and most recently we saw Sarah Hoyt’s MONSTER HUNTER GUARDIAN, which took place concurrently with MONSTER HUNTER SIEGE.

All of these authors have done a solid job of pulling the curtain back to show the readers what they want to see, in places they haven’t yet gone. Well, once again Correia has allowed a new author to come play in the sandbox: Jason Cordova, who’s no stranger to anthologies and installments in someone else’s world. That skillset comes in handy as he introduces us to Chloe Mendoza, an MHI employee of the kind we haven’t exactly seen before…

The Story

In layman’s terms, Israel’s version of the CIA is the Mossad, and within the Mossad you have the Kidon, which is their elite squad of assassins. It is here in the 1970s that we find Chloe Mendoza, who is not herself Israeli, but she’s also not strictly mortal in the sense that you’re thinking, so she gets to do a lot of things differently. While on assignment, she and her squad get tuned up by a sand demon in the Middle East, and though she survives, she suddenly finds herself in need of new employment. She heads Stateside calls up an old friend, Earl Harbinger, who puts her with a new team of Hunters in the greater Los Angeles area.

Turns out the last professional group of Hunters (not an MHI team) also got walloped by a monster and the local MCB branch is looking for someone else to handle the contract for the valley. Not only does Chloe have to mesh with a new team, she also has to help with the business side of things and make a good impression on the Feds. Complications arise when the new LA team realizes that a number of their cases are connected, and point to a dangerous rising power.

If that wasn’t enough, Chloe also has to hide her own secret from her team—namely that she’s a Mesoamerican demigod, roughly a hundred years old, and she’s having a protracted argument with her father who expects her to take up the family cause. She’s PUFF exempt and wants to stay that way, so she needs to be a good girl.

But in order to take down the looming threat in 1970s L.A., she might just need to let her inner monster out.

FEVER reminded me of why I like urban fantasy in general and this series in particular; I’ve had to drag myself through too many high fantasy novels of late, learning all of the lingo and the world and the customs and blah blah blah, but then this book comes along and gives me plenty of the familiar, while introducing me to new revelations in the MHI timeline. And it doesn’t take a hundred pages to figure out those new elements. Cordova sets the table and invites you to eat because you’re hungry now. I was satisfied with the opening course, but as soon as it wrapped up I was ready for the next one.

The Characters

While we’ve seen MHI books from the perspective of monsters before (ALPHA gave us Earl, NEMESIS gave us Franks), Chloe is a different type of non-human, tied to a mythology that can add surprises to the storyline without subverting anything that’s already happened. She’s what’s called a nagualii, and you’ll get a better sense of what that means throughout the story.

As for her team, it would have been easy for Cordova to just write his own version of Owen’s team from the main series; the tech guy, the tough hot chick, the former jock, the smart dude with an encyclopedic knowledge of everything…Correia has said that his core cast is a spoof of the stereotypical horror movie lineup, they’re just competent with firearms and able to kill monsters.

But Cordova instead stacks the roster with a different cast; you’ve got the leader who has experience and skills to lead, but not the ambition to do so, and once he gets injured, Chloe has to take up the slack. There’s also the hot chick who, while not especially violent or tough, is competent in a fight, and helps the team to navigate the world of discos and clubs where the monsters are operating. They have different skills and a contribution to make.

In the spirit of “familiar but different,” Cordova delivers us a fresh set of people to root for who aren’t just vague re-skins of the ones we already know.

The World

Los Angeles in the 1970s, with disco at every turn. Hence, “Fever.” Everything else is what you’d expect from an MHI novel, with government oversight into monster hunting, and evil creatures lurking in the dark.

As I said before though, Cordova doesn’t drag things along as he shows you Chloe’s backstory or her relationship with her inhuman father. The pacing is quick and gives you what you need without making you stand around to get it.

The Politics

None.

Content warning

Combat violence, blood and gunshots and fangs/claws, all that stuff. Profanity including the F-bomb. It’s basically like the other MHI books.

Who’s it for?

Fantasy readers who also like thrillers, anyone who remembers the disco era, or is familiar with L.A., readers of MHI.

Why buy it?

Like I said at the beginning: a lot of established IPs bring in collaborators after several years, and those books can divide (or diminish) the fanbase. Correia is famously picky about who he lets into the club just because he wants to protect the world and the canon, and dammit, we need more story creators with that mindset. MHM: FEVER is a swift-moving yet fresh breath of air, honoring what has come before it while showing us something new to love. I’m stoked for Chloe Mendoza’s next move.