Review: Monster Hunter Vendetta

Round two. Fight

Today we continue the review of the Larry Correia Monster Hunter International series.

By the end of the first Monster Hunter International novel, all is right with the world. The villain was finished. Our hero, Owen Pitt,  got the girl, and while there were a few residual hiccups along the way involving some of the crew becoming vampires, everything is perfect...

Except for one niggling little detail.

The story

At one point during the final battle of MHI, the government accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb through an interdimensional portal, getting the attention of a Cthulhuian elder god, who decides that only one human creature is to blame...

Owen Pitt.

Yup. This guy has Murphy's own luck.

Pitt is now being hunted by a death cult known as the "Church of the Temporary Mortal Condition," led by necromancer known as the Shadow Man. They all want to feed Pitt to their monstrous, world-devouring deity.

The (n)ever-helpful government wants the Shadow Man. They give Pitt his own troop of government bodyguards, including one Monster Control Bureau man-like thing known only as Agent Franks. It's the MHI versus the army of darkness, only they're better armed than Bruce Campbell ever was.

Monster Hunter: Vendetta might arguably be better than MHI. We need little to no setup for the action, the plot jumps out at you and never really leaves you alone, and we can't even have a nice, simply plot-starting exposition without it being menacing (when the two people telling Pitt that he has to save the world ... again ... are vampires, it's hard to have a relaxed conversation).

Since there is no such thing as a slow Larry Correia book (with one rare exception), this just speeds along with all the pacing of a Mickey Spillane. He consistently gives a pulse-pounding story almost every time.

The characters

Vendetta really proves that Correia has assembled a strong cast, and a great sprawling universe out there.  There are no cardboard cutouts as characters, even the ones that you're not supposed to like.

Interestingly, despite Correia's attitude on government in general, while he could have left the MCB crew as a bunch of mindless government automatons, even they get character development in this book.

The world

Each book in the MHI series continues to expand the world. Usually, just enough world is explored to make the plot run. But there was a lot of plot in this one, so there was a lot of additional worldbuilding.

The politics

Libertarian. "Why, yes, there should be private ownership of attack helicopters. Why do you ask?"

Is the government completely useless? No, not completely, they're missing parts.

I kid. The government agents here are slightly more useful than they are in real life. That is to say that they do actually aid our heroes from time to time.

Content warning

There are horror elements, up to and including body parts being ripped off. In one case, that's okay, he'll just sew them back on.

No language issues popped out at me, but that pales next to dismemberment.

Who is it for?

Fans of Harry Dresden would definitely enjoy this. This is for anyone who has ever seen a horror film and wondered what it would be like if all the heroes had an arsenal at their command... or, at the very least, if the protagonists were smart.

Why read it?

It's basically epic urban fantasy with guns. Think of the later Dresden novels, where Harry needs a small army to deal with a massive, world-destroying threat. That's every MHI novel.