Monster Hunter Legion by Larry Correia
My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Whew. Finally got this one finished, which was no mean trick, considering how few reading hours I managed to grab in the last two weeks. This is the fourth book in Larry Correia’s Monster Hunters International series. I’ve read and really liked every one of them, but when I go to tell people about them, oddly enough, I find myself using terms like “rootin’-tootin'” or “rock ’em-sock ’em.” They are obviously written by a man who loves plenty of good fight scenes. Don’t be looking for elements of paranormal romance here, though there is a nice enough love story included. But these books are all about the adventure, and there are adventures a-plenty, featuring just about every kind of creature you can imagine, most of whom are threatening the very existence of mankind and likely to push the planet off its orbit and into free fall at any time.
Three of the four books are centered on Owen Zastava Pitt (known to his fellow monster hunters as “Z”), and he is a very likable, kick-butt-and-take-names kinda hero. Big, imposing, battle-scarred and brave to the point of foolhardiness, he leads the hunt for the bad things of the world (and beyond), and provides some pretty good laughs on the way. As I mentioned, these are very high-action books, with an extremely elaborate array of weaponry, and enough testosterone to set the pages on fire. Not my usual genre, being so uber-masculine and all, but I have to say, they work for me on pretty much every level. One of the books was told from the point of view of another pivotal character, and while it was quite good, I was glad to have Owen back in the driver’s seat with this one.
If you’ve read the first three books, you know that something big is coming, and this book goes a long way towards moving the reader closer to that inevitable climactic series conclusion. And it has a dragon. Woohoo. It automatically gets an extra star from me just for that alone!
The books are so much fun, I say check ’em out, in order of course, and see what you think. I’ll bet you’ll be hooked, just like I was. I mean, doesn’t this opening sentence from Book 1 make you want to know what happened? “On one otherwise normal Thursday evening I had the chance to live the American dream. I was able to throw my incompetent jackass of a boss from a fourteenth-story window.” The explanation behind the event is quite good, but don’t take my word for it. Books are listed below in order.
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