Review – Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge by Larry Correia and John Ringo (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Horror
Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Baen
Release Date: August 2, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1476781495
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Monster Hunter Memoirs series
Source: eGalley from Edelweiss.com
Rating: 3/5 stars
“When Marine Private Oliver Chadwick Gardenier is killed in the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, somebody who might be Saint Peter gives him a choice: Go to Heaven, which while nice might be a little boring, or return to Earth. The Boss has a mission for him and he’s to look for a sign. He’s a Marine: He’ll choose the mission.
Unfortunately, the sign he’s to look for is “57.” Which, given the food services contract in Bethesda Hospital, creates some difficulty. Eventually, it appears that God’s will is for Chad to join a group called “Monster Hunters International” and protect people from things that go bump in the night. From there, things trend downhill.
Monster Hunter Memoirs is the (mostly) true story of the life and times of one of MHI’s most effective—and flamboyant—hunters. Pro-tips for up and coming hunters range from how to dress appropriately for jogging (low-profile body armor and multiple weapons) to how to develop contacts among the Japanese yakuza, to why it’s not a good idea to make billy goat jokes to trolls.
Grunge harkens back to the Golden Days of Monster Hunting when Reagan was in office, Ray and Susan Shackleford were top hunters and Seattle sushi was authentic.”
I got this book through Edelweiss to review. This is the first book in the Monster Hunter Memoirs, which takes place in the mid 80’s of the Monster Hunter history (before the MHI books). This book was okay but not nearly as good as the MHI series.
I am had some issues with this book. Mainly I just didn’t like the main character Chad; since this book is completely his memoirs this is an issue. He is a self proclaimed womanizer who is apparently awesome at everything. He’s written like a hero (which I guess he is) but comes across as very arrogant and insufferable…he also can do no wrong (aside from all the womanizing). I can honestly say if I ever met this character in real life I would hate him. Previous MHI books were nicely balanced between female and male characters, and all those characters (while heroes) also had endearing flaws.
My other issue with this book is that this is less of a book than a series of loosely connected effects strung together chapter by chapter. I guess that’s okay; this is labeled as memoirs and that’s what it is. I just didn’t find it to be all that engaging or interesting. I have never read anything written by John Ringo before and maybe it’s just his writing style that’s rubbing me the wrong way.
We do encounter lots of creepy monsters and there is a ton of action (which was well written). There is a lot of gun talk and lots of gore just like previous books.
Overall this was okay but definitely not as good as previous MHI novels. I didn’t enjoy the main character and the book was less of a book than a bunch of loosely connected events. I had a lot of trouble getting through this book and, although it is much shorter than the MHI books, it took me a much longer time to read it.
I guess if the reason you read the Monster Hunter books is for the action, the guns, and don’t mind lots of talking about women as objects and not people then you will probably enjoy this. If you enjoyed the characters, the story, and the nice balance between strong female and male characters in the previous MHI books you probably aren’t going to enjoy this one.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– New Release Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge
