MHI

Once there was a man, and his name was Larry. That man had a vision, and he grew that vision until it became, well, umm, a book. But book is only a four letter word, and four letters just can't contain the amount of awesome that is Monster Hunter International.

First off, Larry has credentials. He's a competitive shooter. He sold machine guns and other goodies. He's a B movie fan. So when he sat down to write, Larry didn't give us the sissy vampires that have become fashionable. He gave us scary super vampires bent on bringing about world domination. When his hero picks up a gun, it's not a generic .45, but a custom double stack built on an STI frame. (as an aside, I bought an STI from Mr. Correia once, and it's my favorite .45) When our hero needs a new shotgun, it's a custom Saiga 12 with a bayonet and an underslung grenade launcher. Instead of just writing that the good guy shot the bad guy, we get the sort of shooting detail you would expect from a man who knows his guns.

Anyway, aside from the firearm sweetness, each character is unique. The good guys are likeable. The bad guys are dispicable, not just because they're called the bad guy, but because they do bad things and deserve to be called bad. I wanted to mention my favorite hero in this very sentence, but as it turns out there is about a five way tie, two of them not even being entirely human. One caries a .45-70 though, and as those who know me can attest, that's my pick for supernatural Alamo time.

Anyway, nothing I can write in this review really does the book justice, so go pick up a copy for yourself, then tell all of your friends to go read it.