Even nutritionists enjoy the occasional Big Mac. Olympic athletes spend a day now and then sitting on the couch watching reality TV. DEA agents spend some of their free time getting drunk.

It’s part of being human. So is enjoying Monster Hunter International. This book is not well structured. It’s not well-written. It’s filled with clumsy foreshadowing, repetitious use of tired clichés, cardboard characters and tepid dialog.

It’s also full of zombie stomping, blood spurting, gun toting action sequences that make you feel like you’re in the best moments of Evil Dead 2 or Army of Darkness. The frontispiece tells you exactly what to expect:

“You know what the difference between you and me really is? You look out there and see a horde of evil, brain eating zombies. I look out there and see a target rich environment.”

And author Larry Correia delivers. Page after page of gun worship, tough-guy lines and splattery bits going splat. Don’t read this book to be challenged. Read it for the same reason you occasionally fire up Duke Nuke ‘Em…’cos sometimes that’s all you need. I bought it to read on a cruise, and it filled its niche nicely.

This one comes at the bottom of my list of the year’s books I actually enjoyed reading….placing it at #10. That’s just below, and just above Devil’s Island.

MHI also serves as a cautionary tale for aspiring authors. We all write better than this guy. We all plot and pace better than he does. But he has a book deal, and we don’t…because he took a proven concept and applied a minimum of talent. The lesson? Don’t suffer all morning putting in a comma, then all afternoon taking it out. Get some work done, then submit. You might be surprised how many people love it.
Thanks for listening.