Former underground fighter Owen Z. Pitt thought he had turned his life around, thought he'd finally found a way to have a perfectly boring, respectable life. After all, what's more boring and respectable than being an accountant, right? But when his boss turns out to be an out-of-control werewolf, those less-respectable skills at buttkicking allow Owen to survive a vicious attack. Of course, the whole werewolf thing comes as a bit of a shock, but it all begins to come into focus when Owen is recruited by a mercenary bounty-hunting organization called Monster Hunter International, devoted to hunting and exterminating paranormal threats to the planet, and making big bucks in the process.
Monster Hunter International (and the other books in the series) is the paperback equivalent of a "movie for guys who like movies": explosions, big guns, tough wisecracking men and women, helicopters, fight scenes, and surface-level relationships that give the characters some depth without distracting from the explosions, guns, and fight scenes. In short, it's a total testosterone-fest, but one without sex scenes or gratuitous profanity, making it potentially appropriate for younger readers.
The bad guys are werewolves, vampires, trolls, zombies, wights, fey, and Lovecraftian "Old Ones" who weave evil just beyond human sight. The good guys are primarily survivors of attacks by these creatures, whose physical and mental tenacity deemed them worthy of Special Forces-style training and, if they don't wash out, lucrative careers (and often short lives) in the monster-killing industry. The other bad guys, who are also good guys, are a MIB-esque secret governmental agency committed to covering up the existence of monsters at any cost. And then there's a super-duper secret group called Special Task Force Unicorn (STFU -- yes, really).....
MHI stays true to the time-honored tradition of making its protagonist "the chosen one," but avoids getting bogged down in weighty musings about fate and responsibility to humankind and whatnot. Nope; this series is pure science fiction/horror fun. It's Vin Diesel with a rocket launcher against a swarm of zombies with heavy metal playing in the background: loud, awesome, violent entertainment.
The level of violence, scary situations, and occasional technical detail about weaponry probably means this book is a better fit for older teens and adults, but I can absolutely think of many middle school aged boys who would love every page of it.
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Sidenote for those who pay attention to such things: The author, Larry Correia, has been embroiled in the recent "Sad Puppies" brouhaha surrounding the 2015 Hugo Awards, and his politics may not be everyone's cup of tea, but there's little sign of anything especially controversial in this series. The characters, like their author, are major gun nuts (his term) and skew libertarian, but there's no discernible sense of an agenda or any particular prejudice.
Cross-posted on the reviewer's personal website.
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