Monster Hunter International

Boy, if you've ever wanted to read an all-out action book, I've found one for you.  Monster Hunter International is about an ordinary guy, an accountant no less, who finds himself having to fight a werewolf on the very first page.  The fact that the werewolf is his condescending boss makes it all the sweeter when he finally defeats him after a bloody battle.  As a result, MHI (Monster Hunter Int'l) recruits our ordinary guy and trains him to go after vampires, ghouls, wights, gargoyles and assorted demons.  There are lots of lengthy, bloody battles here, lots and lots of gunplay, more battles, more guns, and...well, you get the idea.  I found reading this book to be akin to playing a video game or watching a Robert Romero zombie movie.  Pretty cool stuff.  And, believe it or not, the characters were pretty well fleshed out as well.

The only negative thing I have to say about the book is that there a few plot contrivances.  In other words, it almost seemed the author wrote himself into a corner, an impossible situation, and had to resort to a trick to get out of it.  I won't spell it out any more for fear of spoilers but...does anybody remember the first Superman movie with Christopher Reeves?

And, like a video game, the horrific nature of the monsters made them seem impossible to kill...and yet it happened...and then the next monster was even worse...and yet the MHI teams triumphed...etc.  Our hero gets mauled and mangled so badly he couldn't have been much more than a walking road rash and yet there he is fighting hard in the next scene. Good escapist summer reading.  Nothing wrong with that.  The end sets up a sequel or three and I suspect Hollywood and/or computer game design companies are on the move.