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Title:
Grunge
Series: Monster Hunter Memoirs
#1
Author: John Ringo
Rating: 2 of 5
Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages:
299
Words: 113K
Publish: 2016
This
was a carbon copy read of my 2017 read. I enjoyed the story
tremendously but hated the main character’s philandering, his Gary
Stu’ness and his terribly horribly no-good theology.
If I hadn’t read this trilogy before, I’d read the rest of the trilogy by Ringo (Correia’s name is on the cover but that’s because he edited these books to keep them inline with official MHI history). But having read this again, I’ve decided that since I know how the trilogy ends, I’m good with hopping off the bus now. I’m not a fan of Ringo so I don’t feel the need to persevere on a re-read.
I did want to talk about the cover to end this review. It is actually a very accurate portrayal of one of the monster hunts in the book. There is a “new” computer company called Microtell that uses magic to make their software work. The problem is that sometimes that magic goes off and monsters climb out of the computer screens and eat the techs, at which point MHI is called in to kill the monsters and clean the situation up. I just love it when a book cover is actually semi-accurate about the book :-)
★★☆☆☆
From the Publisher
When Marine Private Oliver Chadwick Gardenier is killed in the Marine barrack 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.
