The Monster Hunter Files

There are no weak stories in this collection. Many expand on and embellish the MHI universe with interesting and revealing stories.Plus, Jim Butcher's story alone is worth the price of admission. And Larry doesn't save it for the end, it's story #2, right after Larry's own story kicks off the book.

This is a much better than average collection of short stories. The 17 stories are all in Larry Correia's Monster Hunter universe. I strongly prefer novels, but this is a much better than average collection of short stories. I read every story and marked 12 for rereading in the future, a much better success rate than the average collection.My take on each story follows. I'm not noting where there are story twists giving any other spoilers to lesson the enjoyment of the reader.Thistle by Larry Correia - excellent story of a monster hunt with a lot of tracking.Small Problems by Jim Butcher - Excellent story of an electrician at the Cazador, Alabama HQ.Darkness Under the Mountain by Mike Kupari - Very good story about working with a Chinese company with monster problems in Afghanistan.A Knight of the Enchanted Forest by Jessica Day George - OK story of a young girl who is moved to the Enchanted Forest trailer park.The Bride by Brad Torgersen - A possible second Franks is investigated by Ben Franklin and others.She Bitch, Killer of Kits by Faith Hunter. This is a skinwalker cross-over tale. I've never read any of the skinwalker stories before and I liked this one.Mr. Natural by Jody Lynn Nye - A hippie commune summons a plant demon. Bad things happen.Sons of the Father by Quincy Allen - Two young teenage men go after goblins who murdered their friends.Keep Kaiju Weird by Kim May - A Kaiju with a puff exemption calls Franks to put down a very bad situation.The Case of the Ghastly Specter by John Ringo - An interesting story on how detailed research is often needed to put down an uncommon monster. Not as much gun blazing action as most of the others, yet this was one of the best stories in the collection.Huffman Strikes Back -by Bryan Thomas Schmidt & Julie Frost - Owen gets some down time and monsters with the motive for revenge go after him. I could not figure out why the Bull Man wanted to kill Owen was the only down side to this story.Hunter Born by Sarah Hoyt - Julie is asked to her High School Prom as a Sophomore by the kicker on the Football Team. Her prom night does not go as planned.The following stories I did not care for and do not plan to reread:The Manticore Sanction by John C WrightThe Dead Yard by Maurice BroaddusHitlers Dog by Jonathan Maberry

Wow - this collection knocks it out of the ball park! A dirty secret of publishers is many short story collections often only have one great story, and unfortunately you need to buy the entire book to get that one story. And yes, that has happened a lot to me with a certain author in this collection... This reminds me of how Record Albums used to be sold, where you had to buy the entire Album for the one Song you really wanted. In this collection, thankfully, all the stories are a good read!The stories are set in the MH (Monster Hunter) Universe that builds on the other books in the series, and many of the stories focus on a particular character, such as Julie, Trip, Agent Franks, Chad, etc. The stories range from a Kitsune in Portland, to the janitor at MH HQ, to Agent Franks during WW2. Sarah Hoyt did a great job with Julie, and I look forward to her collaboration with Larry in MH Guardian.Positives:- A+ Authors like Jim Butcher, John Ringo , and more! You should just buy the book for the Jim Butcher story!- Great stories that are just a fun read.- The stories add to the Monster Hunter Series.- Baen Quality - Baen, the book publisher are among the best editors in the Sci Fi area.- Reads like a B Movie, where the Heroes shoot back!- Wide range of stories- You find out about the brother of Owen's Boss (Owen's Boss was thrown out a window in book 1 - he's was Werewolf) mentioned in the greatest opening book sentence that starts book 1 Monster Hunter International (Monster Hunters International Book 1)  ever in his first published book that has 1296 reviews with 4 1/2 stars out of 5.Negatives- You may hurt yourself by laughing so hard.FAQ:Do you need to read the rest of the series before this?No, but that would add to the enjoyment.Should you read this at work?No, there is a huge danger of ROFL and that may impact your career.Is this a serious literary work?NoHow would you rate it?R for violence. Lots of Monsters and bad guys are killed. Think a B Movie.Is it silly?No, just clean fun.Is it Gory?No. People and Monsters die, but it's not done in a gory way.

The majority of the stories were spot on. Carried on the MHI legacy very well. Some of the authors did not have the flair that Corriea Others did very well.The very good ones were by Jim Butcher, Kim May, Jonathan Mayberry, Jody Lynn Nye, John Ringo, and of course Larry Correia himself. All of these fit perfect with the MHI universe and was a good flesh-out of minor characters and their environments.The only one that I did not care for at all was the Faith Hunter short story. That seemed to be shoe-horned in and I have never liked that series. The story itself was well-written, just did not catch my attention and did not lead me to be interested in the Jane Yellowrock series at all.If anything it was worth it just for the Jim Butcher short story that was nice and humorous.

OK, as usual with a multi-author anthology there's 1 or 2 stories that are pretty much a waste of a perfectly good tree, but others have kept me up past my self-imposed "lights out time" to find out how they end. It's also managed to squeeze in potted bibliographies of all the contributors that are actually useful, and that is less common than you'd think.I'd never read any of the Monster Hunter International series before this (I bought it exactly because I was looking to read new stories by lots of people without buying entire novels), and even with stories that are untold incidents from the life of an established major character, I was given enough about the character that they're not just cyphers.

The stories and authors cover a wide variety of characters. Some of them familiar to readers of previous MHI novels, some not. The style changes according to who is writing, but it's never jarring.A good, fast paced read.

Once I read one of these books (monster hunter series and also grimnoir chronicles series), I could not put them down, thoroughly enjoyed them all (moral dilemma about gun ownership, but the books don't work without it)just waiting for more in these series to be published for me to buy and read

I bought this book as I am a great fan of Jim Butcher and Faith Hunter. They did not disappoint and neither did any of the authors. A brilliant read and would recommend it as a holiday read.

Keeps you busy interested and will tide anyone over while awaiting the next book from Larry Coreia, it won’t be long now.