Book Reviews: Monster Hunter Legion

The Story

About a year after the events of Monster Hunter Alpha, Owen and the rest of MHI are in Las Vegas for the first international monster munters convention. While there they meet hunters from all over the world, all who have been noticing strange happenings across the world. After Owen has a dream about the strange symbol his father told him about, the monster hunters are approached by Stricken, the enigmatic leader of Task Force Unicorn, who sets up a competition for ten million dollars for the first who takes out an unknown monster that massacred a Nevada town. This first encounter pits MHI and their new allies against old and primeval fears as they face their greatest foes yet.

The Review
There's something to be said about waiting until several books in a series are out. As soon as I finished reading Monster Hunter Alpha, I couldn't stop myself from diving right into the E-ARC of Monster Hunter Legion. Unfortunately, now I have to wait even longer for the next book.

Since this was the unedited advanced reader copy I won't be commenting on grammar issues or anything like that. However, I will say that I didn't find any major spelling errors, so if I do find any when I read through the finalized copy then I'll know that the copyeditor is putting the typos in. In which case Larry may want to talk to him about that.

MHL follows MHA's example and focuses most of the action in the same basic area. I've really been enjoying the lesson on how to set a story in basically the same location. No need to make every book a travelogue.

MHL is basically an escalation of the overall plot. While the story itself is highly entertaining a lot of the focus is on the upcoming cosmic conflict. It opens us up to the mythology of the monster hunter world in a way that makes me look forward to the rest of the series. MHI stood on its own easily enough, but with MHL it's clear that Larry is going for a fully fleshed out world, rather than a stand alone short little series.

I would love to get into details about what makes this such a great book, but that would be unfair to anyone reading this review. So instead I'll just say that it had one of my favorite pre-climax twists of the series. Larry's quickly establishing himself as a master of taking fantastic creatures and placing them in a modern series. It takes you aback the first time you come across one of his modernizations, but after the surprise wears off you realize exactly how much sense it makes.

Monster Hunter is easily one of my favorite series out there. As a non-gun nut I'm living proof that you don't need to love firearms to love this series (but it doesn't hurt). If all you want is a creative reimagining of standard fantasy creatures, then you'll love Monster Hunter Legion and the entire rest of the series.

If you haven't tried the Monster Hunter series yet, consider picking up the omnibus of the first three volumes. The Monster Hunters 

Buy the book as soon as it's available! Monster Hunter Legion