Sometimes I could kick myself with a steel-toed boot. Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International crew give us a very important Public Service Ad for Halloween and I forgot to link it.

Anyway, if you survived this Halloween you can always use the PSA for next year’s.

No idea how the heck we were able to get the Markham Park range for that date but we are planning on getting some IDPA Classifying going on early in the morning for the heathens among us followed by a good Shotgun/Pistol and Rifle/Pistol Monster Hunting Shooting. Available for your eradicating pleasure, the menu consists of Zombies, Ghouls, Werewolves, Chupacabras (A local favorite,) Gnomes and Sparkling Vampires.

The match is “sponsored” in part by M.H.I. Miami which is basically the fans of Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International and Monster Hunter Vendetta. The Human model for the targets is a club member who recently became another fan of Larry’s He finished MHI just yesterday and was tripping happy) and I was using his mug without permission for the Zombie and Ghoul (also Werewolf) targets, but now he will be attending the match and I don’t have to worry about being shot for not paying copyright.

The IDPA Classifier will start at 8:30 am and the Monster Hunting Match will start immediately after, whereabouts of noonish to 1:00 pm.

I am not gonna lie: I was afraid about the new Monster Hunter book. I enjoyed Monster Hunter International so much that I was hesitant about its successor. Was Larry Correia able to get a book as equal in action and fun as the first? He did not. Monster Hunter Vendetta is a great book on its own eight tentacles that you will stop comparing books about 50 pages in and just enjoy this new eccentric ride.

Gun Geek Alert: MHI’s narrative is a brand new cool weapon. It has the awe and lust of the new out of the box handgun and you spend time learning it, taking it apart, lubricating, and taking it to the range to show it off to your buddies for the Drool Factor.  MHV’s narrative is the same gun after the 500 to 800 rounds break in period: all rough spots gone, it cycles beautifully, sends the bullet where you want it and melds with your hand with the familiarity of your loved one.

Two things that caught me by surprise with this book: Humor and I mean laughing out loud- neighbors demanding silence- all out laughter and Larry’s totally outlandish imagination for new monsters and monster behaviors. In a couple of notable passages, both intertwine so well that one must wonder what kind of gun solvent fumes inspired these visions.

Both Monster Hunter International and Monster Hunter Vendetta cannot be pigeon-holed into any specific literary movement. Fantasy? Not quite. Yes, both have a serious dose of that, but that’s too easy. Fiction? Yes but it is also very well grounded on those physical things we know and depend upon. Sci-Fi? You got your interplanetary, trans-dimensional beings but we are spared of UFOs…so far. Magic Realism then? Nope, Larry ain’t a starchy or pretentious author plus I was forced to read some of that crap and bore myself to tears in my younger years while the books keep me awake and racing.

If the books have a “location”, it would be next to that shadow we caught in the corner of our eye on a weird day. That shadow that we cannot see if we try to look at it and it gives us a chill down our spine if we turn our backs to it. Larry does not make us suspend disbelief with his books, he just lets us have flexible minds. And in the monster hunting business, that is 50% of the game.

Larry Correia writes the weirdest stuff. For somebody like me that is not into the sci-fi/monster/horror/UFO/Strange Creatures beat, I do admit I enjoy peeking into his mind through his books. Next thing you know, there is a great logo inspired by one of his works and the coolest thing is that his share of the pie goes to Baen Books’ Operation Baen Bulk to pay for shipping supplies to troops overseas.

So order a T-Shirt, get Larry’s books and you will be doing a great service to our guys fighting in the sandbox.  You can order via Mystikwaboose@yahoo.com to order and click here for sizes and prices.

According to Larry Correia’s latest: Wall of Flame Challenge.

This pepper laughs at jalapenos. This pepper makes the habenero it’s bitch. This pepper has no name, and the ancient Middianites who discovered it referred to it only as – TERRIBLE SHRIEKING DOOM – before it destroyed their entire civilization. This pepper exists in multiple quantum dimensions at one time. This pepper divides by zero.

Here it is folks! Monster Hunter Vendetta. OK, it is not here here, but you can actually pre-order via Amazon.com. The continuing Saga of Owen Zastava Pitt and the crew of Monster Hunter International with Owen being hunted by the The Dread Overlord (the unspeakable name) and has to be placed under protective custody by the Feds and his babysitter is no other than his nemesis Special Agent Franks. And that is about what I can guess from the Amazon preview and and the snippets that Larry’s been leaving in Facebook.
Go ahead and pre-order the book. You know it is going to be a good one. And if you haven’t read Monster Hunter International, read the first seven chapters for free and then mosey over Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble to get your own hard copy.

I feel I repeat myself and I usually don’t like it, but I will make any excuse necessary to plug this book. I always found the horror genre boring and stupid in the way authors treat their readers. It seems to be engraved in the stone that is the official guidelines to write horror that the human/normal characters are highly mobile screaming morons that will not see what’s coming even though there have been plenty warnings and even then, they seem to resort to a McGyverish solution as last resort but only because they are about the only ones left, the monster is about to kill them, all their buddies have already suffered horrible deaths and they are late for the opening of the Starbucks around the corner.

So I bumped into Larry Correia’s website by chance and read the sample of his book which back then he was publishing on demand (Internet version of selling from his garage) and I got hooked. All horror creations seem to start with some poor soul being killed by the evil monster but in this book the main character decided to kick ass and park the monster on a gas guzzler. The fight is painfully real as you can almost feel every laceration and broken bone as it happens. Hell I could almost smell the blood and rotting body parts as I sped, slowed down and re-read the descriptions. Cherry on top? The good guy actually gets his own crap kicked out and must spend serious recovery time. Not your typical monster hogwash so it bade well as your non-standard horror book. I ordered the book, got it and read it two times in a row in 48 hours and only stopped under direct threat from the wife who demanded her turn with the book.

According to my dear wife who is a true horror freak, the book has the best of the great horror classics and none of the political correctness or dumbness that plagues the genre nowadays. The monsters are really monsters and not tortured souls with some stupid redeeming value or not-so-veiled sex appeal to entice lonesome bored housewives. Basically you do not imagine the lead vampire as a Fabio look-alike dressed in ruffles but bleeding, stinking, blood dripping creatures that need to be put down ASAP. From a male point of view, it answers the question that any guy has asked before “Why the hell they got into that situation without the proper amount of firepower?”. Let’s face it, when you start a book shooting a snub-nose and close it with a five kiloton tactical nuke, you know it is a damn good book. However, iIf you are a metrosexual, you may be disappointed at the lack of hair mousse, facials treatments and the extreme level of violence.

Monster Hunter International is available at most of your local chain bookstores line Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, Borders and of course via Amazon.com.

If you want to know more about Larry himself, check his blog Monster Hunter Nation and he was dragged into Facebook screaming and shooting his Saiga by his fans but he finally seems to be warming up to the idea somewhat.

So, what are you doing here? Go get the darn book!