Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge by John Ringo and Larry Correia

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Wow. I'm like embarrassed to say that Ilike, totally just read this. Like, OH MY GOD. Like, I'm so amazed that it took this long to like read something written by like two of my favorite like authors. I can't believe that I like, didn't get to it SOOOO much sooner. It's like crazy. Like what? Oh, I'm totally talking about Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge. It's like the coolest thing ever, okay? What, I'm supposed to tell you why? Like how does that work? Like I have to do the work here? Like how is that fair?

Ok, so it's totally set in the Eighties. I'm so old that I like, totally remember the Eighties so it was fun.

And like, I totally hate valley girl so I'm like, totally gonna stop writing that way OK?

I'm glad it's okay. I was starting to annoy myself. I know one girl who used to speak valley girl and she drove me crazy. (OH MY GO-ODD!) I'll spare the rest of you the hassle. Although, honestly, if you've read the book then you know why the valley girl. If not, you'd best find out. I mean seriously.

Listen, this is my blog. I get free books from people that want their stuff reviewed. I started this thing to feed my reading habit and save money simultaneously without having to give my books back. It was a good thing. For the rest of you, I'm assuming that you've also got  book habits (otherwise why would you be here?) and don't get free stuff from people that you then owe reviews to. (But if you do, let me know because I want to check your stuff out.) I don't always have time to read stuff from my favorites because I'm often reading something that I was given. Most people don't have that problem. (But it's free books, so is it really a problem?)

Anyway, if you like the same kind of books that I do, and I'm assuming you do, then these guys should be two of your favorite authors too. I mean seriously, Correia has created one of the coolest Hidden World universes of all time. The Monster Hunter International milieu is amazing. It's like an action flick crossed with gun porn with just a dash of competence porn, this is the universe to be in. The characters in the book seriously do hunt monsters and they really do know their stuff. Usually.

And, of course, John Ringo is best known for his ability to write action as well. His Black Tide Rising series is epic. His Legacy of the Aldenata series is awesome. Those aren't even my two favorite of his series. My favorite one is his Council Wars series, only it didn't sell enough for him to keep pushing them out. I blame all of you. I bought the whole series in Dead Tree Format and own the first three on .mobi.

To say that I was geeked to read this is an understatement. I couldn't wait to get this thing home and rifle through it at high speed. I wasn't disappointed. Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge is a high speed thrill ride. I mean, we go from place to place and fight to fight with almost no break. Things go bump and then they go boom. In spite of all the action, it's not just an action book though.

Our main character is a medically retired Marine named Chad and he's on a mission from God. He means that literally. Despite that though, he's not exactly a pure soul. As a matter of fact he seems to have a thing for the ladies. A very strong thing for the ladies. I guess you could say he's hornier than a devil. Combine "horny" with "sent by the Almighty" and you get a weird mix for sure. That's okay though, because it sure is entertaining.

Fans of the MHI universe will also be familiar with a character named Milo. Milo plays pretty heavily into Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge. I really liked that. We don't get to see as much of him as we should in the main stories, so it's good to see some backstory for him. And if you love guns then you can't miss Milo. That's his thing. Milo is my guy. Oh, and if you like Agent Franks, he's here too. And really who doesn't love Agent Franks?

The villains in the book tend to be what they always have been: Everything from any mythos anywhere on the planet and anything else that the author can cook up. That's the great thing about MHI in general. You never know what's coming next because the hunters never know what's coming next. That creates a high amount of suspense and keeps you in the book.

It took me less than a day to get through Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge. For me, that's fast. I couldn't put this one down. It's always fun to see a collaboration between two of my favorite authors, but it's even better when it's two veteran authors. A lot of the collaborations I've read, especially from Baen, have been between an established author and a relatively new author but this time around it's two mature, established authors. You can kind of feel the difference. I'm sure it made the publisher happy because both authors already have huge followings, but it made life good for me too.

Of course, this is the first in the Monster Hunter Memoirs series and I haven't read any of the rest of them because I always read a series in order. I can't wait. I knew this was going to rock and I wasn't wrong. There is a lot more to explore. And I do mean explore. I don't even know if the Memoirs series has the same main character throughout or if it's a series of memoirs of separate hunters. I'll be headed either to my local book store or to Kindle as soon as I can so I can find out. I hope to see you there.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Webbed Victims

Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge
John Ringo and Larry Correia
Baen Books, 2016

Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge is available at the following link. If you click it and buy anything on Amazon I get a small percentage at no cost to you.

John Ringo's A Hymn Before Battle

(This is the third and final installment in my Memorial Day series of reviews of books written by veterans of the United States Armed Forces that feature the American military in action. Todays author is John Ringo, a veteran of the US Army who served in the 82nd Airborne for 4 years, and two years in the Florida National Guard. He completed his hitch at the rank of Specialist. Also of note is the fact that I'm a blatant fanboy and have been reading his work since before I met my ex-wife. Our oldest daughter is twelve.)

Every once in awhile you stumble across a new author. If you're lucky that author can lead you to new authors. Once upon a time, that's what happened to me. One of my co-workers would NOT. SHUT. UP. About this David Weber guy and his Honor Harrington series. It finally got to the point where my only option left was to either read the book or fight the co-worker and I needed my job. I bought On Basilisk Station. After reading the entire Honor Harrington catalog as it existed at the time, I switched over to the Prince Roger series. That was when I became aware of an author named John Ringo. Soon after, I rushed over to Barnes and Noble and picked up There Will be Dragons and A Hymn Before Battle. Both began a series. The subject of today's review is A Hymn Before Battle

I've already warned you that I'm a fanboy. It should come as no surprise that I have read A Hymn Before Battle many times, most recently ending last night. This is a work of fiction I have enjoyed way too much. A Hymn Before Battle is precisely the kind of story I've always loved. Speaking as a man with a history degree, whose passion has always been war and politics (and yes, I am aware that they are one and the same) I love the way Ringo wrote this book.

A Hymn Before Battle is the classic mix of war and politics. I don't want to spoil the whole series, but once you've read what comes next it becomes pretty obvious how Ringo is building the future of his universe. The political maneuvering leads to the fighting, which..well... read the book. The two mesh together so effectively that at times it can be hard to tell which is which. Oddly enough, that's how the real world works as well.

A Hymn Before Battle (and the Legacy of the Aldenata series which follows it) is the Science Fiction equivalent of epic fantasy. The stakes are huge. The overlords are corrupt. The technology is effectively magical in the “any technology that is advanced enough will seem magical” sense. The enemy is coming and they are relentless. The crisis is existential. Only our heroes can stop it. And Mike O'Neal is a bad man and he's coming for his enemies.

O'Neal is a man on a mission. I mean that both in the literal sense (He's a member of the military who gets sent on a mission) and the metaphoric sense. He won't stop. He continues on when, by all rights, he could just lay there and die. He wouldn't do it. He is faced with a commanding officer who is a complete piece of trash. He could in good conscience let nature take its course. He won't. About the only thing he tries to weasel out of is promotion from enlisted man to officer. Even that he accepts, although he doesn't really like the idea.

Some authors just excel at certain things. David Weber writes the best naval battle, whether it's a wet navy or a space navy. David Brin constructed a future society that was so twisted yet realistic that it still gives me the creeps. Tom Kratman can mix his story with moral and political lessons and keep it amazingly entertaining. Harry Turtledove can create a cast of ellebenty bajillion and tie it together while switching back and forth between varying points of view better than anyone else alive. George Lucas can tell a story and use it to sell things like no one else. John Ringo is the king of asskickery.

Seriously, if you ever want to learn how to write a straight up ass-whooping ask Ringo. I mean, you may have to lose half the troops in your novel in order to rout the unroutable enemy, but who cares. When “boom” comes to “bang” comes to “Oooooh... that sounds like it hurt... a lot” look to this dude as your exemplar. I'd like to buy Ringo a drink and try to figure out how his mind works when he's writing this stuff. Seriously. It's not just the battle tactics themselves. It's that he can come up with solutions to problems that no one would seriously consider until the history of the battle was almost argued out two hundred years later but he drops them into his story contemporary with the battle. It's not standard but it makes sense and it works. It's really stinking cool too.

Ok, so the characters are pretty awesome as well. Not just Mike. His unit, his wife, the general he serves under all work. They live a breathe. I want to sit down and have coffee with some of them. Others I'd like to slap. At least one group has me twisted around to the point where I don't know if I want to shake all of their hands or put them all in the stockade. Actually, both might work. And it's not just the good guys.

Ringo writes an alien race that makes sense. It takes a bit before we get a look at things from their point of view, but he makes their motivations plain. This is not the look into the society of the Posleen that Yellow Eyes, which he co-authored with Tom Kratman does. It does, however, give a good if somewhat brief, look into the mind of the enemy.

All in all, A Hymn Before Battle is a masterwork. It sets up a magnificent universe but it works as a standalone. Granted, that may have something to do with the fact that it is the first book. It grips the mind and imagination. If you get lost in this one you may very well not want to find your way back out. It will have you cheering. It will tempt you to cry. It shows humanity at its best, its worst and its most opportunistic. A Hymn Before Battle is a book that is not to be missed. If, however, you don't read it, don't blame me.

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Antimatter Explosions

A Hymn Before Battle
John Ringo
Baen Books, 2000

A Hymn Before Battle is available for purchase at the following link: