The Monster Hunter Files

A few stories - Ringo is a standout - were great fun, and truly in the wild, crazy, happy spirit of Monster Hunters books written by both Correia and Ringo. There were some interesting ideas presented in the stories as well, and there was a good quantity of original, imaginative work. But most of the stories don't ring 'true' to the spirit of MH. Characterizations of some of the main protagonists from the original stories were especially unconvincing.
In the end, I was left unsatisfied. Instead of a full double bacon cheeseburger with extra fries, I just got a small fries and a salad.
Suggest that instead of a bunch of short stories, Correia insists that next time a smaller, more select group of authors write a small number of NOVELLAS. I think this would help a great deal.

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

The MONSTER HUNTER FILES anthology is a brilliant view into the Monster Hunter International series through the lens of some of my favorite authors and some new authors I should explore in the future. While some of the stories relate directly to characters from the Monster Hunter International series some authors insert their own characters into the universe. I liked that even if you've never read the series you can still enjoy some of the stories in this anthology and get a sense of the world that connects them.

Regardless of the author, I'd categorize the stories in this anthology as gritty urban fantasies. There's monster-hunting going on, so there's lots of bloody action scenes, suspense, and of course scary dangerous monsters. One of my favorites was Faith Hunter's SHE BITCH, KILLER OF KITS. It was fun to see Jane Yellowrock pop up in a different book universe and be her awesome monster hunting self. Kim May's KEEP KAIJU WEIRD was a little on the weird side which was great and refreshing after so many grim stories. I loved seeing a story featuring a kitsune using her powers for good and would love to read more about this character. Larry Correia's THISTLE is in the Monster Hunter International was a fun peek into the world from the author who created it. While I am not to familiar with the series, I found myself enjoying the mythology and getting caught up in the central mystery.

THE MONSTER HUNTER FILES is a fun, gritty, compilation of monster-hunting urban fantasy stories that give you a great peek at what the Monster Hunter International series could look like in the hands of other urban fantasy authors.

Ive been a huge MHI fan since the first book. Normally though I'm not a fan usually of antholgy's but this one was one of best ones Ive ever read. Usually I skip the ones I cant get into. This book I enjoyed every single story. Hope there are more in the future. Well worth the money spent.

Fabulous audiobook, filled with excellent short stories perfect for travel, walking, sitting or just ignoring the people around you. The narration was very well done. I think this is the first anthology where I enjoyed all the stories and authors.
Two of my favorite authors were included in this monster hunter collection of short stories, Jim Butcher, and Faith Hunter. Both write fabulous characters and truly wicked monsters, so I was thrilled when I won a copy of this. Yes, both knocked it out of the park with their tales. Really I had no doubts they wouldn't. What surprised me was how much I enjoyed each of the other authors previously unknown to me. I think the last story was my favorite new to me author story, it was about a Golem, I love Golems.
I plan on reading each of the other authors from this collection.

I'm a huge fan of the Monster Hunter International books and normally can't wait to dive into them but I think I might be a little more hesitant after this. I think only one (short) story in this book full of stories is written by Larry Correia, the rest of the book is stories written in the MHI universe by a slew of other authors. Some of them are great! Most of them are meh, and one or two are downright atrocious. On the whole I'd say about 60% of this book was worth reading which is pretty disappointing for a $10 digital book.

Reviewed as an audiobook.

Solidly professional action tales which set a new world record for the most collective uses of the word "ichor" in a single volume. Most episodes follow what I assume to be the MHI format, in which steely-eyed heroes and heroines mow down scads and scads of creepy-crawlies with weapons that are described with the same lavish attention that George R. R. Martin dedicates to descriptions of food. I'm new to this universe, which may be why my favorites in the collection were the Butcher and Wright stories, which seemed to me to be the most divorced from its stylistic conventions.

The stories are good, strong and consistent.
Even though there is no overall arc, the stories retain the same feel and flavour.

Out of place stories:
The Manticore Sanction by John C Wright - Needs to be developed into its own Monster Hunter series - backstory and subsequent tales; meaty and dark; loved it, loved it - it was my favourite story of the bunch. But it does have a different taste from the rest.
The Dead Yard by Maurice Broaddus - nice to see a story set at home but the story just wasn't strong enough
Hitlers Dog by Jonathan Maberry - sorry, I'm all hitlered out.

Monster Hunter Files is a collection of short stories in the Monster Hunter World of Larry Correia. Most of the stories are quite good and a few give hints at the next books coming out. If you’ve enjoyed the series, you’ll like this collection—but it’s not the place to start.

I like the universe, so I like the stories. Only one felt...off, and that was a function of the crossover. Some funny, some ironic.

Correia, AND Ringo, ^and^ Butcher?

Oh. My.

The one story I had issues with wasn’t bad. I just felt it didn’t fit in the universe.

This rare. Not a bad or average story in the book. Which is surprising as in most collections, I generally dislike a story or two. The authors stay with characters mentioned in the books. Even some minor characters get a promotion to main character for a little while.

I'm half way through the book and loving it. It's introduced me to several authors I really want to check out further.
Jim Butcher's story was predictably excellent. Jessica Day George's story had a wonderfully light touch.

I'm half way through the book and loving it. It's introduced me to several authors I really want to check out further.
Jim Butcher's story was predictably excellent. Jessica Day George's story had a wonderfully light touch.

Purchased this in hard cover at Barnes & Noble. Nice collection of short stories for this series. I liked seeing how other big names in Science Fiction handle Larry Correia's world and characters. A "must buy" for fans.