Reading Level: AdultGenre: Urban Fantasy/Horror
Size: 560 pages
Publisher: Baen
Release Date: July 26, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-1439134580
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the MHI series
Source: Audiobook through Audible.com
Rating: 5/5 stars
This is the third book in the MHI series and it was an excellent one. This book is all about Earl Harbinger and what a ride it is. I listened to it on audiobook and the audiobook was incredibly well done (just like all of the previous books). This is one I highly recommend listening to if you enjoy audiobooks.
Earl gets a call that there’s some bad werewolf stuff going down in Copper Lake, MI. When he arrives in the town there is an all out city-wide brawl between him, his Nemesis, and an uber-werewolf who calls himself the Alpha. If the Alpha isn’t stopped then, of course, the world is at stake. The whole city is isolated when a winter storm knocks out all power and communication and Earl has no one but the town’s residents, himself, and some competitive Monster Hunters to help him out.
I missed the normal group of Monster Hunters (Owen and Julie and crew) and was a bit cautious going into the story. I shouldn’t have been, getting to hear Earl’s story and meet some wonderful new characters more than made up for the absence of the other characters.
Each chapter starts with an excerpt from Earl’s journal, slowly telling his history as a werewolf. At first this is just really interesting, then as time goes on it starts to really tie in with current events. The chapters are told from multiple POVs; we hear from Earl, the Alpha, Nikolai (Earl’s Nemesis and a fellow werewolf), Heather (a deputy in the city), and Stark (an MCB member). It mostly works for this book as the different POVs let us know what’s happening in different areas in the town and really makes the story come together (although sometimes I got sick of hearing the bad guys’ POVs).
There are some truly excellent fighting scenes in here. There are also some truly gory and violent scenes as well. Seriously there is a scene with a ginormous snowblower and a hoard of zombie werewolves that had me grinning gleefully with the creative, yet utterly disturbing gory imagery. I did notice that there isn’t as much gun speak in this book as in the previous ones. Not sure if this is because werewolves fight a lot more with their body than weapons, or if Correia tried to tone down all the gun stuff to appeal to a larger audience.
I really enjoyed some of the new characters. Heather is a truly excellent addition to the story, she develops into a powerful and interesting ally for Earl. It was also great to hear some of Nikolai’s backstory and start to understand him more.
The plot was very well done and I loved how numerous storylines came together to create a cohesive whole by the end of the book. I loved the description and the writing as well, this was a truly engrossing book. It’s a long book, but it didn’t feel long at all. Unlike the previous books (which are kind of three separate stories in one long book) this book was one long and cohesive story all centered around the events at Copper Lake.
Overall a stellar addition to this series. I really enjoyed Earl’s backstory and loved the new characters. The plot was complex and came together nicely, the fight scenes were spectacular. Highly recommend to fans of action based urban fantasy/horror. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Zombie Reading Challenge
- Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge
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