So, I'm browsing through the HI forum and cantina, and I see this thread. Around two years ago I gave up on books in print - reading on the IPad is just far more comfortable. I'll be SOL in a long term power outage for reading material, but I think I'd have other issues to consider at that point.
But I digress..
Anyway, ever since I started downloading books I've been reading Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, and I've often told folks it's like a testosterone-infused Buffy The Vampire Slayer (tv series, not trash movie). Truly enjoyable reads. So when I read this, at first I was intrigued, but when I couldn't find Correia's stuff in IBooks I dismissed it.
So the thread kept coming up, I kept being intrigued, would check semi-sporadically, and a week ago I'm happy to find his stuff in IBooks. I downloaded the first one.
Now, it seems some of you guys are friends with the author, and I appreciate that. I'm going to be critical momentarily here, just bear with me.. I can tell you the first few hundred pages of Monster Hunters International gave me a bit of pause. Initially his writing seemed way too cliched, but very quickly his dialogue in that book ramps up, his descriptive prose gets better, and he stops using horribly overused metaphors ("The blood in my veins turned to ice" comes to mind). It's like you can watch the guy catch his stride from being a good hobby writer to being a serious pro within that one novel. I've been stuck at the hobby level forever, and I'm dimly aware of the pitfalls - if perhaps too untalented or lazy to work past them. Unlike Correia, I never stuck with writing long enough to get truly good at it. And even folks that have enough talent to put together some compelling stuff have to dig pretty darn deep and be willing to work at it over and over again in order to put together an actual novel that remains interesting over hundreds of pages.
MHI goes from being an interesting topic delivered in an average way to being a compelling story delivered in a very solid way quickly - and then never lets up. My thanks to the forumites that gave their recommendations, I'll definitely be chewing through this series for the next few weeks. Quite likely I'll end up reading his other series as well.
It'll be worth the wait. I've been swamped at work, but I have just been itching to see how this whole thing turns out.
