Monster Hunter Files
MONSTER HUNTER FILES is up for preorder on Amazon.com.
ALL NEW STORIES SET IN THE BEST-SELLING MONSTER HUNTER INTERNATIONAL SERIES. New stories from Larry Correia, Jim Butcher, John Ringo, Jody Lynn Nye, Sarah A. Hoyt, Brad R. Torgersen, and many more!
And, yes, yours truly is in there as well.
By appearing in the same anthology as he, I am now one degree of Kevin Bacon separation from the awesome and awe-inspiring Jim Butcher, whose work I adore with an unseemly and undignified slobbery fanboy adoration. But I assume he gets that a good deal from a good deal of people.
I like Larry Correia. I like him as a person, and as a writer, and as a guy who dressed up like Destro from G.I. Joe. He also paints a mean miniature.
I wished he lived within ‘gaming distance’ of my house, so I could run him in my Hard Magic rpg campaign, or play in something he were running.
So you can imagine my joy at being asked to contribute a short story taking place in his Monster Hunter background. It is almost like being in a role playing game, but not as much fun.
My contribution is called The Manticore Sanction.
I was the first writer to get his submission into the hands of the editor. I write speedily.
In it, the British monster hunting agent runs across some monster-movie monsters I had not previously seen Larry get around to. And I took special care to be sure my descriptions of the sidearms were accurate, and I think Larry only found one flaw. Here is the opening paragraph:
When Her Majesty’s government decreed that he must murder his fiancée before New Years, Madhouse Harry thought it only reasonable.
Sir Henry ‘Madhouse’ Adrian Scrope, 24th Lord Scrope of Wormsley Hall, had served the Crown loyally for thirty years in hidden wars against unearthly horrors. MI-13 was Manticore, Metahuman, Abnormal, or Nonterrestrial Invasive Cryptozoological Organism Research and Extermination, and it did not officially exist.
In Serbia, he had lost his right arm in the teeth of a creature that also did not officially exist: an invulnerable lioness the size of a lorry, not to mention the Enfield revolver his grandfather had carried in the Boer War. He still missed that piece.
Scrope knew the risks. The girl he loved did not; she must never know. It was for that reason he intended never to carry through with the engagement.
He had spent fifteen minutes, no longer, raging and refusing. Less than that would have seemed suspicious.
Naturally, I am not going to tell you which monster movie monsters appear in my story. You needs must buy the anthology to discover. I will, however, post some random pictures of no particular import, which you may interpret how you will.
Allow me to quote Larry Correia as he lists the stories and authors inside.
“Thistle” by Larry Correia (Owen and his team take on a new kind of monster in Arizona)
“Small Problems” by Jim Butcher (MHI’s new janitor has to deal with some small problems)
“Darkness Under The Mountain” by Mike Kupari (Cooper takes a freelance job in Afghanistan)
“A Knight Of The Enchanted Forest” by Jessica Day George (Trailer park elves versus gnomes TURF WAR!)
“The Manticore Sanction” by John C. Wright (Cold War era British espionage with monsters)
“The Dead Yard” by Maurice Broaddus (Trip goes to Jamaica on some family business)
“The Bride” by Brad R. Torgersen (Franks wasn’t the only thing Benjamin Franklin cut deals with)
“She Bitch, Killer of Kits” (a Skinwalker Crossover Tale) by Faith Hunter (Jane Yellowrock teams up with MHI)
“Mr. Natural” by Jody Lynn Nye (an STFU mission in the 70s has to deal with plant monsters and hippies!)
“Sons Of The Father” by Quincy J. Allen (Two young brothers discover monsters are real, and kill a mess of them)
“The Troll Factory” by Alex Shvartsman (Heather gets some help from MHI for an STFU mission into Russia)
“Keep Kaiju Weird” by Kim May (a Kitsune may have already earned her PUFF exemption, but she’s not going to let some monster squish Portland)
“The Gift” by Steve Diamond (Two of the Vatican’s Hunters from the Blessed Order of Saint Hubert the Protector on a mission in Mexico)
“The Case of the Ghastly Specter” by John Ringo (while studying at Oxford, Chad takes a case)
“Huffman Strikes Back” by Bryan Thomas Schmidt & Julie Frost (Owen’s vacation gets interrupted for some monster revenge)
“Hunter Born” by Sarah A. Hoyt (remember how I mentioned Julie didn’t get to go to her prom because of monster problems? Here you go)
“Hitler’s Dog” by Jonathan Maberry (It is WW2 and Agent Franks really hates Nazis)
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
