Monster Hunter Guardian, eARC AVAILABLE NOW!

The Monster Hunter Guardian eARC is out now!

https://www.baen.com/monster-hunter-guardian-earc.html?fbclid=IwAR3xR55TQs0hhK4lPJMOv7Sj9NQIczQvnFsxOuea-ZsmDt8TVQRo9D95lT4

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Baen eARCs, that’s an Electronic Advanced Reader Copy. That’s an early version of the book that normally only gets sent to reviewers, but Baen also sells them to readers several months before the book comes out. (the official release for Guardian, hard cover, ebook, and audio, will be in August). eARCs are not copy edited so as a bonus you get to see all our typos. (on that note, my manuscripts are pretty clean so there isn’t usually much difference between the eARC and the final)

This is the next book in the regular MHI series and is about Julie Shackleford. It’s a collaboration between me and Sarah Hoyt, because I love the voice she came up with for Julie. It overlaps with Siege in the timeline.

Here’s the back cover blurb:

When Owen Pitt and the rest of the Monster Hunter International crew are called away to mount a month’s-long rescue mission in a monster-infested nightmare dimension, Julie Shackleford—Owen’s wife and descendant of MHI founder Bubba Shackelford—is left behind. Her task: hold down the fort and take care of her new baby son Ray. Julie’s devoted to the little guy, but the slow pace of office work and maternity leave are starting to get to her. But when a routine field call brings her face-to-face with an unspeakable evil calling itself Brother Death, she’ll get more excitement than she ever hoped for.

Julie is the Guardian of a powerful ancient artifact known as the Kamaresh Yar, and Brother Death wants it. In the wrong hands, it could destroy reality as we know it. Julie would die before giving it up.

Then Ray goes missing, taken by Brother Death. The price for his safe return: the Kamaresh Yar. If Julie doesn’t hand over the artifact it means death—or worse—for baby Ray. With no other choice left to her, Julie agrees to Brother Death’s demands. But when you’re dealing with an ancient evil, the devil is in the details.

To reclaim her son, Julie Shackleford will have to fight her way through necromantic death cults, child-stealing monsters, and worse. And she’ll have to do it all before Brother Death can unleash the Kamaresh Yar.

It’s one woman against an army of monsters. But Julie Shackelford is no ordinary woman—she’s one tough mother!

Noir Fatale is out next week!
April Update Post

48 thoughts on “Monster Hunter Guardian, eARC AVAILABLE NOW!”

  1. Brother Death is going to need a lot of bandages and a tanker truck of Bactine, because this is gonna hurt.

    1. Hey, I got a brilliant idea! I’m gonna steal the child of MHI’s top sniper!

      Brother Death is going to need a new brain after Julie shoots what there is of his current one out of his head from a mile away 🙂

        1. Julie Shackleford uses an M14 rifle from a helicopter to remove undead from a ship at sea in the very first MHI book. I think she qualifies as a sniper.

          Not that I’d ever argue with Julie from 1632 either. Not even from a distance.

  2. Ching! Too bad I’m at work and have to wait until lunchtime to get it stuffed into my tablet… (bounces impatiently)

  3. Hi Larry, do you have any advice for an aspiring writer to find a chill community for feedback and beta reads that’s apolitical and not hopelessly converged by ultra far left pod people? I swear every time I talk to a writer on twitter all they want to do is bitch about the president and not, you know, write.

    Thanks, sorry for the OT post.

  4. What happened to the scenes with Grant in them that Sarah posted a while back?

    I thought seeing the inside of his head, and giving him another chance at redemption with the reader, was a good idea.

    1. Still up on her blog episodically under then name Dark Fate.

      Several of us are hoping that she’ll be able to clean them up a bit and publish either as a novel of their own, or a novella in an upcoming Anthology.

      JAB

    2. Per Sarah’s own intro to the series (Dark Fate) at her site:

      “FIRST AND VERY IMPORTANTLY, THIS IS NOT CANON. THIS IS COMPLETELY UNSANCTIONED (okay, not completely. Larry said I could do this for you guys without his ripping my head off) MHI FANFIC.”

      “And this story gives me more of an opportunity to firm the worldbuilding. (Yes, it would be MUCH easier to do this with a notebook and noting things down, but that’s not how my mind works, d*mn it.)”

  5. Can I just say that I’ve been desperately waiting for this next installment.

    I do love that you’re helping out and working with authors on collaborative projects, anthologies etc. etc., but don’t leave us jonesing for our most treasured content.

    No, I shouldn’t really complain about the collabs really…

    Even if I think that the Grimnoir cycle was sublime, both Dead Six with Mike Kupari and The Memoires with John Ringo show that there are very few authors that can make collaborations work as well as you can.

    All in all, my only gripe is that of a typical fan: more, faster and when’s your next book coming out!

    So, nothing new or exciting there I suppose…

    I do feel that you’ve been neglecting this blog a little lately though; I know and understand that you’ve been busy, but I’m sure that I’m not the only one that loves your writing here just as much as any book you’ve published.

    Keep up the good work!

    1. Just pretend the growling of your stomach is a friendly Orc preparing to leap into the fray! Works for me anyway.

      1. Eat noses and toes – mammals save much funny paper that way.

        I’m thinking my favorite character from Guardian deserves a buddy-cop team-up with Wendell this Noun season…

  6. Very curious to check this one out, but I prefer the audio, so I guess I’ll wait for that. Any idea who the narrator will be? (Also, can you tell us which, if any, other major MHI characters will be prominent in this? I do loves me some secondary characters.)

  7. Cool, just the other day I was cursing at the release date for Guardian.

    Now I can just go ahead and read it now.

  8. Bought it, read it. Still planning to buy the audio book. I think I would be okay with Oliver Wyman narrating it, but that’s unlikely .

  9. Speculation here (and spoilers for the book up to the end of the sample chapters):
    Susan will put in an appearance, possibly as one of the buyers.
    Brother Death is trying (as of the end of the sample chapters) to manipulate Julie into entering this fray. Otherwise he has no reason to tell her that he’s planning to sell Ray or even talk to her again.

  10. Reading it a second time now and have reread the series 2 times while waiting for this installment – I think I might need a 12 step program 🙂 It’s great to finally see what’s going on in Julie’s head – up untill now she has just been this amazing kick ass character who’s really good at everything she does, it’s a little satisfying to see that she is human after all and motherhood is hard for her just like the rest of us poor mortals. Ducharm’s home will probably be featuring in my nightmares for quite some time… Will we ever see what happened to Earl and the rest of the hunters on the Severny island while Owen was in nightmare realm? Sounds like their 6 months were not a picnic either. Good anthology material imo 🙂

  11. Hi Larry & Sarah

    Really enjoyed the book, worth the 15 bucks for sure.

    One niggle to pick, if you have a 1 MOA rifle at 600 yards then the probable impact point is 6 inches in diameter, so they must be bloody big pigeons to be sure of hitting one!

    Looking forward to the next eARC

    1. I’ve only been talking about this collaboration for years, and MHI is one of Baen’s biggest and most popular series, so…?

      1. I’m hoping this means she’s coming back, either to Baen or somewhere. Hopefully I’m not being overly optimistic.

    2. Certainly she can speak for herself but the business decisions of all parties involved shouldn’t be inferred from rumor or innuendo. You make it sound as if someone is feuding. Where is the benefit in that?

  12. Certainly she can speak for herself but the business decisions of all parties involved shouldn’t be inferred from rumor or innuendo. You make it sound as if someone is feuding. Where is the benefit in that?

  13. Just wanted to say thank you, Larry. MHI s an amazin’ ride, and this latest installment is top notch. Congratulations on yet another world-class accomplishment. Don’t get no better than that!

    1. I can’t believe I didn’t say a word of congratulations to Sarah! Sorry about that, M’am. The novel integrated so seamlessly with the rest of the series that for a moment I forgot that two people worked on it. Mea culpa, and ya done great!

  14. Bought. Read.

    Now when’s the next installment?

    And how many more books are there?

    EAT TOES!!!!!!

  15. Finished it.

    Loved it, though parts were certainly tough to read considering I have a 9 month old myself.

    A certain little guy might be my new favorite character in MHI… EAT TOES!

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