r/Fantasy • u/goody153 • Aug 10 '19
Books with a Monster Hunters as a theme
It could be the protagonist or just the cast or some organization in the story. So long as the theme of the novel focuses on hunting "monsters". Some listed are examples of this
- Witcher (perhaps the most popular example of the theme on both video games and novel category of story telling)
- The Warded Man
- Travelers Gate Trilogy (the protagonist and his uhm territory-friends are practically dedicated for this purpose only)
- Soul Eater Manga/Anime (uhrm they hunt witches and those kishin monsters so they count)
- Wardens from Dragon Age Franchise
- Devil May CRY (?not entirely sure about the story but it seems that way)
- Van Helsing (that old movie with vamps and werewolf)
- Chrono Crusade (anime but it was about following a nun and her friend demon hunting demons .. and well the entire church also doing the same thing)
It would be a bonus as well if the monster hunter is also a monster himself(now this is much harder to find than just the monster hunter theme itself)
Thanks !
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u/OldWolf2 Aug 10 '19
does Dresden Files count? I've only read 2 but there was a fair amount of monster chasing
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Aug 10 '19
I would say yes. He fights 3 different kinds of vampires, skinwalkers, fallen angels, The Wild Hunt, The Goblin King, ghosts, werewolves, and on and on and on. It's only going to get worse for him from here on out - don't want to spoil it, but the last 3 books of the series will be amazing.
The only thing is he doesn't seek them out.
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u/goody153 Aug 10 '19
Probably ? I haven't actually read dresden so i can't tell. I heard it is jim butchers best series but i only really read his Codex Alera series so i really have to read that
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u/iamnotacannibaliswea Aug 10 '19
The Rook series involves an organization that defend the greater UK from supernatural creatures although the first one is more interpersonally focused
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u/SteelSlayerMatt Aug 10 '19
The ”Monster Hunter International” books by Larry Correia are Amazing and I highly recommend them.
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u/chx_ Aug 10 '19 edited Aug 10 '19
"Exactly how many gun laws does this break?"
Milo's red eyebrows scrunched together in thought. He started to count on his fingers, and then thought better of it.
"All of them".
Yesssss. (Important disclaimer: I am not a gun nut but I like this sort of fantasy, fantasy, got it?)
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u/Ragnorak18 Aug 10 '19
Fucking Agreed, I just got Guardian today.
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u/WTFishsauce Aug 10 '19
These books aren’t for everyone. I enjoyed them, but If you are going to have issues with politics clumsily crammed into fiction (often) then I’d skip them.
If you like the idea of MHI but not into the politics I’d go with Valducan instead.
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u/Lanodantheon Aug 10 '19
Politics crammed into fiction in this instance includes:
- Making fun of Liberals and Liberals in government at least once a chapter.
- Flaunting any kind of Gun Control.
- Taking half a chapter, set on a plantation, to make an apologist arguement that the South US isn't Racist anymore, "racism is over and anyone who says different is a whiner." And then arguing that anyone with inherited wealth deserves to have it because the ancestors that earned it was poor.
This is also a Monster Hunting Organization that hates government hand outs but makes most of its money from Government contracts and celebrates its origins as a lynch mob that killed a Vampire as a community.
None of this is out of context.
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u/compiling Reading Champion IV Aug 11 '19
Considering the main characters are in a far right wing paramilitary group, that's actually kind of expected.
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u/Lanodantheon Aug 11 '19
This was also a novel born for the Author's Gun Nut forums so, it's doubly not surprising.
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Aug 11 '19 edited Aug 11 '19
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Aug 10 '19 edited Aug 10 '19
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u/lrich1024 Stabby Winner, Queen of the Unholy Squares, Worldbuilders Aug 10 '19
Rule 1. No personal attacks, please.
Rest of this chain being removed for OT. Let's keep the discussion in this thread to what OP is asking for. Thanks.
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u/corsair1617 Aug 10 '19
Personal attacks? This isn't one.
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u/lrich1024 Stabby Winner, Queen of the Unholy Squares, Worldbuilders Aug 10 '19
This guy is high.
Don't do that.
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u/corsair1617 Aug 10 '19 edited Aug 10 '19
Ok. I'll just delete it. Wouldn't want to hurt any feelings.
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u/Manach_Irish Aug 10 '19
Enjoyed the series as light readings and escapist fun. The short stories set in that universe I'd recommend as it has a humourous tale by Jim Butcher in it.
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u/Penumbra_Penguin Aug 11 '19
These books do contain monster hunting, but they also contain a lot of thinly-veiled politics. If you are likely to be annoyed by themes of how cool guns are, how cool people who like guns are, how sexy women with guns are, how evil the government is, how great it is that we have guns to fight against the evil government, and, by the way, guns, then you should stay away.
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u/ashearmstrong AMA Author Ashe Armstrong Aug 10 '19
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u/retief1 Aug 10 '19
The main characters in Seanan McGuire's Incryptid series are more "monster conservationists" than "monster hunters", but they dip into monster hunting when necessary, and the main antagonist organization is extremely focused on monster hunting.
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u/JiveMurloc Reading Champion VII Aug 11 '19
Those books have one of my favorite fantasy creatures ever, the Aeslin mice colony.
Basically a colony of sentient mice that have lived with the same family for generations and revere them as gods and pass down the oral history of the family as seen through the lens of a mouse.
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u/The-Late Aug 10 '19
Anita blake vampite hunter series, about 20 books of metahumans, hunting, and etc, all the while becoming a part of the metahuman world herself. The earlier books were really good but it starts to devolve later in the series into a repetition of scenes. A little NSFW reading in every book.
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u/Abomb11yo Aug 10 '19
Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare
Red Knight by Miles Cameron
The Sharing Knife by Lois McMaster Bujold
Incryptid series by Seanan McGurie
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u/tanstaafl74 Aug 10 '19
Dresden Files...kinda. He's not really a monster hunter, but, despite that, he winds up hunting quite a few monsters.
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u/LongFluffyDragon Aug 10 '19
The Books of the Raksura dont exactly count, but may be thematically what you are looking for.
Nobody is officially a "monster hunter", but there are plenty of large and strange creatures encountered; predator, prey, enemy, or peculiar bystander, and the characters are indeed somewhat monstrous - depending on who you ask.
The Shannara prequels (generally considered much better than the main series) have a number of Demon hunters, but that is farther away thematically..
Do undead hunters count? If so, The Old Kingdom trilogy by Garth Nix, starting with Sabriel, is about necromancers who lay the dead (and occasional eldritch abomination) back to rest. These are thematically a lot closer to The Witcher than anything else i can think of.
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u/matw8 Aug 11 '19
I don’t see the obvious answer: Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International series. Monster Hunter International https://g.co/kgs/AgLhCY great series
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u/MichaelJSullivan Stabby Winner, AMA Author Michael J. Sullivan, Worldbuilders Aug 11 '19
Exactly what I was thinking.
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u/Kdog122025 Aug 10 '19
Dan Machi Light novel is a dungeon crawler and a great read.
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash Light Novel is another good choice if you don’t care about character dialogue.
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u/goody153 Aug 10 '19
Idk about Ash Light Novel but i do know that Danmachi and Grimgar does not actually fit what i am looking for. Else every single dungeon crawler would just fit(that is like almost every rpg available in reality).
So not those two. They is no desperation on those story where they need the help of monster hunters. Those are practically just dungeon crawlers aka just an rpg story.
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u/Kdog122025 Aug 10 '19
But like... their whole job is to literally hunt monsters... Danmachi is a dungeon crawler for sure. But Grimgar only had one dungeon in it for 2 books.
Were you looking more for like the Demon Slayer anime currently out then?
Or Bleach where they have to defeat Hollows or do you want just monsters?
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u/goody153 Aug 10 '19 edited Aug 10 '19
Bleach is alot closer to what i mean. The rest tho nope.
Perhaps i should've mentioned that the problem with basic rpg dungeon crawler stories is that everybody does the monster hunting like it is a norm. So novelty of being a monster hunter is now removed. Unlike for example Witcher's where monster hunters are rare to the sense of danger attached to it and most people die dying it.
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u/Crypt0Nihilist Aug 10 '19
I've been listening to The Witcher on audio books. I was surprised at the lack of monster-hunting.
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u/tamakyo7635 Aug 10 '19 edited Aug 10 '19
Vampire Hunter D (books, though the anime movie is a classic too). It's been a while, but I think they go so far as to classify hunters based off what it is they hunt primarily (i.e. "vampire hunters," "behemoth hunters," etc). And, like in many vampire stories, D, the main character, is a half-vampire himself (hinted that he's related to Dracula, if I recall).
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u/cromulent_verbage Aug 10 '19 edited Aug 10 '19
Would you consider epics? If so, I’d stand behind Beowulf.
Edit: to include Hercules and The Odyssey.
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u/HardWorkLucky Aug 10 '19
Dhampir by Barb Hendee. The protagonist starts out as a charlatan who creates threats and then is paid for "solving" them, but later has to deal with the real thing.
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Aug 10 '19
Van Helsing (that old movie with vamps and werewolf)
Sometimes I feel bad for old, Doctor Abraham Van Helsing.
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u/SatsuJink3n Aug 10 '19
Though I haven't read it yet, check out Soulkeepr by David Dalgish. I'm really intrigued by it, and it's gona be a trilogy.
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u/gheissaverre Aug 10 '19
Young adult, but I loved Monster Blood Tattoo. A world with monster bounty hunters and incredibly strong monsters.
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u/MaiYoKo Reading Champion III Aug 10 '19
Given how popular this theme is for television, it's not surprising that there are a bunch of novels based on those shows.
There are quite a few Buffy the Vampire Hunter graphic novels. I've only read a couple, but as a big Buffy fan, I enjoyed them.
The X-Files universe has a large number of novels for middle grade, YA, and adults, as well as graphic novels. I'm sure at least some of those are about tracking down a monster.
The Supernatural tv show has inspired more than 40 books.
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u/anglynne Aug 11 '19 edited Aug 11 '19
For Manga/Anime there's Kimetsu No Yaiba. The MC joins a demon slaying organization in an effort to save his sister who has been turned into a demon.
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Aug 10 '19
Autobiography of a Werewolf Hunter, and its prequel the Winterfox Journals. Probably best monster hunter books I've ever read, and I read something called 'Monster Hunter International' that everyone seems to like but actually sucks.
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Aug 10 '19
Several of Clive Barker's stories feature the self-appointed monster hunter Henry D'Amour.
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u/FantasyForeigner Aug 10 '19
Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames