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Title: Target Rich Environment, Vol. 2
Series: TRE #2
Author: Larry Correia
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 450
Words: 122K
| Synopsis: |
From Amazon
“Tokyo Raider” pits giant robots against very big monsters in the Grimnoir Universe. “The Testimony of the Traitor Ratul,” set in the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior series, lets a man who has been called a fanatical rebel, despicable murderer, and heretical traitor tell his side of the story. And “Reckoning Day” gives an insider view into the day-to-day life of some of the most popular characters from the Monster Hunter International series.
Plus, stories set in the world of both Aliens and Predator; an Agent Franks /Joe Ledger mash- up cowritten by best-selling author Jonathan Maberry; a V-Wars story; a story set in Michael Z. Williamson’s Freehold series—and more.
Finally, Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent, is back in “A Murder of Manatees,” appearing in print for the first time!
Me
Tokyo Raider
Testimony of the Traitor Ratul
Shooter Ready
Three Sparks
Reckoning Day
Weaponized Hell
Son of Fire, Son of Thunder
Episode 22
Absence of Light
Psych Eval
Musings of a Hermit
Instruments of War
Murder of Manatees
| My Thoughts: |
Just like the previous volume, this was loads of fun! Definitely a contender for Best Book of the Year.
My two complaints first, hence the docking of a ½star. One of the novellas, Instruments of War, is set in some other franchise fiction universe and went on just a bit too long for my taste. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t to my taste. Secondly, the Tom Stranger novella wasn’t quite as funny as the first one. So those are really my only “complaints”.
I was really glad to FINALLY read Tokyo Raider. It has been audio only for years and I am not going to pay $10 for a novella on audio, or join Audible and use one of my promo credits for a novella. No one had even bothered to transcribe it and release it into the wild either. So I was pleased as punch to get to it. It wasn’t the greatest story, but I’ll take anything Grimnoir at the moment.
Three Sparks was a Predator versus Samurai story. After the abomination of a movie that was AVP, it was great to get a Predator story that was good.
Reckoning Day was a fun little MHI story about the orcs and how Shelly the female gunslinger is introduced. I’d never heard of her so I’m wondering if she is in some of the non-book stuff or in the new book, Guardian which is a collab between Correia and Sarah Hoyt.
Finally, I also enjoyed Weaponized Hell, a story about Agent Franks from MHI and some guy named Joe Ledger from another author. It was good enough that I’m adding the first couple of Joe Ledger books to my tbr to see if I like them (in a year or 3 of course). A short story that can lead me into another author’s series? I count that as good story telling!
★★★★½
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
I’ve read the first Joe Ledger book and it was pretty good. I didn’t end up continuing with the series though. I do LOVE Maberry’s other series even though it’s YA, it’s a dystopian zombie series from teenagers POV. That description doesn’t do it justice.
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Thanks for the info on Maberry. Do you happen to remember why you didn’t continue? Anything specific or just one of those “too many books” things?
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I think just one of those too many books things. I also don’t remember fully connecting with characters but that may be because it is meant to be a more action-packed thriller kind of a novel. It is well written. So not a spoiler exactly but this series ends up intersecting with the YA series I was talking about. 🙂
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Good to know. I think I’ll definitely add Maberry to my tbr then 😀
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Interdimensional Insurance Agent??? Makes me wonder what kind of claims he deals with… 😀
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Oh, they are hilarious! Tom Stranger was originally an Audible Only and was read by Adam Baldwin, plus if you know of Correia’s politics you know where that goes. I think the quote post I did earlier about the “special needs samurai” aptly sums it up 😀
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I haven’t read any of the Joe Ledger books, but I read a book about writing that included an excerpt as an example of how to write a good action scene. The excerpt was pretty engaging.
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I really enjoyed the story he co-hosted here, so between that and C&M’s recommendation, I just looked and my library has 4 or 5, so I should be all set 😀
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Are they always recurring characters? Do you need to know who they are before reading this, for example? 😮
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No, these are all standalone stories. However, they do take place within various universes so it might be helpful for one or two of the stories.
But overall, this was meant to be consumed by itself. And it has no direct tie-in to Volume 1. These are just all of Correia’s short stories that he’s published in various magazines over the years collected into one place.
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