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Monster Hunt NYC #1

Monster Hunt NYC

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Shifters, giants, hungry beasts, the undead, creatures of legend, flying terrors - you name it, New York City had it.

Through the Monster Hunt App, Chase Knowles becomes the Alpha of two powerful Huntresses: one a half-dragon female fond of combat and banter, the other a cute warrior fond of reading spell books and wielding two killer blades.

Their goal? Hunt these mythological creatures in the parks, rooftops, and back alleys of New York City; build a fighting party to compete in brawls and tournaments in the city and beyond; earn money; and try their damndest not to get arrested.

Warning: Monster Hunt NYC contains a light harem with monster girls, augmented reality,fantasy violence, a ton of action, and GameLit/LitRPG concepts. It was inspired by the Persona Games, Pokemon Go!, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.


Click download now to start reading the newest series by Harmon Cooper, Amazon bestselling author of Cherry Blossom Girls, The Last Warrior of Unigaea, Fantasy Online and The Feedback Loop.

430 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 20, 2018

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About the author

Harmon Cooper

110 books337 followers
Harmon Cooper is the author of over sixty fantasy works. His bestselling series include Pilgrim, War Priest, Cowboy Necromancer, and Tokens and Towers.

His series, The Feedback Loop, is one of the earlier GameLit works first published in 2015. An earphone award winner for the series Death's Mantle, Harmon won the LitRPG/GameLit Audiobook of the Year award for Sacred Cat Island, narrated by Legends and Lattes author Travis Baldree.

Harmon write progression fantasy, cultivation fantasy, and LitRPG/GameLit.

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5 stars
245 (38%)
4 stars
197 (30%)
3 stars
131 (20%)
2 stars
47 (7%)
1 star
22 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
134 reviews2 followers
July 26, 2019
Harmon Cooper is back and doing what he is best at, ruining good ideas by writing shitty books.

This book took a really really fun idea. It basically took Pokemon Go and other similar games and took it up to the next level, pushing it to AR/VR via implants. There are so many Pokemon Go fans and so many people who love monster taming and the like.

But what do we get? We get something that's twisted into a sorry excuse of a harem story.

The antagonist is not really an antagonist. It's like dumbed down version.

The protagonist is a sore loser, like a hippy. All he cares about is his music and doesn't do anything. He gets beat up and he doesn't even call the cops. He's such a loser that his crush sleeps with the jerk that beat the crap out of him.

The girl he likes is bossy and he just lets her boss him around. The girl is also a bitch. She probably knows the protagonist likes her but she also knows the antagonist is jerk, yet she still sleeps with him. And like, didn't think twice about her bff protagonist. She basically decided to give her asshole "bf" a really expensive gift that can make millions and join with him while ditching her bff in a gut hole. That's until her asshole "bf" beat her bff up and she felt bad.

Then she decided to "pay back" to her bff by giving him her code to play the game to make them rich.

Best part is, even after trashing her bff, she still has feelings toward the asshole bf.

Let's just toss allllll that out the window. All that cliche and poorly structured piece of crap. Another big problem is the "music" or "singing". Fyi, an author is just an author. There is a reason why an author is an author and not a songwriter or even a script writer.

I totally give bonus points for SoundBooth Theatre for turning that piece of **** into something good. It's not bad. But the way I see it is...Neither Harmon Cooper or SBT are professionals are being a songwriter or a musician or singers. It pulls away from the book when you try to toss in half ass things. They might not being half ass-ing them but the results are mediocre and pulls away from the book.
Profile Image for Robert.
233 reviews
May 31, 2020
Betamax

The MC is a penniless beta loser who has been friend zoned who almost vomits because he throws a single punch. All he wants to do is play his bass and dream about the girl he likes.

It never even occurs to our idiotic hero to get a job. He is too beta to even go to the police after a band member knocks him out and steals thousands of dollars worth of musical equipment.

His female friend is so overbearing she bosses him around without him batting an eye.

A harem? Hardly. He plays handsies like a teenager with a AI controlled character instead of the real human female lying next to him in a bed.
Profile Image for Reaper Hound.
576 reviews7 followers
September 4, 2022
4.75 stars
300-DPI-Book-1


It's certainly as the author says Pokemon "Go! meets Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe!"

Cooper is certainly different from other authors in this genre, he clearly focuses more on the story and leave the bread crumbs of the future escapades here and there. It certainly goes swiftly, and more credit to him because he writes excellent action sequences, it written in very simple yet descriptive way we can imagine swiftly not hindering us with the intricacies of wordplay.
The banter between the girls and our Protagonist were funny and a joy to read, certainly a palette cleanser
Profile Image for Forrest.
218 reviews4 followers
August 13, 2018
I am going to copy/paste this review for both books 1 & 2.

It was ok. I've read both books so far so they aren't bad, but there are a number of things that really don't strike a chord with me.

1. I can't really deal with the fetishization of music. I like music, but I can't even understand the way the author/main character talks about it let alone relate to it.

2. Speaking of music: The nonsensical songs that the characters make up on the spot and sing. This is something that bothers me in any book. I am not a musician, so I have a hard time looking at nonsense words and imagining what beat/melody is supposed to go with them. I read somewhere that the audiobook actually sings these, so maybe that would be better, but if the words don't rhyme and aren't formatted in any obvious way, I have no idea what to make of the song other than the words in it. And the words in these songs are meaningless at best. It really breaks the immersion for me to try and figure out how those words make a song.

3. The "harem." Until the girls are all on the same page, it is less of a "harem" and more of a guy who is a dick and is two-timing the girls he is with. He either needs to pick one or have a group discussion about how they are going to proceed.

4. The game being 'illegal' and yet there are somehow enough players for him to make a living just playing the game.

5. Speaking of money: This book is supposed to take place about 100 years in the future, but it seems like there may have been 0 inflation. I did a quick search and found that $100 in 1918 would be equal to about $1,799.45 in 2018. Yet this far into the future, they are paying $8 for food and $50 to take a flying taxi across town. Apparently, most people are living on a 'universal basic income,' which a lot of sci-fi books have, but the price of things are never really explained in a way that makes sense to me. For example, he has a roommate because he can't afford the rent himself, but they never say how much the rent is. They do talk about the price of food and in-app-purchases, but I have nothing to compare this to. I don't know if he is spending what amounts to pocket change or if he is blowing a month's worth of rent on this game. I'm rambling, but the point is that the economy seems inconsistent to me, which then breaks my immersion.

I will probably read the next one just because I enjoy the escapism of the story, but I won't be waiting with anticipation for it to be released.


2 reviews
June 18, 2018
Interesting premise badly executed. Smirking emoji chapter breaks were annoying.
Profile Image for William.
Author 14 books78 followers
September 10, 2024
I am working on my own monster hunting character and when I am writing I like to read similar stories. This was not one. At least this wasn’t the kind of monster hunting I thought it would be. It was more a version of Pokémon where you walk around town looking for Pokémon on your phone and then twisting in further tournament play. Which drug on. There was way too much of the same kind of fighting. I was never one who could watch other play video games and this novel felt too much like that. I have no plans in picking up the next one and will return to reading of chasing bigfoot and finding the mothman.
Profile Image for Kate Em.
22 reviews
May 11, 2019
Gladiators

Loved the concept...digital gladiators in the proximate worlds. Very cool and in excited to see how this develops. Already looking at book 2
74 reviews
June 1, 2018
I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought it would after looking at the cover. Other than the overuse of the phrase “ghost limbs”, my main problem with the story was that there was no tension. The only thing even remotely similar to a “villain” this story had was Thad, and that was resolved offscreen. Win fights, lose fights. Who cares? Will the budding romance lead anywhere, and will it have consequence? Not in the course of this book, at least.

It’s at least competently written, but the spacing between paragraphs took me a few pages to get used to.
Profile Image for Kay.
1,693 reviews17 followers
May 12, 2018
I'm not a gamer. In fact, the only game I've ever played was a zombie one in an arcade many, many years ago. My hubby reliably informs me it was called 'The House of the Dead'. But you don't need to understand games to enjoy this book.

This is brilliantly written. It's an intense page turner where an illegal code means the game app actually shows the monsters in real time. Battling these monsters without looking like you belong in an asylum is tricky! The story flows well and the fighting is great fun. I loved the little connections to Cooper's other works, particularly his Proxima Galaxy. Little gems of prizes that made me smile when I came across them.

Harmon Cooper has impressed me so much with his creativity and talent since I first experienced 'Life is a Beautiful Thing' way back when. The fact that there will also be lyrical songs and music specially written for this book, just proves how far Cooper will go to ensure that his readers are fully entertained.

I received an eARC of this book, which I voluntarily read and reviewed. All opinions are my own.
Profile Image for Johnny.
1,966 reviews65 followers
May 14, 2018
Not my style

Just not my style. I didn't like much about this.
It was well written, but the entire thing felt campy.
Some will like this, others wont.
You be your own judge on this one.
Profile Image for Susan.
1,743 reviews38 followers
November 15, 2021
The story opens with Chase joining this real-time on-line game where the characters are interactive. His tech allow him to see, hear, and sometimes feel everything that’s going on with the NPCs whether in the real world (near-future NYC) or in the computer world arena. His first step is to go find his hunters, which are near-AI level NPCs that will pick him as their alpha. Lady Cassandra (Lady C) and Aia quickly find him and they team up to walk the streets of NYC finding mythical creatures (mythcrea) to capture and add to their dojo. This first part goes by pretty quick and relies mostly on the action to explain a lot of how the game works.

Chase and his dojo are joined by his real-world friend Iris. It’s pretty clear from the beginning that Chase has a deep crush on Iris but for some reason he has never told her. They have been close friends for years and they have great chemistry in this book. But I did get a little laugh out of this whole ‘alpha’ thing as both of his female hunters hit on him often. In fact, Lady C takes it a little further than that but the book itself remains PG-13. And just an aside about Chase, he’s pretty broke, living in a small apartment he has to share with some guy he doesn’t really know. Iris is always lending him money. I did wonder why the guy didn’t have a regular, if pathetic, job. So Chase kind of comes off as a bit of a slacker. Yet he is still quite likable and I was rooting for him throughout the story.

I really liked Aia, who is a Thulian (don’t you dare call her a Dragon Lady! Ha!) and is kind of intimidating. I like her rough sense of humor too. Lady C, who supposedly reads a lot, really comes off as a daft flirt 90% of the time. On one hand, she’s fun and cute; on the other hand she’s dumb and annoying. But I’m glad to say the dojo is quickly joined by other mythcrea such as Rose (a bearadillo) and her cub, a wise monkey king, and others. There’s plenty of characters to enjoy by the halfway point of the book.

One of the things I sometimes don’t like about litRPG or gamelit is the time taken to explain the player stats, etc. I am happy to say that this story manages to keep all that to minimum and also sprinkle it throughout the story instead of giving it to you all in one big boring chunk. The tale also does a good a job of explaining game rules through action. This let the story keep up a swift pace.

All together, it was a fun story that left me on a win, but with the door open for the next adventure. 4/5 stars.

The Narration, Sound Effects, & Music: Soundbooth Theater put together a solid cast for this narration. I also liked all the sound effects and music. They were well timed and placed and never over-shadowed the narration. All sound effects were easily identifiable too. The narration cast was pretty good. Chase sounds like a young, the ladies sound like young ladies (even Aia with her Russian accent). I wasn’t that enamored with Lady C’s character and the choice of narration (dumb blonde valley girl) didn’t help me like this character more. I did find Lady C a bit annoying. All around, it was pretty well done and I’m tempted to pick up book 2 in the series. Soundbooth Theater has a choice in narrations when you buy from their site directly – narration only or what they call a Deep Dive (with all the sound effects and music). I think this is a most excellent thing to offer listeners. 4.5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Soundbooth Theater. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
Author 9 books34 followers
April 2, 2019
Monster Hunt NYC is a fun story that tries a lot but is missing something - 3.5/5 rounded down.

This book was pitched to me as Scott Pilgram meets pokemon. This is my first forays into the -Mon genre of GameLit/LitRPG. The namesakes of Digimon and Pokémon should give you a good idea what to expect, and I got a lot of that nostalgia. Catching and hunting monsters to increase your own power can be great fun, and in Monster Hunt, I really enjoyed the creatures and world lore, the battle concept, and main idea of the story, but about halfway or 60% through the first book… things took a turn that just felt wrong and had the story end on a sour note for me. A more detailed explanation of my feelings can be found in the spoiler, but it is a big one.



Despite the problems I had, I liked the ideas in the series enough that I’ve already picked up book two to see how it continues. Hopefully, I can enjoy this one more than the first.
Profile Image for Tory.
211 reviews7 followers
July 21, 2019
The narrator of this book Jeff Hays called this his first real passion project since becoming a narrator and I can see why as the cast really brings it to life. It was so easy to visualize everything happening that it was more like watching a show on television. The story is both standard litrpg and unique at the same time. Overall it's a realistic interpretation of what an augmented reality game inspired by Pokemon-esque or ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal could become in the future. The technology used in the book is more believable than some used in many others of the same genre. The characters are semi-relatable and It feels like the roles were designed with these specific narrators in mind. I liked Chase the main character and his two hunters but I found myself both liking and hating Iris as a character probably because of how realistic she is written. The world building is minor but not really necessary since it mostly takes place in the real world for now. As i listened to the audiobook but haven't read it I can say I don't think I would have enjoyed reading it as much as it is heavily influenced and written with music in mind which the audiobook handled fantastically. I highly recommend this book especially in audio format unless you're one of those people who only enjoy a story read to you in the format of a newspaper without effects, music, or multiple voice actors. I can definitely see myself listening to this again.
Profile Image for RJ.
2,044 reviews11 followers
January 19, 2021
The year is 2090. Through the courtesy of an expensive Monster Hunter app, our newbie hunter Chase Knowles becomes Alpha to two gorgeous monster hunting huntresses. The objective: hunt down and capture various monsters roaming New York City. The captured monsters can be sold for cash or used in a fight team to battle other alpha fight teams in a gladiator-style arena. Winners are awarded Proxima dollars and Tokens. Proxima dollars can be exchanged for U.S. dollars at a variable exchange rate. Tokens can be traded, sold, or used to level up. Chase continues to win brawls and tournaments increasing his Proxima dollars and Tokens. Chases’ partner and hopeful girlfriend Iris assists in research and team fights. Together with the two huntresses, Chase has his hands full managing (?) three women. The ultimate prize is access to Everlife, the mysterious plane where it all began. Will our team ever see Everlife? The interaction between the four characters is witty and humorous. Throw in a little romance and sex to satisfy the light harem aspect. A fun romp is had by all.
510 reviews5 followers
February 16, 2022
WOW

I've never had any interest in rpgs or tabletop games but this is something else entirely, not only does it explain how the whole thing works in language even a dummy like me can wrap my head around it's also an amazing story. With characters so well written, they spring to life on the page, even the ones that are in effect figments of imagination who people the online world are so good that you can't help rooting for them in their numerous battles. With warriors mages witches and numerous other entities with animals, and magic galore this is truly an amazing book. I purposely avoided being specific about what happens with the two heroes it's better if you read it and let it all unfold and blow your mind as it did with me. I'm off to read book two, I'll let you know how it turns out. Highly recommended a must-read, Baz
Profile Image for Scott.
1,394 reviews9 followers
May 13, 2018
Great new LitRPG format

What happens when you mix Pokemon Go with Proxima Galaxy chaos then you get an amazing new game where you can live for big prizes. This series has some serious competition from Harmons other Proxima world books but may be his most popular yet.
The main characters especially the potential harem style theme of his two main fighters Aya and Lady C are just ready for Audio and the excitement of the hunts and potential fights is just an excellent draw to keep the readers eyes glued to the pages.
Can't wait for book 2 and the audio versions all of which will be snapped up instantly
68 reviews
January 3, 2024
DNF. Just another low effort "book". Set in 2080 but this is just so the AR technology could exist, there is nothing else that is really different than 2020.

It's repeatedly mentioned that the app is illegal but this is never paid off. He's repeatedly seen as weird for talking to people that aren't there even though cellphones have been a thing for 80+ years and everyone has AR etc. Of course it would be weird since in 2080 the tech should be there to not have to speak aloud... But again, low effort.

The monster hunting and pokemon battle aspects are just as shallow as everything else.

The only positive is that it's short.
Profile Image for Cameron.
281 reviews9 followers
May 13, 2018
Fun story built on a cool premise

Monster Hunt NYC is a fun take on the GameLit genre, and is unique (as far as I can tell) in that it compares to Pokémon go - and the direct comparisons are favorable for this story.

The story focuses on the journey of Chase and Iris, and the huntresses - with the emphasis on building up a team of characters for us to grow to enjoy. Each of the “monsters” have interesting personality facets - and add to the story.

Looking forward to a book 2!
Profile Image for Eli.
231 reviews3 followers
September 10, 2020
Look you can judge me all you want but I loved this ultra nerdy book. If you aren’t a nerd you may not realize that this is a parody of itself, and that’s partly why it’s so beautiful. I especially love the music bits and the audio acting and effects. So well done and pleasantly surprised me by playing with the tropes :) I look forward to the next ones in the series.

Not sure what all the bad reviews are on about. Maybe they take it too seriously? Idk. It’s playful and fun and realistic in the way the characters interact and think, which is more than I can say for a lot of other books.
Profile Image for Carrie Torres.
29 reviews
May 11, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I loved that the three main characters are so different but work so well together. I never felt that the book got boring at any point. The world the writer creates is fantastic. I can not wait to see more written by this author. He is one of my top ten favorites. If you are a fan of anime series such as Sword Art Online or Log Horizon I think you would enjoy this book.
3 reviews2 followers
October 15, 2019
Good but not great

I've read through a few of his titles, as well as his contemporaries, and this one felt a little less developed. Don't get me wrong it was still a lot of fun, the characters, the tech, the world was great, but it felt a little sloppy. I didn't check the publish date but this reads like an earlier work; before he really found his stride. Still, I'd recommend it if you like the genre.
Profile Image for Tory Thai.
830 reviews5 followers
August 30, 2020
I gave this 2 hours to hook me in.

Production is amazing. Definetly reminded me of anime styled videogames with its overly sexualized women, campy story telling, clueless main character and weird world.

It had all the great concepts of being a great audiobook but It wasn't exciting.

Very bummed about just not having fun with it. It was taking too long to do something that could hook me in as a listener.

It felt filled with ideas but empty with its execution.
760 reviews11 followers
May 11, 2018
Of course 5 stars

This is definitely one of my favorite Harmon Cooper books. Sexy, real, fun, not so dark. And pokemon for adults. I beta read this one and I enjoyed it just as much the second time. I'm also looking forward to the audio book. Buy this book and review it. I want a lot more of this series from Harmon Cooper. This one barely scratched the surface.
Profile Image for Dark Ape.
252 reviews8 followers
July 28, 2018
The base concept reminds me a lot of a popular light novel series, but plenty of unique changes that it also distinguished itself fairly quickly apart from that one. Appreciated the fact that there wasn't much relationship building, nothing really specific at least, as the timeline was already packed with important events and deadlines.
107 reviews2 followers
May 8, 2020
Pokémon go meets harem meets WTF

Although I can totally see what the author was going with for this novel, I just don’t like it’s execution with a really strange augmented reality system that makes the player seem like they are participating when they’re really not… with characters that are sassy and flirty yet two dimensional i’m just not a fan of the way this book rolls out.
Profile Image for Albert.
123 reviews1 follower
October 18, 2021
I really enjoyed reading this book, but the ending seemed incomplete. I believe the author was trying to follow a formula to end a book to make it go into a second volume instead of letting it come to it's natural conclusion.

The story as written very good and I will be looking for the next in the series. Recommended for anyone with an interest in gaming or futuristic virtual reality.
155 reviews1 follower
April 26, 2023
The book is... Fine. If I read a non-audio version it'd probably be three stars, but the audio version is really well done by Jeff hays, Annie Ellicott, and the production company behind all the sounds and music. They even sang and played instruments, that's more than some "musicians" do these days haha.
48 reviews3 followers
May 13, 2018
An interesting take on gamelit\litrpg

I'm a fan of Cooper's and was excited to see a new book out. I really enjoyed the development of the characters and look forward to the next volume. The musical aspect of the novel was an entertaining focus.
302 reviews1 follower
May 15, 2018
Hilarious! outrageous! Witty! This lit-rpg novel is that and more...Apperently MR COOPER knows how to infuse his stories and characters with just the right amount of humor and snark,throws in some action,and comes up with the perfect literary dish for your consumption..Enjoy..I did!!
Profile Image for Jonathan.
120 reviews4 followers
July 30, 2018
As I’ve read more...

...of these types of adventures I’ve become more wary of their quality. Harmon is a great writer, good storyteller, and keeps his characters on their toes which, in turn, guarantees the reader will be as well.

Happy to recommend the book.
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