Military Fiction/Techno Thrillers

stevenmu

(I think this is appropriate for this forum ?)

I've never been in the military but it's something I've always had an interest in, and I love reading about it, in particular fiction/techno-thrillers (plenty of excitement without any real people getting hurt). Tom Clancy is arguably the master of this type of novel, my own particular favourite and judging by his sales figures, many other peoples too. Top quality fiction at it's very best, and his non-fiction is pretty good too (altough to date the only one I've read is "Every Man A Tiger" it was an excellent read though). I'm also a big fan of Andy McNab's books, nice and gritty, depressing almost at times but very enjoyable, with a huge amount of attention to detail. Stephen Coont's books are pretty good too, altough they tend to turn into more of a whodunnit style, to me at least I'd still count them in with the others. I've read one or two books by Dale Brown (definitely not to be confused with Dan Brown), and they seem very too, a little science fictiony, but considering the USAF had stealth aircraft for so long before we knew anything about it, who knows what the hell they have now that we won't see for another 20/30 years.

So, anyone ele like the same type of books, same authors, or much more importantly, can anyone reccommend some more ?

mike65

Craig Thomas Firefox about a super-duper Russian fighter stolen by USAF pilot. Filmed rather poorly by Clint Eastwood in 1982.

Mike.

Tchocky

I'd recommend any of Craig Thomas, most of all Winter Hawk

He doesnt go down the Clancy road of dry-humping the serial numbers, but actually writes very good psychological fiction that kicks along at an unbelievable pace.

tallus

Jack Higgins is a good writer, but most of his stuff is a bit similar. Not bad to read tho.

Asok

Gerald Seymours books like holding the zero are very good.

Hagar

The first few Andy McNabb books were quite readable but I think he's run out of real life adventures and is now getting into fiction.


NMM

Dyr

W.E johns , can't beat the old classic's

civdef

Tom Clancy wrote a couple of decent books (with an awful lot of help), then deteriorated rapidly thereafter.

Andy McNab (or his ghost writer) wrote one fiction book, then changes the names and places around every six months or so before re-publishing it.

Stephen Coonts and Jack Higgins both turned out some crackers (Eagle Has Landed, Flight of the Intruder) and a lot of fairly formulaic thrillers later on.

Firefox - great craic.

Concur wholeheartedly on Holding the Zero and everything else that I've read by Gerald Seymour.

Biggles - legend!.


If you're into US military aviation / Vietnam timeframe novels, look out for Gerry Carroll, who flew navy helis in Vietnam, and wrote several (three I think) excellent fiction titles loosely based on his experiences before he died.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671865110/102-4701323-9405713?v=glance&n=283155

Hagar

Another brilliant Viet-Nam / Helicopter novel is Chickenhawk by Robert Mason.
I nearly felt I could fly a Huey when I was finished reading it was so packed with detail.


NMM

BNC

Just thought I'd recommend a couple of books all wriiten by the same author : Donald R. Burgett.

It follows one soldiers journey from basic training at Currahee
to the final days of the war in Germany. His descriptions of basic training are intriguing, at one point the troops had enough of one of their instructors and decided to sabotage his parachute!

The books, in great detail, give the personal account of shooting an enemy in winter and watching steam rise from his head!

The books are as follows:

Currahee
The Road to Arnhem
Seven Roads to Hell
Beyond The Rhine

Morlar

Firefox was excellent ! cheesy production values but cool all the same. I think that the hunt for red october was the best clancy adaptation - another (probably unfilmable) one was Red Storm which was a massive novel in scope - if they ever film it it would have to be scaled back massively. Personally I prefer non clancy war movies - das boot - the downfall, black hawk down and millions of others.

Dub13

Just incase anybody missed it I have been reading Alex Lochrie story about The French Foreign Legion,its a great read and can be found Here

Hagar

BNC wrote:

Just thought I'd recommend a couple of books all wriiten by the same author : Donald R. Burgett.

It follows one soldiers journey from basic training at Currahee

Is there any overlap with Band of Brothers? I watch the full box set about once every six weeks. Mrs Hagar usually can be found wandering aimlessly in PI that week.

NMM

babybundy

band of brother top quality veiwing

RuggieBear

for non stop action i can recommend matthew reilly.

not realistic at all but totally over the top roller coaster ride

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Reilly_(writer)

BNC

Hagar wrote:

Is there any overlap with Band of Brothers? I watch the full box set about once every six weeks. Mrs Hagar usually can be found wandering aimlessly in PI that week.

NMM

If you liked BoB you'll enjoy those books. I read them about a year ago and lent them to the my Bro-in-law (whose a ww2 fanatic) and he loved them too. Off the top of my head I cant remember which company the author was in but I thought it was a good companion to the BoB series. The books gave an interesting insight into how things were. How the grave detail that would go around and clean up the bodies after fighting would rob items from the bodies of their own men and the personal affects from their back packs etc.

Actually now that I'm remembering this stuff I must go and get those books back and have a read again!!

stevenmu

Some good suggestions there guys thanks, should keep me busy for a while. Gerald Seymour's name has come up a few times before actually, I might start there.

I'd heard of Craig Thomas, but I've also seen firefox and that put me right off, I'd prefer to be repeatedly hit over the head with the book than watch that film again

Hagar wrote:

The first few Andy McNabb books were quite readable but I think he's run out of real life adventures and is now getting into fiction.

I think his fiction is pretty good, the plot lines can be a little far fetched but the detail he goes into planning and carrying out operations is interesting stuff (altough he does spend far too much time talking about shi**ing in cling film )

fightin irish

Hagar wrote:

Is there any overlap with Band of Brothers? I watch the full box set about once every six weeks. Mrs Hagar usually can be found wandering aimlessly in PI that week.

NMM

BOB as you know was based on 'easy' Company 101/airborne...Don Burgett was A co. 101 airborne. And my god are his books amazing. Scary **** and he was only 19 in 1944. I would recommend buying all his books in one go as they read like a timetable of the 101st airborne in ww2 and he was in every campaign.

Also i have all of Stephen Ambrose's books. He wrote...

Band of Brothers (read this before the mini series and was entharlled)

D-DAY-simply an astonishing collections of personel accounts of d-day vets that he interviewed himself over many years.

Citzen soldiers- Same as D-DAY but all about every major campaign in ww2 europe...Seriously the personel accounts are some of the best military reading you'll come across.

Pegasus bridge- 6th british a/borne on D-day..Same structure all personel accounts.

Also we were soldiers was a fantastic read as was a book called 'NAM'..i forget the author now:o

delly

Patrick Robinson has to be my favourite, although he doesn't have as a big a profile as somebody like Clancy, and I only came across him from the covers of his books.

Nimitz Class is the first in the collection which focuses on a carrier that suddenly disappears at sea. The story lines are great and focus on the 'no bull taking' chief of the NSA in the US who is in all his books, but always have submarines as the key player in the storyline. His third book in the series even has Concorde been taken out by a rogue submarine stolen from the British :eek:.

RuggieBear

delly wrote:

Patrick Robinson has to be my favourite, although he doesn't have as a big a profile as somebody like Clancy, and I only came across him from the covers of his books.

Nimitz Class is the first in the collection which focuses on a carrier that suddenly disappears at sea. The story lines are great and focus on the 'no bull taking' chief of the NSA in the US who is in all his books, but always have submarines as the key player in the storyline. His third book in the series even has Concorde been taken out by a rogue submarine stolen from the British :eek:.

yeah read the first few of his...pretty good stuff.

coyote6

Nelson Demille has some great stuff. Not all military but in the vein we like. Check out his site: www.nelsondemille.net

Another great series which is more FBI'ish is by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Foster. They write as a team and their research and detail is impeccable.

RiderOnTheStorm

The Jack Reacher series, by Lee Child, is fantastic. Its not 100% military, but the hero (Jack Reacher) is an ex MP, he tours around USA and gets into all sorts of adventures (usually solving murders, or on the run from murderers). He has great insight into life, and is a cross between Bruce Lee, Sherlock Homes, Rambo and the assasin from Day of The Jackal.
The Killing Floor would be a good place to start.

Hagar wrote:

Another brilliant Viet-Nam / Helicopter novel is Chickenhawk by Robert Mason.
I nearly felt I could fly a Huey when I was finished reading it was so packed with detail.

.... YES! a GREAT book! I thought I could fly a huey by the end too!

Capt'n Midnight

Hagar wrote:

The first few Andy McNabb books were quite readable but I think he's run out of real life adventures and is now getting into fiction.

I saw a doucmentary on channel 4 where they retraced his route and interviwed the locals and I'm convinced that there was whoppping great big globs of fiction there. black hawk down for non-fiction

Hagar wrote:

Another brilliant Viet-Nam / Helicopter novel is Chickenhawk by Robert Mason.
I nearly felt I could fly a Huey when I was finished reading it was so packed with detail

The novel he wrote later Weapon was so-so can't remember the name. But Chickenhawk is a must read..

Larry Bond - Red Storm Rising / Red Phoenix, - Vortex isn't as god as the other two

Humphrey Hawksley - Dragon Fire is much better than Dragon Strike
more emphasis on the political then most techno thrillers


If you like alternatives the world war series by harry turtledove

Avoid
Dale Brown - Flight of the Old Dog
The defeat of NATO - some general or other

TempestSabre

I like Craig Thomas and MS Ulysses - Alistair MacLean etc. But some of the other guys like Dale Brown, Stephen Coont, Tom Clancy I wouldn't rate that high at all. I also like Biographical books myself. For example.

Thud Ridge - Jack Broughton
100 Missions North - Bell
Frist Light - Geoffery Wellum
The Big Show - Pierre Clostermann
Low Level Hell: a Scout Pilot in the Big Red One - Hugh L. Mills
Acceptable Loss - Kregg P.J. Jorgenson


As others have mentioned

Das Boot
Black Hawk Down

ALEX L

For a true real life account of recruitment and service in The French Foreign Legion, read this online autobiography at
www.welcometotroon.com/ntd.htm
Includes photographs of life in the Legion, to operations in Africa, the 1st Gulf War and the Balkins conflicts.
:cool:

Hagar

Alex, it's a great read all right but if you pimp it once more you will be taking a long march with no canteen, Comprenez vous mon ami?

Hagar (Mod mode on)