Spec me an author...

Kobrakai · 9 Dec 2007 at 00:02

I’m a big fan of TV shows such as 24, as well as films such as Shooter and The Born Identity for the government conspiracy and terrorism style storylines.

Does anybody know of any authors that write similar stories to the examples above? I’ve read a few books by Andy McNab and enjoyed them although they were a bit slow at times.

DB_SamX · 9 Dec 2007 at 00:06

TOm Clancy.
Robert Ludlum (Bourne Trilogy author)

Rich · 9 Dec 2007 at 00:06

You are going to want to start with Robert Ludlum, Given that he wrote the Bourne series of books that were converted to films.....
Tom Clancy would be worth a look I guess also.

Edit: Simulpost for *** win

Moredhel · 9 Dec 2007 at 00:07

Geoffrey Archer does some good novels like that, I've read his ops-centre series and it was excellent.

[edit] Sorry, getting mixed up, the Ops-Centre series was Tom Clancy, the Sam Packer series were the Geoffrey Archer ones I've read.

Nix · 9 Dec 2007 at 00:08

Dan Brown wrote some conspiracy style books, although he's not strictly a brilliant author, I still enjoyed a couple of them.

Robert Ludlum has written other books too, so perhaps you should look into those.

Kobrakai · 9 Dec 2007 at 00:09

I read “The Hunt for Red October” by Tom Clancy. I don’t know about the rest of his books but this seemed very slow, for example it kept going off on lengthy side tracks about things like how a fusion reactor works for 30 pages or more. Also it contained a lot of naval jargon and Russian words/names that took the enjoyment out of the story.

I will check out the other suggestions though.

XPE · 9 Dec 2007 at 00:56

For a Clancy book Try Red storm rising, its a very good. Tho ive tried reading other Clancy books its the only one ive finished

jas72 · 9 Dec 2007 at 07:45

problem with clancy is i have that twerp harrison ford in my head when reading his books, and if you do read them the character is not suited at all to ford.

Ceryndrion · 9 Dec 2007 at 08:18

another couple to chew on..

Clive Cussler
Dale Brown (the skymasters series)
Patrick Robinson

Bloodknut · 9 Dec 2007 at 11:04

Stephen Hunter wrote the novel (Point of Impact) That Shooter was based on, a cracking read, much better than the film, although the film was great too.

You might consider Dean Koontz, another great writer,

on the darker more horror side of books, Try Graham Masterton

PardonTheWait · 9 Dec 2007 at 11:12

A bit of an oddball suggestion, but Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat Series are great fun, and are all based around espionage, heists and so on. They're funny, and they're sci-fi, but I'd definitely recommend them just because they're fun.

oneilldo · 9 Dec 2007 at 11:55

Moses99p said:
Matthew Reilly for PURE cheese (think cheesy action movie in book form! ), Bernard Cornwell is also a bit of a legend.

Thank you. I read one of his books ages ago and found it highly entertaining but couldnt remember the name or the author. Now I have found out it was called scarecrow. It was the book equivalent of arnie films, completely unbeleivable but action packed. I am going to try some more of his books now.

The Dread Pirate · 9 Dec 2007 at 11:57

Clive cussler if your up for cheesyness to!

Mr Gimp · 9 Dec 2007 at 11:59

Ceryndrion said:
another couple to chew on..

Clive Cussler
Dale Brown (the skymasters series)
Patrick Robinson

You posted the list in my head :cool:

Maximum Triceratops · 9 Dec 2007 at 12:40

Nelson Demille - Wild fire and the lions game are both great books and also check out Duncan Falconer's books.He is ex SBS and is better than Mcnab,Ryan.

Moredhel · 9 Dec 2007 at 13:57

For a bit of an unusual/horror take on the cold war espionage thing, there's the Necroscope series by Brian Lumley.

Ceryndrion · 9 Dec 2007 at 13:59

I would think that the necroscope series was a bit out of the remit, much as I like the series itself, it's not really espionage/thriller, and more horror

Kobrakai · 9 Dec 2007 at 16:09

I do like horror as well, I’ve got 21 Richard Laymon books on my shelf, many of which I’ve read twice

UncleBob · 9 Dec 2007 at 16:48

You could try Craig Thomas for cold war espionage type stuff (Firefox etc).

HangTime · 9 Dec 2007 at 17:12

Kobrakai said:
I read “The Hunt for Red October” by Tom Clancy. I don’t know about the rest of his books but this seemed very slow, for example it kept going off on lengthy side tracks about things like how a fusion reactor works for 30 pages or more. Also it contained a lot of naval jargon and Russian words/names that took the enjoyment out of the story.

I will check out the other suggestions though.

The thing about Clancy is he is big on convoluted plots with 'sidetracks', i.e. he tends to focus on a dozen different locations/characters rather than just one or two. I've yet to find a better military/political authour than him though, and I've read some of the others mentioned here (Ludlom, Cussler, Dale Brown etc). You just need to be patient.

As mentioned however, Without Remorse is a good 'starter' Clancy novel given that it is a bit more focussed than most and also isn't part of the normal 'Jack Ryan' timeline.

Red Storm Rising is probably the most action-packed, the intro is only around 150 pages before everything kicks off. Compared to The Sum of All Fears, which has an 800 page intro.