Techno thriller's

I forgot to mention earlier…for those who don’t mind a bit of submersed action Patrick Robinson

Read a few of his stuff, the earlier one’s were interesting, although as of late (an on going trend among TT writers is seems) he seem’s to be…I don’t know, more about getting one on the British Government and only the US can save the World….seriously in Ghost Force the US has to ride to the rescue against the Argentines:eek:

Oh and does anyone have an opinion on Mathew Reilly, in particular the comic adventures in Ice Station. A rip-roaring read as long as not taken very seriously.

haha, just reading some of his stuff on Amazon, they sound fantastic, must get some:D

I forgot to mention earlier…for those who don’t mind a bit of submersed action Patrick Robinson

Though I have to say I think he went the wrong way in setting up an on going nemisis to Admiral Morgan.

Oh and does anyone have an opinion on Mathew Reilly, in particular the comic adventures in Ice Station. A rip-roaring read as long as not taken very seriously.

Anyone read James Barrington’s new paperback ‘Foxbat’ – looks good !

Similarly Stephen Coonts with his Jake Grafton series which starts with Flight Of The Intruder (yup the old Danny Glover film). The series got a little tired towards the end and Coonts has now rightly moved on…though to lesser material in my view.

Final Flight is brilliant :D, and a film based on the basic premise of the book was made (Steven Segal and a Battleship is a bit of a clue, just named the film after Coonts fourth book, which wasn’t that good. For starters in the fourth Coonts book, the US secret service failed to carry out their mission correctly. Bush Snr is taken out, and they dont shoot Dan Quayle!!!).:p

I read Craig Thomas years ago, and found much of it a bit samey…though he did write several that were stand out FireFox included.

Sea Leopard, Firefox in reverse with a bit of Red October thrown in. Soviets steel a British SSN, fitted with a new highly effective anti sonar system. MI6 and the CIA try to get it back before the Soviets strip the boat. Stars of the show, aircraft wise, A Harrier T bird and a Nimrod.

Just to echo what Vern says about Eric L Harry’s books. ‘Arc Light’ is very good, but, ‘Protect and Defend’ is simply one of the best books I have ever read….easily on a par with the best Clancy or Bond ever produced.

Also got to agree that Larry Bonds earlier works Vortex, Cauldron and Red Phoenix are well worth it and in the same ballpark as Red Storm Rising. His newer stuff is losing ground a bit though – I read ‘Dangerous Ground’ a year or so back and wasn’t exactly gripped.

Protect and Defend is the better one of the two, without doubt, with the Battles around the NATO airbase (C-5 Techie (and other support elements), take this M-16 and greandes and go clear the lines), plus the wounded 101 Airbourne troops holding the hill are classics.

Oh and I forget the best bit of Force of Eagles, the Crew Chief who fix anything, but can’t wash. (Also the only SSgt ‘Fighter Ace’ in TAC, by the end of the book). I wouldn’t spoil the rest by explaining how he gets that status.

Just to echo what Vern says about Eric L Harry’s books. ‘Arc Light’ is very good, but, ‘Protect and Defend’ is simply one of the best books I have ever read….easily on a par with the best Clancy or Bond ever produced.

Also got to agree that Larry Bonds earlier works Vortex, Cauldron and Red Phoenix are well worth it and in the same ballpark as Red Storm Rising. His newer stuff is losing ground a bit though – I read ‘Dangerous Ground’ a year or so back and wasn’t exactly gripped.

Not so much techno thillers, but an excellent series of books emersed in Aviation and Military would be Richard Herman (depending on the Publisher Richard Herman Jnr), His first was Warbirds and just keep going from there…the early ones aren’t easy to get a hold of now though.

The Warbirds, set in the late 1980s before the fall of the Berlin wall, the trials and tribulations of a fictional UK based USAF Phantom wing, which deployed to the Gulf to support the gulf states in a second Iran / Iraqi war. One of the best fictional books on Air Warfare period, though the next book,

Force of Eagles, is in my view, even better.

After that, the rest of his books were a bit tame in comparison, and seem to follow the same format. take a good but ill disciplined fighter jock and turn him into a professional war fighter and leader, and in the next book get him command the rescue of somebody (bit like the first two books in fact).

If you want to e-mail me a PDF file of your work, you can grab my e-mail address at my blog. I’d be interested in giving it a read, my favorite authors appear to be publishing all too infrequently and I’m always on the lookout for something good.

Sure. I’ll get a PDF of the latest revision done tomorrow and send it your way. 🙂

The next book I’ve got kicking around in my head actually contains military aviation, shady procurement deals and military-industrial espionage. I guess the time on here rubs off. 😀

Just ordered right now “Thunder in the deep” by Joe Buff

You should enjoy Joe Buff’s novels, he’s one of my favorites. I do agree with some of the others that Dale Brown has lost a bit over the years, but his last couple of books were better than his “middle period” if you get my meaning. The only problem is that he really has developed a long, interlacing storyline that you can lose part of if you don’t read through his lesser works as well.

If anyone’s interested in printing a copy for personal use, I could also email out a PDF or MS Word document.

If you want to e-mail me a PDF file of your work, you can grab my e-mail address at my blog. I’d be interested in giving it a read, my favorite authors appear to be publishing all too infrequently and I’m always on the lookout for something good.

Yep I have some Coont’s, Larry Bond and Dale Brown stuff already…..we seem to have a dearth of new military thriller writes lately:(

Just ordered right now “Thunder in the deep” by Joe Buff and “Torpedo” by a guy called Jeff Edward’s, never heard of him, but I’ll give it a go.

Not so much techno thillers, but an excellent series of books emersed in Aviation and Military would be Richard Herman (depending on the Publisher Richard Herman Jnr), His first was Warbirds and just keep going from there…the early ones aren’t easy to get a hold of now though.

Similarly Stephen Coonts with his Jake Grafton series which starts with Flight Of The Intruder (yup the old Danny Glover film). The series got a little tired towards the end and Coonts has now rightly moved on…though to lesser material in my view.

I read Craig Thomas years ago, and found much of it a bit samey…though he did write several that were stand out FireFox included.

Dale Brown, I have to say that his earlier books are better than his more recent stuff…he’s lost some of the originality in my opinion. Start at the start and you should get through 8 or 10 of them before getting bored.

To do some shameless self-promotion: The image in my signature links to the online-readable version of a novel I wrote, which I’m currently trying to push on publishers and agencies (next stop: Frankfurt Book Fair in October).

It’s a techno thriller with a bit of humour thrown in. Although it’s somewhat lean on military things and filled with computers, codes, intelligence agencies and pop culture instead, it might tickle your fancy. Nothing high-brow, nothing spectacularly literary, but might be worth the read.

If anyone’s interested in printing a copy for personal use, I could also email out a PDF or MS Word document.

🙂

The Larry Bond ones I’ve read are not bad (Red phoenix (Second Korean War), Vortex (US, UK and Cuba fight it out in South Africa after a ultra right wing government take control, written before 94) and Cauldron (US, UK and Poland give the French a right royal kicking)), which are not surprising seeing he played a major hand in co-authoring Tom Clancy’s second and in my view best book, Red Storm Rising.

Enjoyed both of these by Eric L. Harry – Arc Light (accidental WWIII between Russia and the US) and Protect and defend (NATO and China fight in Siberia after collapse of the Russian government) both from the mid 1990s.

Loved Flight of the Old Dog, but don’t think much of the rest of Dale Brown’s stuff.

Robert Ludlum and Eric von Lustbader’s Jason Bourne books are good reads. They also have very little to do with the movies, so they’ll be relatively new material if you’ve seen the films. I really like Craig Thomas’s books, but they’re harder to find nowadays (he wrote Firefox). Dale Brown is still pretty good, and you can’t go wrong with Clive Cussler, James Rollins and Jack du Brul. Ted Bell is also a good one, but you have to get used to his propensity for skipping ahead. I read Pirate and there were parts where he’d just skip parts and jump ahead to move the story along. If you want submarine combat, try Joe Buff, he has fabricated a whole new war that the world is fighting instead of trying to make his world fit into the post-9/11 world. 9/11 reminds me, David Hagberg is another really good writer as well.