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For me, a "Good Book" isn't something i have to think intensely hard on while reading, or a book with a solid plot. It's a book i can read comfortably and enjoy, lying in bed (we don't have a TV in the bedroom) lazily attempting to get to sleep. Pro-note: i re-read books constantly and never throw any out/give any to charity. This means that, quite possibly, I am the worlds greatest connoisseur of airport fiction. Seriously, when i go out trying to choose a book, I choose books based on wether there is a submarine, a tank, or a man with a gun on the cover picture. Bonus points if the man is running and the photo is at an angle. So, let's talk about your favorite airport fiction authors, and why you like them! My list is probably going to be heavy on milfic as I like tanks, planes and guns. Tom Clancy - Basically anything from the ryanverse except Teeth of the Tiger (utter, utter gash). Special mentions to Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising (ok, not ryanverse, but think WWIII written reasonably well from pretty much every concievable perspective). Painstakingly researched, believable military gun-wank, and most of his books are the size of a house so they'll keep you going a while. Clive Cussler - The granddaddy of airport fiction. There are only two sets of books with his name on the cover it's worth reading. Anything from the Dirk Pitt series up until Inca Gold (for the really good stuff), or, if you're willing to put up with some slight dodginess, up to Atlantis Found. After that it gets so past the realm of believability ("magic infinite power engines and teleportation" anyone?) that you really can't read the books without pretty much feeling like your brain got raped. Oh, and i liked the Oregon Files books as well; mindless shooty shooty stuff, but good - even if these are really done by Craig Dirgo and Jack DuBrul Dale Brown - USAF high-tech plane-wank, with more acronyms than you can shake a stick at - however, if you're not au fait/prepared to become so on military jargon + missile acronyms, don't read them. You'll hate it. PS. don't read anything after Battle Born (1999), it just gets too ludicrous (this is becoming a theme). Not much depth to his characters, but lots of LOCKED ON FIRE MISSILE DROP BOMB BLOW poo poo UP. I like that. Matthew Reilly - I KNOW i'm going to get poo poo for this, but i quite enjoyed most of his books. I'm fully aware of how completely unbelievable they are - for christs sake, his last few books have dealt with a team of people finding egyptian relics to a) stop the world being destroyed BY THE SUN GODS, and b) make an entire nation invincible, but they're good action thrillers. I particularly liked Ice Station. Action. More action. Not much of a plot. But good action. Len Deighton - Not really airport fiction as such, but i heartily recommend his Bernard Samson series - Game, Set and Match, Hook, Line and Sinker, and Faith, Hope and Charity. Superb cold-war era spy fiction. They take a bit more thought to 'get into' than some of these other books though. Harold Coyle - Hit and miss military-based gun-wank. Only really properly liked one of his books - Team Yankee (his first) - which tells the story of World War III through the eyes of a M1 Abrams company. If you're into military fiction, READ THIS BOOK. James Twining - Ex-thief turned investigator. Reasonable books dealing with art thievery. Enjoyed them - he's got 4 out so far. Dick Francis - Died recently (made me sad  ) - I have every single one of his books (all 44, and some 1st ed's!). Nearly all of these are based on or around horse racing, and most are based in the UK. His books tend to fit in the 'crime' genre, with something having happened (or happening) and the protagonist having to figure it out/right a wrong. Superb from start to finish, but i'd recommend the Sid Halley books as shining examples of his work; Odds Against, Whip Hand, Come to Grief and Under Orders. Don't worry if you know nothing about horse racing; you will after you read these!I have a few others i haven't touched on here - Sam Bourne, Ludlum, Patrick Robinson, Andy McNab, but i don't want to be writing too much of an essay  So what guilty pleasures does everyone have when it comes to books you can read without having your brain switched on?
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Mar 21, 2010 06:32
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If you like Tom Clancy, Larry Bond is a great bet. See: Red Phoenix - NK/SK/US faceoff ala Red Storm Rising. It's airport fiction and overly technical war porn, and it's loving great if you like Clancy.
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Mar 21, 2010 06:38
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The majority of the books I purchase are non-fiction historical and scientific reads but there's always room for these. I've read almost everyone of those authors and I dare say that yes they are entertaining. My guilty pleasure used to be Clive Cussler until the plots and discoveries got a bit out of hand (I agree with your assessment of reading up until Inca Gold, though I'd venture to say Shockwave wasn't that bad despite the terrible heartstrings ploy in the book). Actually while I'm on Cussler, Shockwave while not terribly bad like the following novels really makes no sense because he seems to have forgotten about her (the twin he loved) and went ahead and married Loren. What a crock, and Pitt and Summer's kids? Give me a break, it's a ploy to continue the series with a young Dirk. Tom Clancy, yeah I loved his books, but it went a tad overboard at Executive Orders. Dale Brown is more of the same but a little more jingoistic I thought. Really Clancy and Cussler started to get terrible when they created all these terrible spin offs.
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Mar 21, 2010 07:31
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My sisters and I jokingly call these 'Man Books' for obvious reasons and as such considered ourselves excluded from enjoying them. Like FHM or Nuts, they are not designed to entice in your average female reader. I don't know why but a few years I got it into my head to read Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy and I really enjoyed it. I admit I skipped an awful lot of his needless 'realism' (aka describing every inch of every gun that every character has), but apart from that I had a bloody good laugh with it. I also really enjoy the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell. I love all the battles, all the manlyness and the inevitable scene in which Sharpe sass mouths a man of superior class. They are very formulaic, and I like that. Also formulaic and trashy is John Grisham and his endless courtroom drama books. I swear they are all the same story, small Southern legal firm takes on corporate giant who has raped the environment/killed poor people/swindled millions from small town America etc and WIN. They are just so readable and they manipulate the feel good glands. Lastly, I can't get enough of regency romance books. I know I know. Georgette Heyer is a weakness of mine.
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Mar 21, 2010 08:53
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One that my mom got me reading is Stuart Woods It started with a book on tape that she was listening to when I was riding around with her, and I was in love. They're not exactly fine pieces of literature, but they're completely mindless pulp. And obligatory Dan Brown mention. DaVinci Code is a great airplane book. Oh, and in a completely different genre, Mary Daheim is a bit more girly mystery novels-obviously aimed at the middle aged woman crowd-but they're light and fluffy and by nature of them being mysteries keep you turning the pages. Also in the mystery genre but less girly would be the J.A. Jance JP Beaumont series, up until he quits drinking. Prior to that, it's about a cop who drinks a lot, fucks hot women, and has a flashy car. Dr Jankenstein fucked around with this message at 11:14 on Mar 21, 2010 |
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Mar 21, 2010 11:10
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I'm always disappointed when the subject of techno-porn comes up and no one ever remembers Stephen Coonts. I put him in the same group as Clancy and Dale Brown. Flight of the Intruder was legitimately good, but everything else in the Jake Grafton universe is pretty over the top.
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Mar 21, 2010 12:35
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I think R.A. Salvatore deserves a mention. No one can make a two-hour plane ride vanish into thin air like he can. All of the Drizzt books are wonderfully trite and pure schlock fantasy.
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Mar 21, 2010 15:53
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IRQ posted:If you like Tom Clancy, Larry Bond is a great bet. See: Red Phoenix - NK/SK/US faceoff ala Red Storm Rising. My dad had two Larry Bond books, i think Vortex and Red Phoenix - i started trying to read Vortex but could never get into it, and I don't think i tried reading Red Phoenix. I'll give it another go. Must say, I did like Cauldron, though. quote:I'm always disappointed when the subject of techno-porn comes up and no one ever remembers Stephen Coonts. I put him in the same group as Clancy and Dale Brown. Flight of the Intruder was legitimately good, but everything else in the Jake Grafton universe is pretty over the top. I only started reading Coonts at Under Siege - Is it worth going back and reading those earlier books? (Before Grafton becomes basically the head of the entire military and can order everyone about). quote:And obligatory Dan Brown mention. DaVinci Code is a great airplane book. . I can't read Dan Brown. He's just TOO brainless for me
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Mar 21, 2010 15:54
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kalleth posted:I only started reading Coonts at Under Siege - Is it worth going back and reading those earlier books? Flight of the Intruder is worth reading even if you don't care about military porn, it's more of a standard Vietnam story. I honestly can't remember if the zaniness started in the second book or not.
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Mar 21, 2010 16:38
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I read Dirk Pitt tales and graduated to Lee Child. His main character is Jack Reacher and Reacher is 10 times more badass than Dirk Pitt. Any of the Reacher paperbacks are worth the 2.50 at a used book store.
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Mar 21, 2010 16:48
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My go-to airport novelist is David Hagberg. His Kirk McGarvey novels trade a lot of political dreaming and some technical detail for more fleshed-out characters and bigger explosions. Several of the plot lines are unrealistic, but the novels themselves are entertaining if you turn off your brain a bit. Hagberg's also a reliable horse when it comes to release schedules.
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Mar 21, 2010 16:59
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Would it be poor form to plug my own books? Oops, too late. They definitely fall into the category of 'airport fiction', and unashamedly so. True story: the series (six books and counting) essentially started life as a "Oh yeah? Well, I'll show you!" aimed at my agent. I'd written a couple of crime thrillers, to which his response was "They're good, but a bit small-scale and parochial. You should do something with lots of action, like the first novel you showed me." So I wrote the biggest, most outrageous Indiana-Jones-meets-James Bond action-adventure I could think of, following basic Hollywood rules: There's always time for a wisecrack; The more important the villain, the nastier their demise; and Everything explodes. Everything. I honestly thought that of everything I'd written, it had the least chance of selling because it was so OTT. Shows how much I know. But I'm glad I was wrong, because the series has been a hell of a lot of fun to write. Social realism and heartrending character studies? Sod that, I've got ancient civilizations to uncover, global conspiracies to expose and nuclear submarines to blow up!
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Mar 21, 2010 17:03
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Payndz posted:Would it be poor form to plug my own books? Oops, too late. They definitely fall into the category of 'airport fiction', and unashamedly so. Hey I like your stuff! Yeah it's brainless, but the style of cover art sure lets me know it in advance and they really are fun. And please dedicate the next one to literary goons. Other Content: William Lovejoy-- Most of his stuff is kind of out of print, but he always struck me as a more intelligent version of Cussler. I find myself re-reading White Night today. James Rollins-- All his stuff up to the start of his Sigma Force series is pretty drat good. I love Amazonia and Subterranean the most. James H. Cobb-- A naval version of Dale Brown. His main character is Commander, then Captain Amanda Garrett. Tends to stick closer to reality than some authors in the genre (Even though that really isn't that high a bar to reach).
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Mar 21, 2010 17:20
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DJ BK posted:I read Dirk Pitt tales and graduated to Lee Child. His main character is Jack Reacher and Reacher is 10 times more badass than Dirk Pitt. Any of the Reacher paperbacks are worth the 2.50 at a used book store. Yeah but has Reacher ever shoved an old crippled Japanese woman down an elevator shaft? Didn't think so. Yeah forgot about Coonts, but I consider him and Dale Brown similar (that may just be because I read them after each other). Agreeing with the "Dan Brown is below even this group's level or hyperbole".
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Mar 21, 2010 17:41
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Yeah, my dad got me into Dirk Pitt books when I was younger and I reread them occasionally and see how hilariously awful they are. I'd like to throw in Wingman by Mack Maloney. It's protagonist, Hawk Hunter, is the BEST fighter pilot ever. He survives WWIII, but the US was betrayed by the Vice President and is all messed up with various factions fighting for control. His former squad found his F16 which he uses to help restore the American dream. In the various books (until recently I only thought there was one) he fights the mafia, then the communists who were controlling the mafia, and then the Nazis who were behind it all along. After the Nazis, the US is invaded by actual Vikings in wooden submarines, and then I think the Nazis came back. This is the author's description of the first book - quote:Wingman - The book that started it all. No one was more surprised than I when it became such a big hit. The cover art is very cool and was a big part in the success. Someone once called this book "a comic book in words" and it's hard to disagree.
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Mar 21, 2010 18:08
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What, no Michael Crichton? I recently used "Rising Sun" to eat up half a bus ride from New York to DC, and the previous fall "Sphere" took me from the suburbs of NYC to Coney Island. For some unexplained reason I have a major crush on "Airframe" and even own it in hardcover. It is my very favorite book of such a sort.
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Mar 21, 2010 18:09
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Paragon8 posted:It's protagonist, Hawk Hunter, is the BEST fighter pilot ever. I love these names! I dream to reach into this authors bin, unfurl the scrunched up balls of paper and read through all the other names he considered using for his hero.
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Mar 21, 2010 18:23
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Identify that airport fiction: I remember reading a book where a woman pilots an experimental aircraft (described as an invisible tube???) with her eyes and zooms to the rescue of Antarctic ice floes or something.
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Mar 21, 2010 19:10
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I haven't flown in 15 years but I still consume these things like tissue paper and they now fill up twice as much space as actual quality literature does on my shelves. I think I might have a problem.
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Mar 21, 2010 20:17
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If I'm grabbing something in the magazine shop before a flight, I always head straight for Stephen King. Classic. Reliable.
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Mar 21, 2010 21:55
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I was reading Gravity's Rainbow and Disgrace last time I was on a plane because I'm not a cretin.
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Mar 21, 2010 22:52
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Tim Dorsey books are great, especially if you're heading to Florida! They're like Carl Hiassen books (his fiction, not the collected articles which are also awesome), but a little more unrealistic and actiony. Dorsey is the night news coordinator of the Tampa Tribune, so while Hiassen usually stick to politics etc, in the news, it's easy to see where Dorsey gets his ideas from. The books basically encapsulate the wackiness of Floridian culture, with entertaining characters. The protagonist of most books is a serial killer with a penchant for Florida's history! The first book is Florida Roadkill, just follow the link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Florida-Road-Kill-Tim-Dorsey/dp/0380732335/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0 All if not most of the trade paperbacks are available for the "4 for 3" promotion on Amazon, but if you want to get it in an actual airport, they'll most likely only have his latest book.
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Mar 22, 2010 03:30
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Magnificent Quiver posted:Identify that airport fiction: I remember that book. It's called Icefire. By Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. I think they were Star Trek writers or something that decided to write sci-fi milfic. It also had a submarine with nano-paint to make it "sonar-stealth." It was an awful book, but I will never forget that super-airplane with the "optical mouse" done by blinking your eye at certain areas on the eyepiece.
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Mar 22, 2010 04:55
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Zengbo posted:I remember that book. It's called Icefire. By Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. I think they were Star Trek writers or something that decided to write sci-fi milfic. It also had a submarine with nano-paint to make it "sonar-stealth." It was an awful book, but I will never forget that super-airplane with the "optical mouse" done by blinking your eye at certain areas on the eyepiece. What the gently caress was I thinking picking up a book called ICEFIRE
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Mar 22, 2010 05:09
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I never actually buy these things but I have a shelf full of them. The two main markets for these books are 1) airports and 2) people who have no idea what to get a man for Christmas.
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Mar 22, 2010 05:38
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Magnificent Quiver posted:What the gently caress was I thinking picking up a book called ICEFIRE Oh god was that the one with the exploding Arctic methane beds?
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Mar 22, 2010 07:05
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I'm a big fan of this sort of book as well, and i am amazed no one has mentioned either Andy Mcnab or Chris Ryan Maybe these are more popular in the UK (since they are both ex-sas men) but they are always great mindless reading They were both part of the Bravo Two Zero team in Iraq in the first gulf war, and Mcnab's book 'Bravo Two Zero' is an amazing read, its a true story about what happened to them over there and well written. (Chris Ryan also has a book about the same mission called 'The one that got away' but i haven't read it) Then they both moved onto fiction... I love these books, but they all have exactly the same plot: Secret undercover black ops mission, Something go's wrong, they are betrayed by command or lied to about there mission, they are captured and/or seriously injured, they escape, find out the truth, kill the bad guys, then often kill the commander who betrayed them. I have read from Mcnab: Remote Control - his first fiction book, probably his best Firewall - enjoyed this one, had a slightly different plot so i liked it Last Light - Rubbish... He barely had a story, plot elements came up out of nowhere and its bogged down in detail, there is at least 5 cases where he spends more then a page describing a room Aggressor: The first one i read, and the one that got me hooked on this stuff. Same plot as the rest with a few locations changed Chris Ryan: He has wrote loads of books, wikipedia tells me 30 fiction books and 4 non-fiction. 10 of which were released between 2006 and 2009 (no wonder they all have the same plot) the good thing is this means you can often get them 3 for £5 in discount book stores, although i have not read that many of his (i prefer Mcnab, but his are more pricey) Overall both these authors write highly entertaining page turners which are great for planes and trains. Just not if you want something intelligent to read.
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Mar 22, 2010 23:19
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Just remember that in Mcnab's "real" stuff there is some major glossing over of some details and gross exaggeration of others. Basically none of the 3 or 4 books from the people involved in Bravo Two Zero agree on the details. But its pretty sure they didn't kill 200 Iraqis like he said. Still good reads though.
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Mar 22, 2010 23:43
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Alaan posted:Just remember that in Mcnab's "real" stuff there is some major glossing over of some details and gross exaggeration of others. Basically none of the 3 or 4 books from the people involved in Bravo Two Zero agree on the details. But its pretty sure they didn't kill 200 Iraqis like he said. Still good reads though. I assumed it was, but i just looked up the Wiki for it and its amazing how many differences there is. If i see it going cheap anywhere ill grab a copy of 'The real bravo two zero' I haven't read any of his other none-fiction books so not sure on them, but it was a very enjoyable read
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Mar 23, 2010 00:58
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Payndz posted:Would it be poor form to plug my own books? Oops, too late. They definitely fall into the category of 'airport fiction', and unashamedly so. I read Cormac McCarthy's The Road in an airport, and left it there. I don't know why it gets so much praise. The characters might as well have been walking on the beach and commenting on seagulls the entire novel.
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Mar 23, 2010 01:55
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Tom Ripley posted:I read Cormac McCarthy's The Road in an airport, and left it there. I don't know why it gets so much praise. The characters might as well have been walking on the beach and commenting on seagulls the entire novel. I would still read this, oddly.
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Mar 23, 2010 14:29
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Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski Perfect heroine, little bit of politics, little bit of feminism, lots of action and bad guys, union conspiracies, chemical spills, mob hits, and drug aeroplanes. Highly recommend. Jilly Cooper Classic boarding school  material - my girlfriend loves this stuff. I couldn't get past the bit in 'The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous' where the nice aspirational countryside people suddenly have a spontaneous ecstasy fuelled orgy. Too silly and too transparent! Still compelling though.
Zegnar fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Mar 23, 2010 |
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Mar 23, 2010 19:11
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Payndz posted:Would it be poor form to plug my own books? Oops, too late. They definitely fall into the category of 'airport fiction', and unashamedly so.  I'll be picking up your first book in this series for my old man's (and my) Kindle soon, thanks. Syrinxx fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Mar 23, 2010 |
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Mar 23, 2010 19:38
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DJ BK posted:I read Dirk Pitt tales and graduated to Lee Child. His main character is Jack Reacher and Reacher is 10 times more badass than Dirk Pitt. Any of the Reacher paperbacks are worth the 2.50 at a used book store. I own every single Clive Cussler book (even non-Pitt), even a signed copy of Mayday. I think I have an addiction but I can't stop. Is it bad that all I want someday is a hanger to live in full of classic cars? It doesn't help that my dad's client lives in one, thereby making my dream possible. I also own all the Wingman books. gently caress I need help.
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Mar 24, 2010 08:21
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Skam posted:I'm a big fan of this sort of book as well, and i am amazed no one has mentioned either Andy Mcnab or Chris Ryan Oddly enough I just poured through Mcnab's first five 'Nick Stone' books waiting to hear back from a job interview. The pacing is weird, and the plots are repetitive, but for some reason I really enjoy his writing style. Plus he tends to be the anti-Tom Clancy, "Alright Stone has a battered Mosin-Nagant rifle and his leatherman, off you go." It's a shame the first five books are the only ones readily available in the US. Looks like I'll have to hit up Amazon for the rest.
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Mar 24, 2010 15:11
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He isn't really famous enough to be mentioned in this thread, but Daemon and Freedom TM by Daniel Suarez have enough action and military technology fappery to count as part of the genre. Robotic motorcycles with swords! Autonomous automobiles! Heads up displays!
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Mar 24, 2010 15:37
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What? A thread about tech-wankery thrillers and no mention of Ian Slater? I was once a huge fan of his WWIII series, I still have them gathering dust on my bookshelf and this thread kinda makes me want to re-read them.
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Mar 24, 2010 16:03
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Nuclear Tourist posted:What? A thread about tech-wankery thrillers and no mention of Ian Slater? I was once a huge fan of his WWIII series, I still have them gathering dust on my bookshelf and this thread kinda makes me want to re-read them. I remember reading a couple of his books, I think it was the USA vs. Militia series. Somehow the weekend warrior militia (not to mention southern neo-nazi) types always had a drop on the trained government troops. To the point where it was flat out ridiculous. It did make me enjoy Harold Coyle's 'Domestic Enemies' book, if for no other reason than the militia gets their asses handed to them in an actual stand up fight. Edit: I had no idea Slater wasn't American, but now it makes perfect sense.
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Mar 24, 2010 16:52
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Hunterhr posted:I remember reading a couple of his books, I think it was the USA vs. Militia series. I haven't read Coyle in quite some time, but I'll pick this one up. Team Yankee was pretty darn good, and I also liked The Ten Thousand. Clancy started out great, then shifted more and more and more to crap. I couldn't finish The Bear and the Dragon and the last book I finished of his is the one where Ryan is the President and there's a long drawn out scene about a late term abortion in China.
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Mar 25, 2010 14:28
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NosmoKing posted:I haven't read Coyle in quite some time, but I'll pick this one up. Team Yankee was pretty darn good, and I also liked The Ten Thousand. While I never had any doubt that he was a raging conservative, he managed to not get too preachy for the most part. Until 9/11. Then it all went to hell for awhile. Yeah he was pretty much out of ideas after Debt of Honor anyway, and Rainbow Six was hilariously anti-environmentalism, and loving  at Jack Ryan Jr. but, actually I'm not sure what my point is here. Ah yes, go read Red Rabbit. It came out post-9/11 but is set in the 80s so it's back to cold war stuff, which was where Clancy was always most at home.
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Mar 25, 2010 14:45
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