OT - What espioange/war novels do you read? [SURVEY]

Mary Shafer wrote in message . ..
On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 12:53:23 -0400, Eric Pinnell see my web site
wrote:

I am having a dispute with a literary agent and I am conducting
this on-line book survey to add ammunition to my argument. I would
greatly appreciate it if you could answer this survey honestly, but
please dot not send answers via email. Thanks.


1) Who are you favorite espionage/war authors and why?

For espionage, John Le Carre' and Len Deighton, because they write so
well. Nelson DeMille fits in here somewhere, too. For war, CS
Forester, Patrick O'Brian, Larry Bond, Mark Barent, Neville Shute,
Eric Flint, David Weber, Elizabeth Moon, Somebody Frezza, James
Clavell. Their books are believable, their characters are real, and
their plots are complex and interesting.

Ethell, Price, Boyne, Rasimus, Tuchman. Non-fiction.

2) Who are your least enjoyable espionage/war authors and why?

I don't really know. What's-his-name, the guy that writes the books
with Dirk Pitt in them.

3) What determines if the book you read is a keeper or a reject?

How much it engages my interest and how believable it is. Make a big
error (geosynchronous polar orbit or an F-106 passenger conversion)
and it's all over.

4) Other than 38 North Yankee and Red Phoenix, have you read any books
about a war in Korea? If so, what are the titles?

Yes. Dog Soldiers (I think).

5) Assuming a book was well written about a war in Korea, would you
read it, or do you believe the Korea scenario has been overdone?

Yes, I would. No, I don't. I've seen very little about Korea.

6) Do you prefer war or espionage stories?

Yes.

7) What story would you like to read?

Something with interesting characters and lots of technology. No
romance unless it's very well done, which is extremely uncommon.

8) Do you still buy espionage/war novels, or do you feel that the
genre is overdone?

Yes, I do. No, I don't, at least not in well-written books.

9) If you've reduced or stopped purchasing espionage/war novels, what
other genres do you read instead?

I haven't stopped or slowed reading them, but I've always read other
genres as well. Mysteries. Science fiction. Fantasy. "Mainstream"
fiction. Biography. Linguistics. Food and cooking. Beading.
History.



La Carre is counterespionage and Fleming is special ops, neither of
which is strictly intelligence. Overhead surveillance and radio
intercept are intelligence but about as dull as you can get if you
don't have Clancy's live action satellite.

"Eric Pinnell" see my web site wrote
1) Who are you favorite espionage/war authors and why?

War: James Jones, Sven Hassel, Larry Bond.

Espionage: Tom Clancy (obviously, or I wouldn't be reading this group), Ian
Fleming. Used to read Frederick Forsyth and Craig Thomas but went off them.

Also, Clive Cussler, Dale Brown, and a few others- but I'd class them as
adventure/thriller rather than war or espionage.

2) Who are your least enjoyable espionage/war authors and why?

Probably Leo Kessler just for being a dull cash-in on Sven Hassel ("Kessler"
was actually historian Charles Whiting, who should have known better. I
suppose they were OK when I was 12, but otherwise...)

3) What determines if the book you read is a keeper or a reject?

If it's entertaining, well-written, and has characters that interest me. I
don't mind fantastical stuff if it's acknowledged as being fantastical
(since I also read SF) but hate when something that supposed to be set
entirely in the real and gritty world gets it wrong.

4) Other than 38 North Yankee and Red Phoenix, have you read any books
about a war in Korea? If so, what are the titles?

Not that I can remember.

5) Assuming a book was well written about a war in Korea, would you
read it, or do you believe the Korea scenario has been overdone?

If it fit the conditions in the answer to question 3, I'd be OK with it.

6) Do you prefer war or espionage stories?

See question 3

7) What story would you like to read?

Several events and concepts spring to mind- but as a professional writer
myself, I think I'll hang on to them for future projects.

8) Do you still buy espionage/war novels, or do you feel that the
genre is overdone?

See the answer to question 3, but usually I'll be likely to get them for a
few pennies in charity shops, rather than buy new (except in the case of
Clancy, Cussler etc, who I will buy new, albeit waiting for the paperback to
come out)

9) If you've reduced or stopped purchasing espionage/war novels, what
other genres do you read instead?

SF, crime/detective, adventure thriller, fantasy, horror...

--
--
"I pity the fool who goes out tryin' a' take over the world, then runs home
cryin' to his momma!" [BA Baracus]

Redemption 05 - Hanover International Hotel, Hinckley, February 25-27 2005
http://www.smof.com/redemption

http://www.btinternet.com/~david.mcintee

Currently reading: Bandits [Elmore Leonard]

In message , Eric Pinnell
writes
I am having a dispute with a literary agent and I am conducting
this on-line book survey to add ammunition to my argument. I would
greatly appreciate it if you could answer this survey honestly, but
please dot not send answers via email. Thanks.


1) Who are you favorite espionage/war authors and why?

Early Clancy: interesting characters and plot, credible technical
details, and uncertainty as to how the book will end and whether all the
characters I've come to like will survive.

Richard Herman Jr: same reasons.

Larry Bond: likewise. Less on character, but solid on interesting
military action.

Craig Thomas: the mach 6 radar-invisible Firefox was overkill, but again
Thomas made you care about Gant (who wasn't very likeable) and Dmitri
Priabin (supposed to be the enemy) and kicked some really good stories
along.

Derek Robinson, Mark Berent, John Del Vecchio, Steven Coontz, Barrett
Tillman all wrote one or more good books that I've kept.

2) Who are your least enjoyable espionage/war authors and why?

Of the ones I've read and can remember, Dale Brown (too much
ubertechnology), Sven Hassel (too much "How the Wehrmacht overwhelmingly
won every single battle in the course of losing the war".

3) What determines if the book you read is a keeper or a reject?

Do I feel like reading it again?

4) Other than 38 North Yankee and Red Phoenix, have you read any books
about a war in Korea? If so, what are the titles?

No.

5) Assuming a book was well written about a war in Korea, would you
read it, or do you believe the Korea scenario has been overdone?

It's got plenty of potential if well done.

6) Do you prefer war or espionage stories?

Both.

7) What story would you like to read?

Either if they're well done.

8) Do you still buy espionage/war novels, or do you feel that the
genre is overdone?

I read less fiction than I used to, mostly because of shortage of time.
(Easier to dip in and out of Usenet than to give a good book the
attention it deserves...)


--
When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
W S Churchill

Paul J. Adam MainBoxatjrwlynch[dot]demon{dot}co(.)uk

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 17:10:10 -0400, Cub Driver
wrote:


I am having a dispute with a literary agent

Having a dispute with a literary agent is like having a dispute with
your wife. You can't win.

Even worse is trying to get the attention of your publisher. Once
you're under contract you become a mushroom--kept in the dark and fed
****.



Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8

Eric Pinnell see my web site wrote in message

I haven't purchased a fiction book since. . .

1) Who are you favorite espionage/war authors and why?

For techno-thrillers, Craig Thomas. They are more thrilling, and the
situations more muddied, ala real life, than the 1 to 2 dimensional characters
of Clancy (everyone calling doctors "doc" or using the greeting "howdy" being
among the things that to grate on me). Not sure what you mean by "war"
authors. What genre? Historical fiction? Modern "what if" scenarios?
Historical fiction David Westheimer and Alastair McClean.

2) Who are your least enjoyable espionage/war authors and why?

I don't know. I tend to not read books that I do not like. There was this
Ozzie author who wrote a series of books on WWIII, but I only read one of them
and it was bad. Really bad. I mean terribly stinking bad. It had a modified
Seawolf SSN that carried six Trident SLBMs (being hunted by a Kresta II
somewhere west of Iceland IIRC), an American POW hero-type, who single handedly
stops the Soviet's last "Big Push" by destroying its almost entire fuel supply
by tossing his Zippo onto a leaking fuel drum. . . Oh, it was simply horrible.

3) What determines if the book you read is a keeper or a reject?

If it interests me. I tend not to throw out books though. Seems sacreligious
to do so.

4) Other than 38 North Yankee and Red Phoenix, have you read any books
about a war in Korea? If so, what are the titles?

Never read 38 North Yankee. Red Phoenix was ok (the opening battle sequences
were outstanding), but no other "what if" book on Korea. The only other work
of fiction on Korea I've read is a historical fiction book by Patrick somebody
or somebody Patrick entitled Hold Back the Night. It was about the Chosen
Resevoir and was quite good.

5) Assuming a book was well written about a war in Korea, would you
read it, or do you believe the Korea scenario has been overdone?

Probably not as I only read non-fiction these days for the most part. As for a
"what if" book, Korea seems like the only place left for a conventional "WWIII"
book, but as we are now envolved in a real shooting war not involving Korea, I
really don't see a market (unless the War on Terror is factored in). Why read
fiction when one can see the real thing on TV?

6) Do you prefer war or espionage stories?

Generally war.

7) What story would you like to read?

Fiction? The War of the Last Alliance or at least a more detailed version of
the War of Eregion. Short of Tolkien being reincarnated, I don't think that
is likely.

8) Do you still buy espionage/war novels, or do you feel that the
genre is overdone?

No. Spy novels will always be around, but for the most part, the era of the
techno-thriller is dead.

9) If you've reduced or stopped purchasing espionage/war novels, what
other genres do you read instead?

Military history, but as for fiction, Tolkien and some Asimov (tho' the latter
is a poor writter and his stories are pretty lame, but I find his "universe"
interesting).

--
Regards,

Michael P. Reed

In article ,
(Jack Linthicum) wrote:




La Carre is counterespionage and Fleming is special ops, neither of
which is strictly intelligence. Overhead surveillance and radio
intercept are intelligence but about as dull as you can get if you
don't have Clancy's live action satellite

Now, I'm enough of a specialist in the field to find it interesting
anyway. But some decently readable nonfiction has been published, such
as Brignioni and Babington-Smith in imagery, Kahn in communications
intelligence, etc.

Mary Shafer wrote:

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 21:24:35 GMT, Guy Alcala
wrote:

Come to think of it, Coyle's first or
second book was set in Korea.

His first, "Team Yankee", was set in Germany, west of the Fulda Gap.

And the second one, "Sword Point", was set in Iran.

Can't think of any of Coyle's books that take place in Korea.

Eric Barry's "Arc Light", on the other hand, begins with an invasion of
South Korea by North Korea, as does the first of the "WWIII" books by
Ian, um, Smith? (I've tried to block those out of my memory, as they
were utter crap.) Both books quickly expanded beyond a mere Korean
conflict, though.
--
Marc Reeve
actual email address after removal of 4s & spaces is
c4m4r4a4m4a4n a4t c4r4u4z4i4o d4o4t c4o4m

J Harris wrote:

Eric Pinnell wrote:
I am having a dispute with a literary agent and I am conducting
this on-line book survey to add ammunition to my argument. I would
greatly appreciate it if you could answer this survey honestly, but
please dot not send answers via email. Thanks.


[snip]

8) Do you still buy espionage/war novels, or do you feel that the
genre is overdone?

Just bought a book of short stories edited by Stephen Coonts,
entitled Victory - Call to Arms. Three stories, excellently done. I'm
looking for the rest of the series.

Well, there's a big honkin' hardback with all of the stories in it (much
like Coonts' first anthology, "Combat") and then they're being released
in paperback with three stories to a volume.

--
Marc Reeve
actual email address after removal of 4s & spaces is
c4m4r4a4m4a4n a4t c4r4u4z4i4o d4o4t c4o4m

On Sun, 25 Apr 2004 15:53:08 +0100, "Paul J. Adam"
wrote:


1) Who are you favorite espionage/war authors and why?

Derek Robinson, Mark Berent, John Del Vecchio, Steven Coontz, Barrett
Tillman all wrote one or more good books that I've kept.

I'll probably see Mark this week in Nashville at the annual River Rats
Reunion. He's the real deal, a true fighter pilot and a good guy (a
lot like Tom "Bear" Wilson whose fiction has eroded a bit since the
original F-105 Weasel trilogy that drew so heavily on his war
experiences.) I'll mention to Mark that he's got a nascent fan-club in
the UK.

2) Who are your least enjoyable espionage/war authors and why?

Of the ones I've read and can remember, Dale Brown (too much
ubertechnology), . . .

Dare I say "that's what you get" when you put the Nav in charge? ;-))


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8

Marc Reeve wrote:

Mary Shafer wrote:

On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 21:24:35 GMT, Guy Alcala
wrote:

Come to think of it, Coyle's first or
second book was set in Korea.

His first, "Team Yankee", was set in Germany, west of the Fulda Gap.

And the second one, "Sword Point", was set in Iran.

Can't think of any of Coyle's books that take place in Korea.

Yeah, you're right. I could swear that he wrote one and I know he served
there, but I can't seem to find it. I appear to be confusing it with
Bond's "Red Phoenix" or something else - for some reason I've never gotten
into Bond.

I just prefer Coyle's much more nuanced approach to Clancy's cartoons -
comparing say "Code of Honor" or "God's Children" to "Clear and Present
Danger", the difference between the two authors' approach is stark. I'll
be curious to see if Coyle writes one about Iraq; Clancy's approach would
be to write about the period of "major combat" and end it there when the
good guys 'won', in a victory for truth, justice and the american way.
Coyle would be writing about the whole last year, having to choose from a
bunch of bad options and co-opt people who often aren't very nice and/or
have their own agendas, collateral damage (there isn't any in a Clancy
book, at least none caused by the US -our weapons either score bullseyes or
miss/malfunction in open ground), the war would be fought by hot, dirty,
tired and scared 19 year-old PFCs led by 25 year old Sgts. instead of stock
Hollywood 'characters' led by John Wayne or Harrison Ford, etc.

Guy