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Thread: Fiction Reading Lists

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    Council Member Uboat509's Avatar
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    Default Fiction Reading Lists

    There are a lot of great professional reading lists located at various points on this site and in fact many of the books I will be taking with me to the desert this year will be off of those lists. I was wondering what people here read when they are not reading about Small Wars. I suspect that there are a few of you who cannot imagine why anyone would read about anything else but most avid readers I know like to occasionally break of the non-fiction cycle with a fiction book or two. I personally have developed a taste for Harry Turtledove's alternative fiction novels. I also recently read Gates of Fire and I regret that I did not read it sooner.

    SFC W

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    Council Member 120mm's Avatar
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    John Steakley's "Armor" is one of my favorite fictional books.

    John Dalmas "The Regiment" series is also a big one for me. Lots of theoretical war stuff in it too.

    Not fiction, but "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is a re-re-re-re-read book for me.

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    Default James A. Michener

    Quote Originally Posted by Uboat509 View Post
    I was wondering what people here read when they are not reading about Small Wars.
    Anything by James A. Michener - I particularly liked Tales of the South Pacific, Hawaii, Centennial, Chesapeake, Caribbean, Caravans, Alaska, Texas, and Poland (I believe he wrote over 40 books). It may be fiction but Michener always set his stories against an accurate historical backdrop. If I had to pick one it would be Chesapeake - but then I was born and raised in Baltimore.

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    Council Member carl's Avatar
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    I have found the following books, or series of books immensely enjoyable.

    C.S. Forester's "Horatio Hornblower" novels. I think these are better than O'Brian's books. Forester can tell a better story in fewer words.

    Robert B. Parker's "Spenser" series of detective novels. Spenser was an erudite tough guy.

    "Killer Angels" by Shaara.

    "Bridges of Toko-Ri" by Michener.

    "A Soldier of the Great War" by Helprin.

    "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman. Better than the movie.

    "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

    "The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked" by David Benjamin. Not a novel but the story of growing up in WI; as good as the title is clever.

    "The Hunters" by James Salter.

    "The Cruel Sea" by N. Monsarrat.

    "The Caine Mutiny" by Wouk.

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    Council Member tequila's Avatar
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    David Drake is probably my favorite military sci-fi writer, especially his earlier stuff. Hammer's Slammers stories are a favorite of mine.

    My favorite fiction book is probably Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.

    George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire is the most entertaining fantasy I've ever read.

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    Council Member CPT Holzbach's Avatar
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    Default War books.

    Any of the Warhammer 40,000 books about the Space Marines. These things are not high literature, but they're entetaining. I also loved a book called "Marching Through Georgia" by S.M. Stirling. The Georgia it speaks of is the Russian one. Interesting alternate history, World War 2 timeframe. And finally, slightly off topic, for those who loved "Gates of Fire", go and Google "300". Its an upcoming movie about the Battle of Thermopalye, based on a graphic novel of the same name by Frank Miller of Sin City fame. Watch the trailer. Undoubtably 100% historically accurate. And this movie CLEARLY has the answer to the riddle that is Iraq.
    "The Infantry’s primary role is close combat, which may occur in any type of mission, in any theater, or environment. Characterized by extreme violence and physiological shock, close combat is callous and unforgiving. Its dimensions are measured in minutes and meters, and its consequences are final." - Paragraph 1-1, FM 3-21.8: Infantry Rifle PLT and SQD.

    - M.A. Holzbach

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    Council Member marct's Avatar
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    I'd toss in Eric Flint, especially his 1812 series and the 1632 series. Also John Ringo, classic Heinlein, and David Weber (Space opera for the most part, but decent schlock a la E.E. Doc Smith). I have a major weakness for good SF .

    Marc
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
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    In addition to "Gates of Fire," Pressfield's "The Virtues of War" and "The Afghan Campaign" were both enjoyable and I have got "Tides of War" in my tough box for my upcoming trip.

    I have read about a 1/3 of the WEB Griffin's "Brotherhood of War" series that are titled "The Lieutenants," "The Captains," and so on. They are entertaining.

    I second the judgement in favor of the Hornblower series over O'Brian's series. That being said, I plan to read both series eventually.

    If you like SciFi make sure you check out Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" and "Cryptonomicon." I also enjoyed his "The Diamond Age" but not as much as the first two. I have not had a chance to sit down and read his "Baroque Cycle" triology yet.

    Closer to realm of "literature," I have enjoyed Orwell and Steinbeck since I was first exposed to them in middle school. Also, I have got the complete Chronicles of Naria by Lewis and the Lord of the Rings triology in my tough box. I also second the recommendation of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."

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    Moderator Steve Blair's Avatar
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    Tom may scream about this...

    I'm actually rather fond of Ralph Peters' fiction (both under his own name and Owen Parry).

    Fred Chaiventone is also good. He's done two historicals (one about the Little Bighorn and the other about the Fetterman fight).

    John DelViccho has only written three books (sort of a Vietnam meta-trilogy), but they are well worth the read.

    Some of Terry Johnston's "Plainsman" books are good, others are not. I've found him rather hit and miss, but he's one of the few authors who deals with Frontier Army themes.

    Rereading "War and Peace" as well...very good read if you can keep track of everyone.

    I actually read sparingly in fiction. Non-fiction is much more my "thing."

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    Council Member Tom Odom's Avatar
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    Default It's Tommy This and Tommy That...

    Hmmmm

    Just finished reading Wilbur Smith's latest novel on the Courtney's in southern Africa--this one circa 1711. Smith's books on Africa are great reads; not always accurate in details but rich in a sense of time and setting..

    Started W.E.B. Griffith's Hostage, his new series on DHS. On WEB, his best stuff was the Army and the Marine series with the Philly cops as a third. His new stuff is too openly political and he largely gets things wrong when it comes to many of the arenas he is discussing. Still I read them for what they are: entertainment.

    Rudyard Kipling

    The Cruel Sea is a classic I have read many times; the classic movie is also quite good

    Starship Troopers the book

    And the Lord of the Rings (with the Hobbit) has been on my bookshelf since the 5th grade

    Alistair McClean's HMS Ulyssess

    The Hornblower series

    The Sharpe's Rifles series (and the mini-series with Sean Bean)

    Michener until--like a later Tom Clancy--his writings became a committee effort as in his novel on Texas

    Early Tom Clancy when he did his own research and writing


    Some of Ralph Peter's fiction; it's better than his "non-fiction"; the novel set in Central America involving a Defense Attache was quite good

    And others of course

    best

    Tom

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    Council Member Ironhorse's Avatar
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Odom View Post
    Just finished reading Wilbur Smith's latest novel on the Courtney's in southern Africa--this one circa 1711. Smith's books on Africa are great reads; not always accurate in details but rich in a sense of time and setting..
    Tom, I'm glad someone else came up on the net with Wilbur Smith. I love those books. Truly ridiculous at times, like Barbara Cartwright with testosterone and a big package, but at other times Michener-like. My wife still busts my gonads about Wilbur because the first page of the first one she saw referred to the "impossibly pointed breasts" of Sean Courteney's soon-to-be conquest. But she reads Umberto Eco for fun.

    I picked up A Time to Die (later on in the Courteney series) from a stack of trashed paperbacks in the Marine house in Nairobi, and got hooked. Definitely more action and drama in his later style than some of his earlier writing, e.g. at the beginning of the Courteney series.

    BREAK

    Ship of Gold in the The Deep Blue Sea
    (oh wait, you said fiction, but that is a great entertaining read even if it is true)

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    Council Member Tom Odom's Avatar
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    Default The Racy Parts

    Tom, I'm glad someone else came up on the net with Wilbur Smith. I love those books. Truly ridiculous at times, like Barbara Cartwright with testosterone and a big package, but at other times Michener-like. My wife still busts my gonads about Wilbur because the first page of the first one she saw referred to the "impossibly pointed breasts" of Sean Courteney's soon-to-be conquest. But she reads Umberto Eco for fun.
    Yep Wilbur does get into the sex My mother picked up one of my Wilbur Smith books and could not put it down. She admitted she liked "the racy parts." I did not ask for details....

    Smiths books have spawned a number of movies: "Dark of the Sun" on the 1960s Congo; "Shout at the Devil" in WWI German East Africa; and at least partially inspired "The Wild Geese."

    Best

    Tom

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    Council Member Uboat509's Avatar
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    What does it say about us that even when we are reading fiction we still read mostly about war ?

    I had forgotton about John Ringo. I also like the Team Yankee books even though I am a lifelong lightfighter. Terry Pratchett is another favorite. He has the very English skill of taking the absurd and making it very funny.

    SFC W

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    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
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    Default The Pet Rock Manual

    If you can find one (ask Tom) the Pet Rock Manual is hilarious.

    Others:
    Anything by John D. MacDonald especially his Travis McGee series. Every book has a color in the title: The Deep Blue Good by, The Quick Red Fox, Bright Orange for the Stroud, A Purple Place for Dying. I started reading these in the Army in the early 70's. They were 75 cents at the main post PX at Bragg, off post 95 cents. Last I checked $6.95 paperback. MaGee is a salvage expert that lives on a houseboat in Fla. called the "Busted Flush." He won it in a poker game. When I say salvage expert I mean if you loose something of value and can not get it back legally, he will recover it for half the value. MacDonald wrote many books the most recent that became a movie is "Cape Fear" with Robert Deinro(cain't spell). Based on true story. As for McGee start with "The Green Ripper" it is about oil,terrorism from a 70's perspective. Before his death he finally admitted he was ex-OSS and then some?

    Anything by Joseph Wambaugh if you want to know what it is really like to be a Cop. "the Blue Knight" is about a real beat cop. Some good TTP's in there.


    3rd vote for Zen and Motorcycle maintenance, Also Bridges of Toko-Ri. Love this thread, some good stuff here.

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    Default Flashman

    If you haven't read the Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser I highly recommend it. These books detail the unlikely adventures of an English Victorian-era soldier/intelligence officer in every hot-spot of the British Empire from Afghanistan to Abysinia. They are ribald, politically-incorrect, heavily researched and the footnotes contain a wealth of primary sources. They've certainly introduced me to many distant, dusty corners of history and forgotten personages.

    The author himself is a WWII infantry veteran of the Burma theater (check out his book "Quartered Safe Out Here") and post-WWII Libya. His collected "McAuslan" short stories are humorous, but are basically roman-a-clef memoirs of small-unit actions in a MOOTW environment. You can get a complete set of those in one volume from Amazon.UK ("The Complete McAuslan").

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    Council Member carl's Avatar
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    Fraser is a great writer.

    Dave Barry stories are a sure bet for a laugh.

    Tom mentioned Kipling, so I suggest two books of poetry:

    "Complete Works of Robert Service" by Service

    and

    "Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barracks Room Ballads" by Kipling.

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    Small Wars Journal SWJED's Avatar
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    Default Small World

    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Odom View Post
    ... Lord of the Rings (with the Hobbit) has been on my bookshelf since the 5th grade...
    .
    Small world Tom - The Hobbit was a 5th grade reading assignment for me. I got hooked and reread the Hobbit, FOTR, TTT and ROTK at least once a year through college. I now own all four on an unabridged audio CD set - quite a lot of CD's

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    I second the Sharpe's series. I like the Sean Bean TV version as well... shame he's taking crap roles in Hollywood these days.

    R.A. Salvatore's "Dark Elf Trilogy" & "Icewind Dale Trilogy" make for great reads for fans of swashbuckling action and fantasy. I'm not a big fantasy fan by any means but these books are excellent reads with an incredible lead character.

    Anything by H.G. Wells is always good (especially "The War In The Air").

    Steven Barnes has written two excellent alternate history books, "Lion's Blood & Zulu Heart".

    "Years Of Rice & Salt" is also very good.

    John Birmingham's "Weapons Of Choice, Designated Targets & Final Impact" are fantastic reads.

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    Default Other Authors

    This really got me to thinking...(which is amazing in itself....) I grew up reading everything by J.C. Pollock. I think he was a former MACV/SOG member and the books were very good. When I get home I am going to try and find them. Some of the titles were, "Mission MIA, and Centrifuge." I'm hoping my ex-wife didn't toss them.....as if taking the dog wasn't bad enough!

    Frederick Forysth, "The Day of the Jackal" is a classic. Now that I think about it several of his books have been recommended in various Intel courses that I have taken. I'm sure some of his stuff would be dated as would some of the J.C. Pollock themes but they are still great reads.

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    Quote Originally Posted by bismark17 View Post
    This really got me to thinking...(which is amazing in itself....) I grew up reading everything by J.C. Pollock. I think he was a former MACV/SOG member and the books were very good. When I get home I am going to try and find them. Some of the titles were, "Mission MIA, and Centrifuge."...
    I've read all of Pollock's books at one time or another - yes, he's a former SOG guy, and that comes through in his writing. Along the same lines, The Dying Place, by David Maurer is a good read - a SOG vet writing fiction about SOG.

    Feast of Bones, by Dan Bolger is another fiction book that I really enjoyed - told from the perspective of a Soviet paratrooper; mostly set in Afghanistan.
    Quote Originally Posted by Eddie Beaver
    I second the Sharpe's series. I like the Sean Bean TV version as well...
    The TV series was great - working at the MCC in Zakho over a decade ago, one of our Brits brought the whole thing on tape. The Kurds loved it, and watched it over and over.
    Quote Originally Posted by carl
    "Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barracks Room Ballads" by Kipling.
    Kipling has long been a favorite of mine. I have a couple of "pocket" versions of poetry collections of his, both published in the 1890's....

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