OT - Book (Fiction) Review/Recommendations Thread

[kato13]

Since we are a pretty well read group I thought we could share our opinions on any books we read recently. As the header indicates any subject books are allowed for review not just Post Apocalyptic. Please feel free to post anything you think might be of interest to our users.

If any book spurs a vigorous discussion I will spawn a new thread and put the links below.

[Jason Weiser]

• The Last Centurion- John Ringo
  
• The Stand- Stephen King
  
• Alas, Babylon- Pat Frank
  
• The Third World War and The Third World War, The Untold Story- Sir John Hackett
  
• Team Yankee by Harold Coyle
  
• Red Army and The War in 2020 by Ralph Peters
  
• Arc Light by Eric Harry
  
• World War Z by Max Brooks (not the Zombies, but the struggle of governments to make decisions in crisis)
  
• Down to a Sunless Sea by David Graham
  
• The Last Ship by William Brinkley
  
• Lucifer's Hammer by Niven and Pournelle
  
• Red Storm Rising- by Tom Clancy
  
• The War That Never Was- by Michael A. Palmer

[JHart]

Mentioned above:
Read most of those listed, but most have been out for a while, just commenting on the recent novels

The Last Centurion- John Ringo Read this a little while back. A light EOTWAWKI scenario, but a good story

World War Z by Max Brooks The story was good, but not very accurate on military matters.

The Last Ship by William Brinkley Just got around to reading this a a few months ago, depressing to say the least.


Recently Read:
Airship Nine by Thomas H. Block Very similar story to The Last Ship, with EOTWAWKI scenario just as bleak

Proud Legions by John Antal Modern Korean war scenario

[Matt Wiser]

Read most of the above, but here's a few more:

Trinity's Child (from which the movie By Dawn's Early Light was based)

First Clash: Combat Close Up in World War III-the Canadian 4th Mech Brigade vs. the Russians in West Germany (there was a sequel but I haven't found it-yet)

Trial by Fire and The Ten Thousand: two more by Harold Coyle

The Warbirds and Force of Eagles by Richard Herman

Choosers of the Slain, Sea Strike, Sea Fighter, and Target Lock by James H. Cobb (the Amanda Garrett books)

World War III-the novelization of the 1982 Miniseries with Rock Hudson as the President and Brian Keith as the Soviet Premier.

[TiggerCCW UK]

Brother in the land : Robert Swindells. Story of survivors of a nuclear war in the UK. Written as a book for teens/young adults, but still very very good. Try and pick up an early copy before the ending was rewritten for a 'happy ending'.

War Day : Whitley Streiber & James Kunetka. Story of a journey across America in the aftermath of a limited nuclear war. Great read.

Children of the Dust : Louise Lawrence. Story of 3 generations of survivors after a nuclear war in the UK.

I'll add some more later.

[Targan]

Brother in the land : Robert Swindells. Story of survivors of a nuclear war in the UK. Written as a book for teens/young adults, but still very very good. Try and pick up an early copy before the ending was rewritten for a 'happy ending'.

I think we've posted about this before and I've been wondering ever since, which version I read (we're talking probably more than 20 years ago).

Children of the Dust : Louise Lawrence. Story of 3 generations of survivors after a nuclear war in the UK.

I second this one.

My first suggestion for this thread is - Anything written by Peter Hamilton. The man is a sci fi god.

[TiggerCCW UK]

The only real difference between the two versions of the book is that the newer version adds an extra chapter with them reaching another settlement. I preferred the open ending of the original version.

[Jason Weiser]

Palm meets forehead!!!!

How could I forget!

The entire Dies the Fire series from S.M. Sterling!

[Rainbow Six]

WEB Griffin's Brotherhood of War and Corps series

Vortex and Red Phoenix by Larry Bond

Any of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan / John Kelly novels (as my handle suggests I'm obviously a Clancy fan)

Frederick Forsyth - Fist of God (set in Gulf War I); the Afghan (a sequel of sorts to Fist of God); The Negotiator (read this one pretty much in one go on a transatlantic flight and thoroughly enjoyed it)

[TiggerCCW UK]

More similar tastes Rainbow - I was going to recommend Vortex and Red Phoenix Other fiction I'd recommend includes ;

No Man's Land : Barry England. Set in Australia in the aftermath of an unspecified apocalyptic event.

The Forever War : Joe Haldeman. Epic novel of a future war spanning centuries. One of my favourite pieces of sci fi ever.

Protect and Defend : Eric L Harry. Another great read from the same author as Arc Light.

The Hunters : James Salter. A novel about early jet pilots in Korea.

[Targan]

No Man's Land : Barry England. Set in Australia in the aftermath of an unspecified apocalyptic event.

I'm going to have to go looking for this one. Sounds good.

The Forever War : Joe Haldeman. Epic novel of a future war spanning centuries. One of my favourite pieces of sci fi ever.

Agreed. Haldeman was a Vietnam vet and it shows in his descriptions of how soldiers feel when they come home from a war and find that things have changed while they were gone.

[TiggerCCW UK]

No Mans Land doesn't specificaly say its in Australia, it was the name of a river that tipped me off. It never states what happened, merely referring to it as 'The Event'. I enjoyed it, although its not really typical end of the world post apoc writing. Concentrates on one man and his efforts to save himself and a small group, both from marauder types and from the new government. I recommend it as something slightly different, but its a good read even if you're not looking for something post apoc.

[O'Borg]

I can heartily recommend the Sharpe series of books - quite a bit different from the films. I've just finished the entire series in chronological order. Richard Sharpe is a bastard, but a magnificent one

Death of Grass (aka No Blade of Grass) is pretty good. Sort of post-Apoc, but where the apocalypse is the devastation of the worlds grass based food stocks (rice, wheat etc) by a plague.

And I can't let a thread like this go by without mentioning a couple of my favourite sci-fi/cyberpunk books - Hardwired and Voice of the Whirlwind by Walter Jon Williams.

[Raellus]

While trying to find a "like new" used copy of Team Yankee on Amazon (read it as a teen but stupidly got rid of it when the U.S.S.R. collapsed...), I discovered that there's apparently a graphic novel version of the story. Anybody ever seen it

For great cyberpunk, check out the originator, William Gibson's Neuromancer. Count Zero is also pretty good.

[Targan]

I agree that Gibson is a great author, and anything in the Cyberpunk genre by Bruce Stirling is also good. Another excellent author in the Cyberpunk genre is Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash is one of his and I really liked it).