Crap like Clancy

[Marlat]

Okay, so I am heading off on a one month tour of CHina and Vietnam and am going to have some long train rides, flights, bus rides etc and need some crap reading to get me through.

Now, I have foudn that the holy grail of crap reading, for me, is Tom Clancy. They are page turners that you dont need to think about and if you read two pages thats cool or if you read 100 thats cool too.

So I have pretty much read all his books and am wondering if anyone knows any books that a similar in the "techno-geeky-war-thriller" genre. I am thinking different authors that more of less fit the same bill. Dont tell me Dostoevsky, Eco, Tolstoy, Steinbeck etc. I dont want heavy involved reading. I want the kind of trash you read while you are on the can. Have at me.

 

[NJL]

If you really want an easy read... track down a copy of the Miles Davis autobiography.... yeah, I know Ding Chavez isn't double tapping someone with an MP5, but it's a great and downright funny read.

 

[Mike Money]

I love clancy.... hes just to wordy on boring stuff...


Debt of Honor was rad.... except for the 800 pages of political drivel....

the other 200 pages of death and chaos more than made up for it, though.

 

[NJL]

Actually... I know it's not the book, but the Splinter Cell game was badass...

Ok, I'm really going to sleep now.

 

[Peter Squire]

Patricia Cornwell tells a great forensic scientist thriller. She tells it so well, she's told the same great story in just about all her books.

Except the one that was "different" - but it wasn't

 

[ZombieGhosTrain]

I read Cornwell's Portrait of A Killer, her ideas on the Jack the Ripper case. Pretty interesting read too, such grousome detail may keep you happy, pictures even.

 

[bmc]

Have a good trip Mark. Sounds like a great time.

 

[fraublugher]

Trevanian's : Shibumi

On a constant quest for "shibumi!" , our hero , a spelunking ninja saves the world , and stops for oral flagrante delecto on the way .

 

[superbassman2000]

Dale Brown is one of my all-time favorite authors for war novels...My favorite book by him (and probably his best-known book) is "Flight of the Old Dog"
It's about a modified B-52, and code named "megafortress" its a really cool book

 

[notduane]

Larry Bond is o.k. He collaborated with Tom Clancy on "Red Storm Rising"

His own "Red Phoenix" is about a North-South Korea war

Less accurate (military gizmo-wise) is Ian Slater's "World War III" series.
I did learn all about flechette rounds

 

[flatwounds]

How about Matthew Reilly. Ice Station, Contest, Temple, etc. I haven't read them, but a couple of my brothers have, and they love them. They seem pretty action packed - a mate of mine described them as 50 pages of action, 1 page of character development, 100 pages of action, etc.
Daily Telegraph said, "Strap yourself in for the ride...what follows is action, action, and more action".

Personally, it ain't my style, I prefer to laugh when I read. If you want to laugh, read Kinky Friedman.

 

[Marlat]

Matthew Reilly is a little too dumb for my liking ... not the guy personally, but rather his writing style is just childish. That said I have read a few of his books and enjoyed them, but you seriously finish the whole book in like 3 hours. He's an Aussie and openly admits to writing his books with no character development or appreciable storyline!

 

[flatwounds]

Yeah, like I said - not my cup of tea either.

Go Kinky.

 

[jokerjkny]

you could try some Robert Ludlum. he wrote the "Jason Bourne" series that the movies, "Bourne Identity" and "Bourne Supremacy" are based on. and FYI, there's another book that'll be made in like '08 or something, the "Bourne Ultimatum".

but i dig john le carre. known recently for his "Constant Gardener" that got turned into a movie, he's like the godfather of spy novels. try his first kicker, "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold".

also, try some non-fiction like Mark Bowden's "Black Hawk Down". makes the movie version seem all the more stupid and silly. he has a new book on the iran hostage crisis in the early '80s, called "Guests of the Ayatollah" which has gotten similarly great reviews.

 

[westland]

Now, I have foudn that the holy grail of crap reading, for me, is Tom Clancy. They are page turners that you dont need to think about and if you read two pages thats cool or if you read 100 thats cool too.

So I have pretty much read all his books and am wondering if anyone knows any books that a similar in the "techno-geeky-war-thriller" genre.

Neil Stephanson

 

[cheezewiz]

Joseph Wambaugh. Especially the early stuff, like the Choirboys.

 

[Toasted]

Mark - track down anything by Jeffrey Archer.

 

[Peter McFerrin]

Dean Koontz and Robert Ludlum are two of the giants of that particular style. I never was into them, but my dad was for a time. Now that he's retired, he has more time and energy to devote to substantial reading.

Even if you're incredibly desperate for pulpy reading, do yourself a favor and avoid Dan Brown. The Da Vinci Code has some of the purplest prose you'll see this side of a third-rate 19th-century English romance novel.

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

I read Science Fiction on the train and bought masses of this, when I was commuting to London regularly!

But the ultimate "Page Turner" for me was Stephen King's Dark Tower series .....the later books are a bit large , but the first few are easy reads!

 

[Gard]

Larry Niven, if you like "hard" sci-fi is a lot like a "futurisitic" Tom Clancy.

I find his collaborations with Jerry Pournelle to be particularly interesting (Pournelle is interesting if you like your sci-fi with a militaristic twist). They wrote a good and LUCID comet/asteriod end-of-the-world story (Lucifer's Hammer) decades before Hollywood came along and gave us drivel like "Armageddon" (at least "Deep Impact" was watchable).