Recommendations for commando fiction?
June 9, 2015 7:00 AM Subscribe
I would like to read some good (ok, decent) fiction about special forces operatives and operations (SEALS, Delta Force, made up badasses). I know nothing about this genre, although I assume it exists. My preference would be that it not be obvious that it's written by someone to the political right of the John Birch Society, but I don't know if that's possible.
It is not fiction, but "Blood on the Risers: An Airborne Soldier's 35 Months in Vietnam" by John Leppelman is excellent and pretty much meets all of your criteria. I found it a better read than most special ops fiction I read when I went through that phase.
posted by Nackt at 7:21 AM on June 9, 2015
posted by Nackt at 7:21 AM on June 9, 2015
The Jack Reacher books are about a former MP Major who retired young and lives an off-the-grid nomadic lifestyle but somehow gets drug into special ops scenarios that also allow him to kill a few bad guys and woo hot ladies and then disappear into the night once he's saved a few lives. They are ridiculous and delightful.
posted by something something at 7:27 AM on June 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by something something at 7:27 AM on June 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
The Guns of Navarone is a classic in the genre.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 7:28 AM on June 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by 1970s Antihero at 7:28 AM on June 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
There's a lot of this sort of thing in genre fiction -- SEAL Team 666, Myke Cole's Shadow Ops series, D.J. Molles' The Remaining series -- if you're willing to put up with demons and warlocks and zombies.
posted by Etrigan at 7:33 AM on June 9, 2015
posted by Etrigan at 7:33 AM on June 9, 2015
My favorite of this genre, although it isn't US-based, is Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series about an Israeli intelligence team. I also enjoyed W.E.B. Griffin's Presidential Agent series which is about a team of Delta force commandos working for the president.
posted by notjustthefish at 7:55 AM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by notjustthefish at 7:55 AM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Andy Mc Nab is the pseudonym of a former British SAS Sargent. His extensive Nick Stone fiction series is about a former SAS member, now a mercenary. Minimal politics. Nick has a job to do and just gets on with it. He wrote Bravo Two Zero about a real mission of the First Gulf War.
posted by Homer42 at 7:59 AM on June 9, 2015
posted by Homer42 at 7:59 AM on June 9, 2015
If you happen to have Kindle Unlimited, the David L. Robbins books are passable and quite procedural.
posted by ftm at 8:02 AM on June 9, 2015
posted by ftm at 8:02 AM on June 9, 2015
Consider First Blood. I read it before Srallone did, probably, and it was quite fun.
posted by SLC Mom at 8:06 AM on June 9, 2015
posted by SLC Mom at 8:06 AM on June 9, 2015
Some of Carsten Stroud's books might work for you, although a lot of his protagonists are cops and/or ex-Special Forces, I think the only thing he's written about active military is the non-fiction Iron Bravo.
SLC Mom beat me to it, kinda, but IIRC a fair number of David Morrell's thrillers have current or former Special Forces operatives as heroes.
posted by soundguy99 at 8:11 AM on June 9, 2015
SLC Mom beat me to it, kinda, but IIRC a fair number of David Morrell's thrillers have current or former Special Forces operatives as heroes.
posted by soundguy99 at 8:11 AM on June 9, 2015
Slow Walk in a Sad Rain was written by a former special forces officer who served in Vietnam.
posted by dortmunder at 8:21 AM on June 9, 2015
posted by dortmunder at 8:21 AM on June 9, 2015
I remember David Morrell's Brotherhood of the Rose trilogy as being chockful of interesting special forces training, particularly Mossad stuff.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:28 AM on June 9, 2015
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:28 AM on June 9, 2015
For a change of pace, you could try Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooters series.
posted by asperity at 8:34 AM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by asperity at 8:34 AM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
If "BUT IN SPACE" isn't a disqualifier, some of Iain Banks' Culture novels might fit the bill, specifically Consider Phlebas, Use of Weapons, and Against a Dark Background.
posted by runincircles at 9:14 AM on June 9, 2015
posted by runincircles at 9:14 AM on June 9, 2015
Seconding Myke Cole because I used to know him back in the day before our lives drifted apart. Good guy, knows how to tell a story. As for politics, people tend to assume he's conservative because he served (Coast Guard). They are sometimes taken aback.
posted by Naberius at 10:04 AM on June 9, 2015
posted by Naberius at 10:04 AM on June 9, 2015
Tom Clancy is pretty good and engaging, as well as prolific, but as a warning, the earliest of his books have a lot of casually offensive slurs and attitudes wrt homophobia and sexism. (The racism, however, is mostly limited to characters who are villainous.) It was standard enough for the times in which they were written but in today's world it sticks out uncomfortably, and for me at least it pushes me out of the narrative flow.
If you feel like supplementing your fiction with some engaging nonfiction, the book on which the Generation Kill miniseries was based is very good, as is Lt. Fick's personal memoir of the same, "One Bullet Away".
posted by poffin boffin at 10:17 AM on June 9, 2015
If you feel like supplementing your fiction with some engaging nonfiction, the book on which the Generation Kill miniseries was based is very good, as is Lt. Fick's personal memoir of the same, "One Bullet Away".
posted by poffin boffin at 10:17 AM on June 9, 2015
Sympathy for the Devil, by Kent Anderson.
Bat*21
Enjoy!
posted by janey47 at 11:52 AM on June 9, 2015
Bat*21
Enjoy!
posted by janey47 at 11:52 AM on June 9, 2015
How much action do you want?
Dick Marcinko's "Rogue Warrior" series are not bad reads, in a "pulp fiction" kinda way.
Michael Z. Williamson had a "scope" series where two guys were sent on special ops to bad situations.
Jack Coughlin has is "Kyle Swanson" series of sniper dragged into spy work.
If you want space stuff, there's always David Drake (Hammer's Slammers series) and John Ringo (Legacy of Aldennata series) but they are more about open conflict than shadow ops, but they often involve special ops too.
David Drake wrote a lot of small fiction for "The Fleet"Anthology about the "Headhunters" special ops unit and they always get into the nastiest of the situations. However, you have to buy the whole series to read them, and they contain a lot of other stories in vastly different scales and styles and POVs.
posted by kschang at 1:35 PM on June 9, 2015
Dick Marcinko's "Rogue Warrior" series are not bad reads, in a "pulp fiction" kinda way.
Michael Z. Williamson had a "scope" series where two guys were sent on special ops to bad situations.
Jack Coughlin has is "Kyle Swanson" series of sniper dragged into spy work.
If you want space stuff, there's always David Drake (Hammer's Slammers series) and John Ringo (Legacy of Aldennata series) but they are more about open conflict than shadow ops, but they often involve special ops too.
David Drake wrote a lot of small fiction for "The Fleet"Anthology about the "Headhunters" special ops unit and they always get into the nastiest of the situations. However, you have to buy the whole series to read them, and they contain a lot of other stories in vastly different scales and styles and POVs.
posted by kschang at 1:35 PM on June 9, 2015
I love this question. Novels of this type are my guilty pleasure! Not to mention sometimes very good motivators during long runs.
Seconding the suggestion of Rainbow Six. It matches your qualifications perfectly.
Also seconding the Reacher series… "Ridiculous and delightful" is the perfect way to describe it. For me the litmus test as to whether you'll like the Reacher series is One Shot, which is what the Jack Reacher movie (starring Tom Cruise in a travesty of casting to physical resemblance) was based on. But you probably should read the novels all in order.
In a similar vein (ex-military but keeps getting dragged back in to situations where his skill is needed): the Bob Lee Swagger novels by Stephen Hunter. Swagger is a former Marine sniper who consistently reminds us that he remains the best of the best. As the series goes on and Swagger ages, the commando aspect gives way to more of a pure detective role, but there always scenes where Swagger puts his skills on display. Perhaps you saw the movie Shooter, starring Mark Wahlberg, which was based on the first novel in the series (Point of Impact). The books about his father, Earl Swagger, are also good, but not very commando-y.
Recently I've worked my way through the Mitch Rapp series (by Vince Flynn) and the Op-Center Series (Clancy-affiliated but written by Jeff Rovin, until they're suddenly written by Dick Couch and take a serious turn for the worse). I am currently working on the Scot Harvath series by Brad Thor. It's the middle of the workday so I'll leave the specifics of these series as an exercise for the reader, but they all fall under the same umbrella as Rainbow Six for me, except of lower quality. Also, they sometimes offend my delicate liberal disposition by having characters advocate unchecked military powers for the President, or by tending to cast powerful women as villains.
posted by dondiego87 at 1:37 PM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Seconding the suggestion of Rainbow Six. It matches your qualifications perfectly.
Also seconding the Reacher series… "Ridiculous and delightful" is the perfect way to describe it. For me the litmus test as to whether you'll like the Reacher series is One Shot, which is what the Jack Reacher movie (starring Tom Cruise in a travesty of casting to physical resemblance) was based on. But you probably should read the novels all in order.
In a similar vein (ex-military but keeps getting dragged back in to situations where his skill is needed): the Bob Lee Swagger novels by Stephen Hunter. Swagger is a former Marine sniper who consistently reminds us that he remains the best of the best. As the series goes on and Swagger ages, the commando aspect gives way to more of a pure detective role, but there always scenes where Swagger puts his skills on display. Perhaps you saw the movie Shooter, starring Mark Wahlberg, which was based on the first novel in the series (Point of Impact). The books about his father, Earl Swagger, are also good, but not very commando-y.
Recently I've worked my way through the Mitch Rapp series (by Vince Flynn) and the Op-Center Series (Clancy-affiliated but written by Jeff Rovin, until they're suddenly written by Dick Couch and take a serious turn for the worse). I am currently working on the Scot Harvath series by Brad Thor. It's the middle of the workday so I'll leave the specifics of these series as an exercise for the reader, but they all fall under the same umbrella as Rainbow Six for me, except of lower quality. Also, they sometimes offend my delicate liberal disposition by having characters advocate unchecked military powers for the President, or by tending to cast powerful women as villains.
posted by dondiego87 at 1:37 PM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
The Rapp books start out good, with a lot of the moral ambiguity and conflicted heroes I like in this kind of book, but, as the series goes on, that quality wanes and, worse, more and more of Flynn's politics creep in.
Right around the time Rapp had a meeting with Senators Nancy Pignoli and Sandy Berners (I exaggerate, but not much) where he was like 'You guys are such hypocrites! I mean, sure I've murdered hundreds of people, but you voted for that abortion bill!,' that was when I was like 'you know, I don't care what happens to this asshole.' Put it down unfinished, haven't been back.
posted by box at 2:03 PM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Right around the time Rapp had a meeting with Senators Nancy Pignoli and Sandy Berners (I exaggerate, but not much) where he was like 'You guys are such hypocrites! I mean, sure I've murdered hundreds of people, but you voted for that abortion bill!,' that was when I was like 'you know, I don't care what happens to this asshole.' Put it down unfinished, haven't been back.
posted by box at 2:03 PM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
I read David Morrell's Brotherhood of the Rose and really enjoyed it.
posted by rmd1023 at 3:25 PM on June 9, 2015
posted by rmd1023 at 3:25 PM on June 9, 2015
You might like Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt Adventures, especially the first dozen or so.
posted by stinkfoot at 4:12 PM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by stinkfoot at 4:12 PM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Stephen Hunter's early stuff is quite good, but his more recent work reads like he's trying to get an interview on Hannity or O'Reilly (for example, a character who obviously represents Jane Fonda is murdered by a sniper at the beginning of I, Sniper). Read the Bob Lee Swagger books in publication order, and drop the series when the sermonizing gets irritating.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:48 PM on June 9, 2015
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:48 PM on June 9, 2015
I'll mention a couple of series that I didn't see in the thread so far.
Alex Bereson's "John Wells" series - Wells is an Army Ranger who moves over to work for the CIA. Lots of cameos over the series by a variety of special ops types. Faithful Spy is the first book in the series.
Dalton Fury (pseudonym) has written a series of fictional books about the Delta Force.
Brad Taylor's Pike Logan series revolves around a shadowy group called "The Taskforce".
Mark Greaney has done a lot of writing for Tom Clancy over the years but has his own series, "The Gray Man", about an ex CIA "door kicker".
posted by kovacs at 7:21 PM on June 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Alex Bereson's "John Wells" series - Wells is an Army Ranger who moves over to work for the CIA. Lots of cameos over the series by a variety of special ops types. Faithful Spy is the first book in the series.
Dalton Fury (pseudonym) has written a series of fictional books about the Delta Force.
Brad Taylor's Pike Logan series revolves around a shadowy group called "The Taskforce".
Mark Greaney has done a lot of writing for Tom Clancy over the years but has his own series, "The Gray Man", about an ex CIA "door kicker".
posted by kovacs at 7:21 PM on June 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Thanks for mentioning the Gray Man books, kovacs--they reminded me of Barry Eisler's John Rain series.
You might also like Matthew Dunn's Spycatcher books.
posted by box at 4:00 AM on June 10, 2015
You might also like Matthew Dunn's Spycatcher books.
posted by box at 4:00 AM on June 10, 2015
Oh, man, I can't believe I forgot Matthew Reilly, whose Scarecrow and Jack West serieses are full of Manly Men Doing Manly Things with no real politics. Hilariously high-octane.
posted by Etrigan at 5:17 AM on June 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Etrigan at 5:17 AM on June 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
This is not a book, but I believe it is germane.
The Unit was a David Mamet created TV series about a Special Forces unit that started off mostly mediocre and slid downhill into (sometimes rah-rah wanking, sometimes soap opera-eqsque) implausibility rapidly after that.
However, one of the best portrayals of Special Forces in war was one episode, called The Dark of The Moon, (YT link, 45 minutes) which I highly recommend - especially the middle third of the episode. No deus ex machinae, no absurd supermen, no cackling villains, just some good, tight demonstrations of why discipline, capability and creativity (in that order) are so important on the battlefield.
posted by lalochezia at 8:07 AM on June 10, 2015
The Unit was a David Mamet created TV series about a Special Forces unit that started off mostly mediocre and slid downhill into (sometimes rah-rah wanking, sometimes soap opera-eqsque) implausibility rapidly after that.
However, one of the best portrayals of Special Forces in war was one episode, called The Dark of The Moon, (YT link, 45 minutes) which I highly recommend - especially the middle third of the episode. No deus ex machinae, no absurd supermen, no cackling villains, just some good, tight demonstrations of why discipline, capability and creativity (in that order) are so important on the battlefield.
posted by lalochezia at 8:07 AM on June 10, 2015
I thought I liked Matthew Reilly... until I read maybe 4 books, then I realized he's basically f***ing with you as his character, in a single novel, goes through more plot twists and "WTF moments" than TWO James Bond movies.
Let's take, Scarecrow for example. Here's the summary of plot. I've zapped the spoilers as much as I can, but don't read it if you hate spoilers.
Rush deployment into middle of nowhere.
Wait, it's an AMBUSH! Everybody dies, but he survived, and he killed the bad guys
Then his evil twin (sorta) showed up and tell him the bad news... There's a huge bounty on his head.
But wait, OMG they're gonna kidnap my GF! (Who's in Afghanistan)
They fly into Afghanistan, fight their way INTO a mine (amidst Taliban vs. US Army)
Get ambushed AGAIN by mercenaries, who got the GF
BARELY made their way out alive (again)
They realized there's a list of people who are being exterminated, but with PROOF
They went to London to try to save/talk to yet ANOTHER GUY (Mossad)
Was ambushed AGAIN (of course) with a huge firefight in middle of London's skyscrapers
They got out, found a lead that goes to "JK". They went to JK's castle off coast to pretend to claim bounty
Only to be ambushed AGAIN (of course) and they had to escape with a huge car chase
Where the chasers crashed, died, then Scarecrow went over the cliff leaving Scarecrow's evil twin "Knight" and GF
to be captured by JK
Scarecrow was captured by the FRENCH... but they're in league with JK...
JK then killed the poor GF to make sure Scarecrow comes after him (and die) but Knight escaped (by swimming through a shark infested tunnel!)
Then Scarecrow and Knight tore through the French Carrier and let's just say that thing's going down!
Finally the good guys figured out who the bad guys are... and the plan's pretty ingenious, if in a sick way. To
neutralize the threat, ships will have to be sunk, so Scarecrow and company heads off to capture a ship and "hack" the abort code... and bad guy protecting it of course... except they got there while the Israelis, who also figured it out, sent in THEIR guys to assault the ship at the same time, THEN the merc bounty hunters ALSO showed up and you have a four way fire fight mess.
In the middle of the fight the Israeli guy got killed, leaving Scarecrow the ONLY guy in the world who can hack the abort code.
They got it done, WHILE the ship is sinking around them
Only to find that the bad guys has launched their contingency plan: two ballistic missiles
And guess what's available? Two X-15 hypersonic planes in Italy as part of airshow... and they need to fly to the MiddleEast... in a HUGE hurry.
So yeah, they flew two X-15's like regular fighters, get close to the missiles to hack their abort.
THey got THAT done, sure, but plane crashed after that (out of fuel?)
So while this threat is done, the hero was captured and taken to JK...
Okay, okay, I won't spoil the ending. :) But you get the idea... this book is a f***ing mess, filled with every "Hollywood" cliche you can think of, and then a few extra on top of that, borrowing liberally from Bond movies. ARGH.
posted by kschang at 1:30 PM on June 10, 2015
Let's take, Scarecrow for example. Here's the summary of plot. I've zapped the spoilers as much as I can, but don't read it if you hate spoilers.
Rush deployment into middle of nowhere.
Wait, it's an AMBUSH! Everybody dies, but he survived, and he killed the bad guys
Then his evil twin (sorta) showed up and tell him the bad news... There's a huge bounty on his head.
But wait, OMG they're gonna kidnap my GF! (Who's in Afghanistan)
They fly into Afghanistan, fight their way INTO a mine (amidst Taliban vs. US Army)
Get ambushed AGAIN by mercenaries, who got the GF
BARELY made their way out alive (again)
They realized there's a list of people who are being exterminated, but with PROOF
They went to London to try to save/talk to yet ANOTHER GUY (Mossad)
Was ambushed AGAIN (of course) with a huge firefight in middle of London's skyscrapers
They got out, found a lead that goes to "JK". They went to JK's castle off coast to pretend to claim bounty
Only to be ambushed AGAIN (of course) and they had to escape with a huge car chase
Where the chasers crashed, died, then Scarecrow went over the cliff leaving Scarecrow's evil twin "Knight" and GF
to be captured by JK
Scarecrow was captured by the FRENCH... but they're in league with JK...
JK then killed the poor GF to make sure Scarecrow comes after him (and die) but Knight escaped (by swimming through a shark infested tunnel!)
Then Scarecrow and Knight tore through the French Carrier and let's just say that thing's going down!
Finally the good guys figured out who the bad guys are... and the plan's pretty ingenious, if in a sick way. To
neutralize the threat, ships will have to be sunk, so Scarecrow and company heads off to capture a ship and "hack" the abort code... and bad guy protecting it of course... except they got there while the Israelis, who also figured it out, sent in THEIR guys to assault the ship at the same time, THEN the merc bounty hunters ALSO showed up and you have a four way fire fight mess.
In the middle of the fight the Israeli guy got killed, leaving Scarecrow the ONLY guy in the world who can hack the abort code.
They got it done, WHILE the ship is sinking around them
Only to find that the bad guys has launched their contingency plan: two ballistic missiles
And guess what's available? Two X-15 hypersonic planes in Italy as part of airshow... and they need to fly to the MiddleEast... in a HUGE hurry.
So yeah, they flew two X-15's like regular fighters, get close to the missiles to hack their abort.
THey got THAT done, sure, but plane crashed after that (out of fuel?)
So while this threat is done, the hero was captured and taken to JK...
Okay, okay, I won't spoil the ending. :) But you get the idea... this book is a f***ing mess, filled with every "Hollywood" cliche you can think of, and then a few extra on top of that, borrowing liberally from Bond movies. ARGH.
posted by kschang at 1:30 PM on June 10, 2015
kschang, you left out my very favoritest bit -- to get around a roadblock on a mountain road, Scarecrow spins the car out, over the edge, and catches the tires on the railing to spin himself back onto the road. Like I said, hilariously high-octane.
posted by Etrigan at 2:21 PM on June 10, 2015
posted by Etrigan at 2:21 PM on June 10, 2015
@Etrigan -- you remembered it wrong. :) What he did was the other car was squishing him against the tunnel wall, and the tunnel exit has this "lip" that the chaser wants Scarecrow to impale himself on, and Scarecrow can't brake because the other chaser was behind him and "herding" him. So what Scarecrow did was he turned INTO the wall, so he's climbing up the wall. The other car, pushing him, went UNDER him. So he's now upside down, and basically did a "barrel roll" on top of the other car and got away, just in time for one of the chasers to crash on the lip of the tunnel, and flames and whatnot shot out the tunnel right behind our hero and the one remaining chaser. ;)
posted by kschang at 9:29 PM on June 10, 2015
posted by kschang at 9:29 PM on June 10, 2015
I recommend two web sites:
HiLoBrow has an index of adventure fiction covering the past century, which has categories like "military adventure" and "espionage adventure."
Also Glorious Trash, which covers genre fiction of the Paperback Era, plenty of "Men's Fiction" of the 70's
Some prolific thriller/espionage authors of the Paperback Era:
Hammond Innes
Alistair Maclean
Gavin Lyall
James Hadley Chase
Len Deighton
Frederick Forsyth
Lionel Davidson
Edward S. Aarons
John Buchan
Manning Coles (Cyril Henry Coles & Adelaide Manning)
posted by ohshenandoah at 9:21 PM on June 11, 2015
HiLoBrow has an index of adventure fiction covering the past century, which has categories like "military adventure" and "espionage adventure."
Also Glorious Trash, which covers genre fiction of the Paperback Era, plenty of "Men's Fiction" of the 70's
Some prolific thriller/espionage authors of the Paperback Era:
Hammond Innes
Alistair Maclean
Gavin Lyall
James Hadley Chase
Len Deighton
Frederick Forsyth
Lionel Davidson
Edward S. Aarons
John Buchan
Manning Coles (Cyril Henry Coles & Adelaide Manning)
posted by ohshenandoah at 9:21 PM on June 11, 2015
Response by poster: Thanks everyone. I haven't had a chance to dig in enough to these answers to mark bests, but I will say that I do like the Reacher books and have for some time.
posted by OmieWise at 7:37 AM on February 11, 2016
posted by OmieWise at 7:37 AM on February 11, 2016
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If you want backstory on the John Clark character, start with Without Remorse.
posted by jquinby at 7:05 AM on June 9, 2015 [1 favorite]