Good Military-themed Thrillers (Books)

[Lonemagpie]

I love Reilly's stuff. Of course unlike other authors, he has several different series going on, some active, some not. One thing I like about his novels is that he is not afraid to kill off main characters without warning. Like I said at the top, he drifts in and out of sci-fi at times (see: Temple, Contest, and the current Six Sacred Stones/Seven Deadly Wonders series).

Reilly's been kind of a guilty pleasure, but the last couple have been just too stupidly over the top even before the SF stuff. He's a crap writer as well - too many exclamation points! To show that stuff is (supposedly!) exciting! Boom! But actual good writing would do it better!

 

[John Clark]

I'd have to agree with the suggestions so far.

Early Dale Brown stuff is good.

The earlier Larry Bond stuff is quite similar to Red Storm Rising in style (at least to me)

James Cobb is good, but I'd like to see another novel after Target Lock (Any idea if one's going to be written?)

I'd also recommend Long Reach and Kings Shilling by Michael Lunnon-Wood

 

[Bloodwhiner]

Don't overlook Jeff Shaara who writes historical fiction. His latest efforts focus on WW2 and started with The Rising Tide. Newt Gringrich has done some good work

but there is some non-fiction that is just as good and thrilling with the addition of being true... I'm thinking of books like The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James D. Hornfischer; Into the Rising Sun and Beyond Valor both by Patrick K. O'Donnell; The Bravest Man by William Tuohy; Brotherhood of Heroes by Bill Sloan;The Phantom Major by Virginia Cowles; The Great Raid on Cabanatuan by William B. Breuer; Firestorm by Marshall De Bruhl; The First Heroes by Craig Nelson and The Bedford Boys by Alex Kershaw.

The Forgotten 500 by Gregory Freeman was particularly good and covers an event the is almost unheard of - an airbourne operation to rescue 500 airman from Yugoslavia despite British objections. Also intriguing was No Simple Victory by Norman Davies which gets beyond history as written by the victors and looks behind the curtain at the battles of the allies with each other.

If you like Military Sci-Fi, try the Lost Fleet series being written by former naval officer Jack Campbell. It is sci-fi but he has applied actual physics and military strategy to make things far more accurate then most. The first in the the series was "Dauntless."

 

[Lonemagpie]

but there is some non-fiction that is just as good and thrilling with the addition of being true... I'm thinking of books like The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James D. Hornfischer; Into the Rising Sun and Beyond Valor both by Patrick K. O'Donnell; The Bravest Man by William Tuohy; Brotherhood of Heroes by Bill Sloan;The Phantom Major by Virginia Cowles; The Great Raid on Cabanatuan by William B. Breuer; Firestorm by Marshall De Bruhl; The First Heroes by Craig Nelson and The Bedford Boys by Alex Kershaw.

And of course Black Hawk Down is simply sublime. In Harms Way and The Desperate Hours are excellent tellings of naval disasters

 

[captcalhoun]

Larry Bond, early (pre- Tin Man, I'd say) Dale Brown... Clancy's Without Remorse. early (pre-Saucer) Stephen Coonts

OMG, another BRITISH Dale Brown fan! *faints*

Is this unusual?

In my experience, everyone thinks Dale Brown is "that bloke who did Da Vinci Code", except a guy who lives across the street from me.

You didn't like 'Plan of Attack'?

I liked it fine, actually - was just trying to pick the spot where he really went SF

I think Day Of The Cheetah is my favourite, BTW

i thinnk he did that in 'Silver Tower'...

have you been reading the 'Dreamland' series with Jim Defelice?

Nah, dunno how much of it would be down to the other author (having said that, I actually prefer Paul Kemprecos' NUMA tales to yer genuine Cussler these days!) or whether it'd be too fantastical

The Dreamland series is good, but haven't yet really impacted the main series, other than in "Air Battle Force" when Daren Mace mentions Zen Stockard and Flighthawks. I'm hoping the Werewolf Unmanned Helicopter will appear in the main series...

 

[PKerr]

War Of The Rats (The book that the movie "Enemy at the gates" was based on).

Point of Impact (The book that the movie "shooter" was based on).

Both are great books.

 

[John Clark]

War Of The Rats (The book that the movie "Enemy at the gates" was based on).

Point of Impact (The book that the movie "shooter" was based on).

Both are great books.

Coincidently, I've recently finished books by both those authors.

The End of War (David Robbins) and Cuba (Stephen Hunter)

I preferred War of the Rats to End of war, but I thought Cuba was fairly decent.

 

[Lonemagpie]

The only thing with War Of The Rats is the climax comes about fifty pages from the end of the book, and then just coasts and fades, as you've already had the ending

 

[Dayton Ward]

Can't argue with a lot of the suggestions here. If you're also looking for military-themed books which aren't necessarily based in combat-type stories (mysteries/suspense/etc.), some of the novels by P.T. Deutermann, Ed Ruggero, Lee Child, and/or Nelson DeMille might also be to your liking.

 

[Lookingglassman]

Eric L. Harry has written some good books also. I will admit you will have to suspend some of your belief to actually believe the scenarios will work, but overall they are a good read if you have nothing else to read.

His books I have read are:

Arc Light - Bascially we get in an accidental nuke war with Russia and decide to invade them. He wastes a lot of time explaining what every acronym is and it is kid of hard to believe the US is able to deploy that many divisions to Europe in just a few months after suffering a nuke attack, but the action scenes are great.

Invasion - American gets invaded by China. Great action.

Protect and Defend - We are fighting China in Siberia and we decide to invade China from Siberia.

 

[PKerr]

The only thing with War Of The Rats is the climax comes about fifty pages from the end of the book, and then just coasts and fades, as you've already had the ending

For those that have read War Of The Rats here is a few extra chapter that were cut out of the book.

http://www.davidlrobbins.com/novels/War_of_the_Rats/cut_chapters/cut_chapter_1.html

 

[Icemizer]

Give Rouge Warrior a read. If you believe half of what you read in this book or not its still very entertaining.

 

[John Clark]

Some more authors you might want to try are Richard Herman Junior, Terrence Strong and Gerry Carroll.

I think there's only 3 books by Gerry Carroll (All vietnam era) but I thought they were great.

There's also Bob Meyer to try

 

[Captaindemotion]

War Of The Rats (The book that the movie "Enemy at the gates" was based on).

Point of Impact (The book that the movie "shooter" was based on).

Both are great books.

Coincidently, I've recently finished books by both those authors.

The End of War (David Robbins) and Cuba (Stephen Hunter)

I preferred War of the Rats to End of war, but I thought Cuba was fairly decent.

I think Stephen Hunter is unquestionably the best action writer out there, full stop. Only a few of his books could be deemed to be military themed though - his first one (which I haven't read and the name of which escapes me) and Time To Hunt, which spans several decades (two different narratives going on) and is partially set in Vietnam. But his two main heroes, father and son Earl and Bob Lee Swagger, are both former marines and their respective experiences (in WW2 and Nam) inform them and make them the compelling characters they are.

Lee Child doesn't write military novels per se, but his hero is an ex-military cop called Jack Reacher and some of his novels refer back to Reacher's time in the army and what he's learned there. One novel, The Enemy is a prequel, set in 1990 when Reacher is still in the army. It's not military as in battle themed, but it is about a military investigation. And while I prefer Hunter as a writer, Child has a ridiculously addictive style of writing.

 

[Ometiklan]

Thanks for the input so far guys. I have added quite a few names to my list that I will check at my library shortly. Just after I get done with "The Path Between the Seas."

A good book I read a little while ago was about WWIII. It was set in 1985 I think and was written about that time by a retired general. It had a lot to do with tank warfare in Germany. I can't seem to find it right now, so I don't know the title or the author but it was a pretty good read.

Keep em coming.

 

[The Badger]

James Cobb is good, but I'd like to see another novel after Target Lock (Any idea if one's going to be written?)

Far as I know he's written one book for Robert Ludlum's Covert-One series, and is at work on another.
Hopefully he'll do some more Amanda Lee Garret stories after that.

 

[Misfit Toy]

but there is some non-fiction that is just as good and thrilling with the addition of being true... I'm thinking of books like The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James D. Hornfischer; Into the Rising Sun and Beyond Valor both by Patrick K. O'Donnell; The Bravest Man by William Tuohy; Brotherhood of Heroes by Bill Sloan;The Phantom Major by Virginia Cowles; The Great Raid on Cabanatuan by William B. Breuer; Firestorm by Marshall De Bruhl; The First Heroes by Craig Nelson and The Bedford Boys by Alex Kershaw.

And of course Black Hawk Down is simply sublime. In Harms Way and The Desperate Hours are excellent tellings of naval disasters

I haven't read Desperate Hours, but I agree completely about Black Hawk Down and In Harms Way.