[Book Recommendations] Special Forces/Espionage Fiction?

mightyspacepope

I've been playing some Rainbow Six Siege and I'm enjoying getting caught up on the Americans.

Anyone have any good novels that would fit into these newfound interests? Bonus points if they somehow involve the supernatural or paranormal (maybe like Monster Hunter International, but with less fetishization of guns?).

E.Coyote

Robert McCammon The Wolf's Hour might work. WW2 spy novel+werewolf.

Elvenshae

... just checking, but you've read Rainbow Six, right?

Echo

Hannu Rajaniemi, Summerland.

Donovan Puppyfucker

There's no supernatural or paranormal stuff in them, but Andy McNab's non-autobiographical books are a bit of fun. Don't expect literary genius, but there's some great action and good espionage work done in them.

BlindZenDriver

Not so much special forces and certainly not supernatural, but check out Frederik Forsythe novels. For me he is like the spy novel guy, maybe because he was an actual spy and he also knows the military stuff having been a pilot and done work as a War journalist.

Morran

Declare, by Tim Powers.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declare

Clipse

Morran wrote: »

Declare, by Tim Powers.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declare

Quoting this in addition to agreeing because it really can't be said enough how much this book fits what you're looking for. It's cold war era espionage fiction on par with some of Le Carré's[0] best with an absolutely amazing supernatural angle, and it's historical fiction -- involving the Cambridge five, particularly Kim Philby -- to boot. The only downside is that after reading it, you will absolutely never find a better or even comparable book in the same niche again.

[0] - Also, it certainly doesn't meet the supernatural criterion, but if you haven't already, make a point to read John Le Carré's novels, particularly the George Smiley books.

Kelor

Elvenshae wrote: »

... just checking, but you've read Rainbow Six, right?

Following up on this, but Tom Clancy was basically the mainstream guy for this genre back in the 80s through 90s.

The Jack Ryan books are more about the espionage elements at a macro level, mostly seen from his position in CIA, but the John Kelly character is much more ground level involvement, eventually leading up to the actual Rainbow Six novel.

In a similar but more schlocky vein the Scarecrow series of books by Mathew Reilly follow a team of Marines and are pure action for the most part. They're not deep but they are entertaining.


The Day of the Jackal still holds up well today.


Since you mentioned watching the Americans, I'll just say that Spy Game is an excellent movie and worth a watch on the off chance you haven't seen it.

NSDFRand

mightyspacepope wrote: »

I've been playing some Rainbow Six Siege and I'm enjoying getting caught up on the Americans.

Anyone have any good novels that would fit into these newfound interests? Bonus points if they somehow involve the supernatural or paranormal (maybe like Monster Hunter International, but with less fetishization of guns?).

Anything by John Le Carre. I also like Tom Clancy but he is/was not popular, to put it nicely, in certain communities because of his accuracy in writing.

Nytewarrior

I like James Rollins' Sigma Force series.

Pailryder

Kelor wrote: »

Elvenshae wrote: »

... just checking, but you've read Rainbow Six, right?

Following up on this, but Tom Clancy was basically the mainstream guy for this genre back in the 80s through 90s.

The Jack Ryan books are more about the espionage elements at a macro level, mostly seen from his position in CIA, but the John Kelly character is much more ground level involvement, eventually leading up to the actual Rainbow Six novel.

In a similar but more schlocky vein the Scarecrow series of books by Mathew Reilly follow a team of Navy Seals and are pure action for the most part. They're not deep but they are entertaining.


The Day of the Jackal still holds up well today.


Since you mentioned watching the Americans, I'll just say that Spy Game is an excellent movie and worth a watch on the off chance you haven't seen it.

Clancy had a few spin-offs with the John Clark character that are definitely more espionage micro level stuff and worth checking out. Without Remorse is the one that springs to mind.

The follow up to Clancy's books are the Mark Greaney series which are pretty entertaining, he basically picks up where Clancy left off and they are good. THis is one of his newer ones i think? i don't know the order of the different series that are out there but this is book one of whatever.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002N83GSA/

Ark Evensong

A bit of a hesitant recommendation, considering I haven't read 'em myself, but for Modern Military + Magic, I've heard good things about Myke Cole's Shadow Ops series.

NSDFRand

I also have to give a shout-out for military science fiction. My favorite series is StarFIST, a series of novels authored by two Vietnam veterans. Generally the books take a historical combat situation and play it out in science fiction. The most recent one I was reading through (the second in the series, I haven't read them in release order because I started reading them as a teenager back when I got books from a second hand book store and thrift stores) was essentially Vietnam in space. The characters of StarFIST (FIST = Fleet Initial Strike Team, the main characters are infantry in company L of 34th FIST) are deployed to assist a planet that is part of the Confederation in their counter insurgency against an NLF (National Liberation Front) expy and are embedded with indig infantry and military police formations to conduct FID and manage patrols.

It's a good series and generally follows the same characters through multiple deployments in multiple theaters.

manwiththemachinegun

The Scarecrow series I can second as a Metal Gear esque "ultra secret squirrel" type espionage action series.

Reverend_Chaos

Theft of Fire by Michael Edelson

Lepton

If you're willing to go sci-fi, I recommend the Quadrail series by Timothy Zahn, starting with Night Train to Rigel

CroakerBC

Special Forces sci-if/supernatural? Myke Cole’s series of supernatural/magic shenanigans in the contemporary US. ‘Gemini Cell’ is probably the closest match to what you want. Has the benefit of being a) well written b) written by someone who was active duty, and has a strong commitment to accurate portrayal of the military action.

Maybe his ‘Control Point’ series, too.

John Matrix

I just finished listening to The Trident Deception by Rick Campbell - entertaining if you're a Tom Clancy fan. Involves lots of espionage, submarines, and against-the-clock action.