Favorite Books

Fiction

Tom Clancy: The all-time grand master of the political-thriller / military genre. No one equals him for accurate portrayals of how inter-angency Washington and the upper level military works, and for being able to identify and even predict trends in global intrigue. I love his detailed descriptions of how things work, and I share his fascination with the Navy and of submarines, in particular. Alot of us are pretty upset with him nowadays though beause he allowed Hollywood to change his terrorist threat in the movie version of Sum of All Fears to become a politically-correct but absurd Neo-Nazi threat. 

His first books are very Cold War-driven but hardly obsolete. Clancy has a way of creating memorable characters who - through their sense of duty and commitment to excellence - are worthy of our respect and emulation. Clancy books are of three distinct subdivisions:

I. Current Events Fiction: These books are the archetypes of the genre to which all others are flattered just to be compared. I have read them all (although he seems to have started to slip with his more recent undertakings like Bear and the Dragon), but my favorites are:

• Red Storm Rising

• The Hunt for Red October

• Patriot Games

• The Cardinal of the Kremlin

• Without Remorse

• Debt of Honor

• The Sum of All Fears

II.Reference: He has also written several non-fiction books about

• Life on a Nuclear Submarine

• Inside a Fighter Wing

• Inside the Special Forces

III.Books Co-written with others, but "inspired by Clancy concepts," that he has allowed to use his name: These are    not very good. I have started several and not been able to get through them.

• Ex: The Ops Center Series

W.E.B. Griffin: Rougher around the edges than Clancy, Griffin is a former Army tank commander who took to writing several different series of books on the military and law enforcement communities. I started reading his Brotherhood of War series when I was in Basic Training and devoured the whole series of seven books without coming up for air. The Brotherhood of War follows the careers of several Army officers from their initial training prior to WWII, through that war, and through their entire careers beyond general officer rank. Along the way, Griffin passes them through WWII, the creation of Special Forces, the Air Cavalry, Korea, and Vietnam, giving us a very comprehensive picture of the development of the modern Army.

• The Brotherhood of War Series

  • The Lieutenants

  • The Captains

  • The Majors

  • The New Breed

  • The Colonels

  • The Aviators

  • The Generals

• The Corps Series: Does a similary great job for the Marine Corps, although I have only read the first three

• Griffin also wrote the Badge of Honor series about law enforcement. I'm sure they are as well done as his military fiction books but I have not read any of them.

LTC Oliver North: Has co-written a couple of fiction books about the War on Terror that I liked a lot.