Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

SamusDrake wrote:
Halfway through Dragons of Winter Night. Lets just say that my nostagila for the ZX Spectrum game Heroes of the Lance is escaping faster than flatulence. It's still a page turner but I honestly don't remember much of it from my first read of the Chronicles many years ago.

My dvd copy of The Hunt For Red October keeps pausing at certain moments and so I thought I'd pick up a copy of the book. For some reason I found the whole cold war thing annoying years ago, but I really liked Firefox down and this feels like a good follow up after finishing that a few weeks ago. I shall report back once I get going with it...

I find the first chunk of Tom Clancy books to be absolutely compelling reads. the film of Red October is great, but the book just has space and time to delve into details that are great.

I'm still surprised that Red Storm Rising never got a film or mini-series, although I guess the battle scenes would be pricy to do justice to.

They kind of copied across the Backfire attack into one of the Ben Affleck Jack Ryan films

 Flinty wrote:

SamusDrake wrote:
Halfway through Dragons of Winter Night. Lets just say that my nostagila for the ZX Spectrum game Heroes of the Lance is escaping faster than flatulence. It's still a page turner but I honestly don't remember much of it from my first read of the Chronicles many years ago.

My dvd copy of The Hunt For Red October keeps pausing at certain moments and so I thought I'd pick up a copy of the book. For some reason I found the whole cold war thing annoying years ago, but I really liked Firefox down and this feels like a good follow up after finishing that a few weeks ago. I shall report back once I get going with it...

I find the first chunk of Tom Clancy books to be absolutely compelling reads. the film of Red October is great, but the book just has space and time to delve into details that are great.

I'm still surprised that Red Storm Rising never got a film or mini-series, although I guess the battle scenes would be pricy to do justice to.

I read a chunk of Clancy books back in the day, but the only ones I’ve bothered to re-read were The Hunt For Red October and Red Storm Rising.

There were a few other books at that stage of the Cold War in similar veins. Kind of real near future sci-fi. Cold War tech breakthrough/cutting edge stuff, little spy thriller mixed in, little bit military fiction. I’m trying to think of a few examples without digging though my bookshelf. Flight of the Intruder? Pretty sure there were others.

Back issues of Prototype and The Strangers in preparation for my latest customs.

I finished a cheap paperback from the Thrift Store called The First Horseman by John Case. It was written in the late 90's a deals a lot with cults and H1N1 viruses. Not great, but it is a finished book.

 Nevelon wrote:

 Flinty wrote:

SamusDrake wrote:
Halfway through Dragons of Winter Night. Lets just say that my nostagila for the ZX Spectrum game Heroes of the Lance is escaping faster than flatulence. It's still a page turner but I honestly don't remember much of it from my first read of the Chronicles many years ago.

My dvd copy of The Hunt For Red October keeps pausing at certain moments and so I thought I'd pick up a copy of the book. For some reason I found the whole cold war thing annoying years ago, but I really liked Firefox down and this feels like a good follow up after finishing that a few weeks ago. I shall report back once I get going with it...

I find the first chunk of Tom Clancy books to be absolutely compelling reads. the film of Red October is great, but the book just has space and time to delve into details that are great.

I'm still surprised that Red Storm Rising never got a film or mini-series, although I guess the battle scenes would be pricy to do justice to.

I read a chunk of Clancy books back in the day, but the only ones I’ve bothered to re-read were The Hunt For Red October and Red Storm Rising.

There were a few other books at that stage of the Cold War in similar veins. Kind of real near future sci-fi. Cold War tech breakthrough/cutting edge stuff, little spy thriller mixed in, little bit military fiction. I’m trying to think of a few examples without digging though my bookshelf. Flight of the Intruder? Pretty sure there were others.

Stephen Coonts “Jake Grafton” series; 10 books starting with the Flight of the Intruder. I’ve got all of the Jack Ryan books that were actually written by Tom Clancy. Bear and the Dragon is one of the others that I re-read, but Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising are a cut above most of the rest. Sum of All Fears is probably the next best.

 Nevelon wrote:

There were a few other books at that stage of the Cold War in similar veins. Kind of real near future sci-fi. Cold War tech breakthrough/cutting edge stuff, little spy thriller mixed in, little bit military fiction. I’m trying to think of a few examples without digging though my bookshelf. Flight of the Intruder? Pretty sure there were others.

The Bourne series of books were heavily into the Cold War era and vibe. The whole premise was that Jason was this sort of "man of clay" who could look like damn near anyone anywhere, with the specific mission to take out a fictionalized Carlos the Jackal.

I watched Jason Bourne with my son just last week. It was just interesting enough to make me want to read the books.

I have started re-reading Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time. This time around, I pledge to NOT skip over all the songs and poems.

Good man, for many an epic rap battle has been fought in The Prancing Pony.

Currently listening to LotR as an audiobook. Nearly at the end of the Two Towers.

Hmm….

Listening to the Bobiverse and The Gentleman Bastards series on Audible. Just finished “For We are Many” and en media res of “Red Seas Under Red Skies”, respectively. Finished “The Eye of the Bedlam Bride” in the DCC series, but pivoted to non-fiction for the now on the physical books front.

Loving the Bobiverse books and can’t wait to get to the next one, but that’s a series I’m listening to with my wife, so I can only get to it when we’re together on long drives mainly. A bit torn on book two of the Gentleman Bastards. Not quite as good as the first IMHO, but still enjoyable and definitely willing to see how it goes. Gotta admit I’mvnot feeling quite as much love for DCC at this point. It’s enjoyable enough, but I think I need to take a brief hiatus from the series. It’s just not sucking me into its world as much as I’d like a good series to do.

Have the next book in the Dresden Files (Twelve Months) and the newest Murderbot novella (Platform Decay) in the fiction queue.

On the non-fiction front, just finished Harold Sprout’s, “Toward a New Order of Sea Power”. Very interesting take on the impact of the Washington Naval Treaty written just months before the Pearl Harbor attack and a great companion to his “The Rise of American Naval Power”…

Next up in the non-fiction queue are David Stuart’s ”The Four Heavens: A New History of the Ancient Maya” and “EuroWarGames: The History, State, and Future of Professional and Public Wargaming in Europe”.

Valete,

JohnS

Been reading some of Manly P. Hall's stuff on and off. I can't reveal too much as I'm building a secret homebrew.