Robert Ludlums "The Janson Directive"

It is great on the descriptions in the operative sector of Assassination and Infiltration objectives, using Flashbacks of the Main Character Paul Janson to the War in Vietnam, good characterisation, high theoretical knowledge and a well done conspiracy spanning over more than twenty years.

Summary: Paul Janson, an retired Agent and Killer for the US Government, faces the challenge to break out the Billionaire and well-known Peace Activist Peter Novak from his imprisonment of an islamistic terror group. But as the mission ended, something goes wrong and this results in the death of Paul Jansons team and Peter Novak. Janson is assured that there was a traitor somewhere.
While searching he watches the news, only to find that Peter Novak has given an interview AFTER Janson has seen him die.
But as he tries to put together the pieces of the puzzle that is before him, he finds himself being targeted by the US Government and their teams trying to kill him.
And the longer he searches, the more he finds out about an conspiracy starting over twenty years ago that could very well destroy the whole world order.

 

I thought I'd add a caveat to the Wheel of Time series- IMO it's a great read, although it got me into a bad habit of skimming long paragraphs because they never contained anything of interest anyway. However, the author has been diagnosed with...some rare blood disease I've never heard of, so he actually isn't writing the final book right now, and is instead, uh, doing all the things he wanted to do before he dies, etc. So that book is a long time coming, if it ever does.

I would also recommend Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, though really the earlier books were significantly better than the new ones. From "faith of the fallen" (sixth book) onward, you have to deal with Goodkind reiterating his philosophical and political views over and over again. He has also quite transparently borrowed some ideas from Robert Jordan.

I second the Discworld crowd. I'm a total Pratchett fangirl, although the earlier ones aren't as funny. When you get to the ones visibly parodying something (Masquerade, Interesting Times, Wyrd Sisters) they're absolutely great, and I recommend all...um...yeah, forty sounds about right.

 

I dont know where you got your info man but RJ hasn't stopped writting the series... read his blog. It's just going slow because he's sick but the treatment he's getting is apparently going good.

 

The Military books (Kilo Class,Nimitz Class, HMS Unseen, USS Seawolf, Hunter Killer, among others) by Patrick Robinson mainly deal with terrorist plots, Submarine Warfare, SEALS and decent characterizations. They are a much easier read then Tom Clancy's novels, as much as i like his work, i find these books more like Brain Candy.

In the way of TV-
JAG for modern Navy/Marine Corps Slang and terminology.
Band of Brothers- WW2 Paratroopers

Without really knowing what your after that's just stuff off the top of my head.

 

If you don't mind sci-fi or know of Babylon 5 then try the Dilgar War; http://forum.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=87220

He's pretty much taken a footnote in B5 history and expanded upon it into a 820k word monster, which is still growing.
Basic premise is that the race of Dilgar's sun is about to go nova in 15 years. Them having war and aggression as part of their race don't consider diplomacy and instead for 10 years shift everything in their society towards preparing for a war of conquest.
As far as warstories go this is superb. The OC cast is enormous, several hundreds strong. The narration follows a few characters more than others but in it's entirety he writes about both sides, from the ruling body down to the grunts that die in the wars all with their quirks and moods.
Considering the amount of quality he's written you can't really summarise or make a list of it's good points. And considering he has the backup of his nice big forum with making his story better much like certain people here..

It's up on fanfiction.net otherwise but only 40 chapters or so.

 

If you're looking for good military or spy novels you should try reading Alistair MacLean... "Where Eagles Dare" " Fear is the Key" "The Guns of Navarone" and so on...

 

Tom Clancy, specifically the Ryan series of books.

Patriot games is alright
Clear and Present Danger is AWESOME
Debt of Honor is incredible
Executive Orders is THE SHIT
I'm reading Bear and the Dragon.
Teeth of the Tiger is great too for it's use of a privatley funded intelligence organization.

 

Ken Follett's Eye of the Needle is awesome. Its set during WWII and is about a German spy trying to get pictures of the FUSAG (First US Army Group, the fictitious army created by the allies as part of a plan to misdirect the Germans) back to Germany.

 

Good Omens-by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gamain

Yep its a fantastic book! Love that type of thing!

I also like The Edge Chronicles, as a kid i used to love these!

 

The Word/Void series by Terry Brooks.

 

Assassini by Thomas Gifford. This was the one book that got me hooked with Political Thrillers.

It has the best characterisations I´ve ever read, outstanding even the ones written in the novels of Stephen King or other authors of this format.

 

It's a close call between Lolita and Atlas Shrugged. Wildly different, the two of them, and intensely engaging and extremely intelligent.

 

For favorite book I'm gunna go with Stephan King's "IT" I read it for the first time when I was 12 on a twenty-one hour flight from Italy to Canada, after the first 4 chapters i wasn't able to sleep for the rest of the flight. Great book, truly scary, movie sucked.

For favorite author I'm definatly going with John Ringo, I'm a big fan of his and have about 9/10ths of his novels; READ THE PALADIN OF SHADOWS SERIES!

 

I've read a lot of good books. If forced to narrow my favorite down to one I'll go with a fantasy series nobody has mentioned yet.

The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. Not a single book, but a trilogy. Best and most enjoyable characterizations I've ever read. Includes Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, and Assassin's Quest.

For non-fiction I'd go with Cosmos by Carl Sagan. If you want to learn a bit about the universe pick up this book. I enjoyed it so much I took half of my forum name after it.

 

1984. The torture scene --> transformation of Wiston (and his lover... I forget her name ) made me rather ill for the rest of the day. I was a little young when I read it, so it really effected me.

 

American Gods.

Neil Gaiman = Instant Win.

 

Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.

Because it was absolutely hilarious (I'm a communist).

 

Ok, so I started listening to the Bourne series on audiobook, and they are way better than the movies. I'll check out a lot this other stuff when I hit up my used bookstore again.

 

Better then the movies yeah but Book1 fricking half of it is french speech, and it really really drags

 

I'd strongly recommend the John Rain series by Barry Eisler.

The main character is a former CIA operative turned freelance assassin. Plenty of cloak and dagger, not much military. The writing and characterization are both excellent. Plot is strong as well. What makes the series especially interesting is that the author, Barry Eisler, has in fact himself held a covert position within the CIA.

I've listed the books in the series below in order.

Rain Fall
Hard Rain
Rain Storm
Killing Rain
The Last Assassin
Requiem For an Assassin