Action/Adventure Aficionados discussion

Hi,

What are some of the best Forsyth novels?

Are most of them pretty fast paced and decent for a plane/holiday read?

Note: I have already read The Day of the Jackal years ago

The Dogs of War is probably my favorite. It's not as long as The Day of the Jackal & better, IMO. I reviewed it here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Dogs Of War and The Devils Alternative.

The first has Forsyth's best ending,
while the second involves what could be considered the 'perfect' terrorist attack.

As for pacing. No, they aren't fast paced. This is old school work made by one of thriller writing's elder statesmen. None of the spills you get in a Brad Thor/"24" type story.

His books are more thoughtful, devoid of self righteous chest thumping and dispassionately showing the world as it is, namely a ruthless, cruel place where the weak get crushed and only the cunning and powerful live to prosper.

And if you want character development, you've come to the wrong place. Forsyth's work isn't about that sort of thing, never was and in some respects, considering all his books are stand alone novels, it works in their favor. It's the meticulous details and plots which are the true stars.

Some bloke in the airport said Forsyth's books are very similar to the genius that is Clive Cussler

I think he may have been misinformed

Vaelin wrote: "Some bloke in the airport said Forsyth's books are very similar to the genius that is Clive Cussler

I think he may have been misinformed"

Considerably! Cussler is more of literary Indiana Jones. He writes modernized pulp fiction/action adventure novels of the kind that were popular back in the 1930's.

Forsyth, a former journalist and asset of the British secret service uses real world issues as his inspiration. For example, his final work of fiction, "The Kill List" focused on decentralized terrorist sympathizers for example like the ones ISIL use.

Thanks Sammy!

So what are some good books for a long haul flight that you would recommend?? Ones that will keep me captivated for the duration

We'll start with these three. They focus around the life of a nice man who kills people for large sums of money. Think of him as the decedent of "Forsyth's Jackal", albeit a successor with a lot more tricks up his sleeve. The plots are brilliant, the writing cinematic, the pace like that of a eurofighter typhoon and the technical aspects are just as good as Forsyths.










A three act saga around the retirement of Britain's only female government assassin. The original strong female thriller character, Tara Chace is as adept at seducing men as she is in ventilating their heads with her Walther P99. None of the more right wing bellicosity in these books. Dark, morally ambiguous and sometimes gut-wrenching. They're also very well researched, the plotting is spectacular and the character interaction is some of the best in spy fiction.

Final suggestion. We'll call this my 'fire and forget' option, something I read recently but didn't like. The plotting's confused, the character interaction seems to consist of shouting, swearing and trash talk and it borders on self parody compared to the previous books. It's only redeeming feature are the action scenes and high body count that comes along with them. In short, it's the perfect airport novel, read and forget.

I ve only read "the Kill List" , the idea of the book was great, there are a lot of information, but I really didn't like the book because Forsyth didn't talk about the feelings and psychology of the characters. So you only see people you don t know and you don t relate to doing staff, like if you re watching a documentary, maybe it's because he s a journalist, I m sure that many like this kind of books, but I need to know the characters more.

A complaint, I totally understand, it's one of the most common criticisms of Forsyth's work among critics and on goodreads.

A reviewer recently posed a hypothesis on why this is so. He said that due to Forsyth's background as a journalist, the many was not used to in depth characterization.

In his old line of work, his job was not to describe the thoughts and feelings of the people he wrote about in the news. His job was to be succinct and report events. This, for better or worse, carried over to his successful career as a writer.

Samuel wrote: "We'll start with these three. They focus around the life of a nice man who kills people for large sums of money. Think of him as the decedent of "Forsyth's Jackal", albeit a successor with a lot mo..."

Thanks for the recommendations brah, just a quick one. The Tom Wood books sound alot like The Gray Man series by Mark Greaney...is this true??

I really enjoyed the first gray man book, you read any others brah?

Vaelin wrote: "Samuel wrote: "We'll start with these three. They focus around the life of a nice man who kills people for large sums of money. Think of him as the decedent of "Forsyth's Jackal", albeit a successo..."

NOPE! Comparing Courtland Gentry and Victor is like comparing an assault rifle with a ASW50 anti material sniper's rifle ;))
They are both killer but different in many ways, the first being that Victor is the superior killer.

Firstly, Victor possesses none of The Gray Man's moral qualms and self righteousness. Whether you're a man or a woman, if you get in his way or you happen to be a target, you die. period. To give an example, there was a villainous woman who thought trying the 'femme fatale' approach would save her arse from Victor. She was wrong. He silenced her. In short, he's far more efficient than the Gray Man and makes fewer mistakes in comparison.

Secondly, Victor is more of a Gray Man than the actual Gray Man. For starters, Victor isn't his real name. The man's had a lot of plastic surgery, can fit in on three continents, speaks multiple languages and possesses a library of cover identities for his work. He also loves to lie about who he really is. Some reviewers complain that this stagnates character development. I don't. It allows the reader to make up theories about who the hell "Victor" actually is. I know I have (Thought he was a Canadian in book 1 but I've narrowed it down to Central Eastern Europe). Vic is less of a man and more of a force of nature, a literal harbinger of death that knows no national boundary.

Thirdly, unlike Gentry, Victor's current patron is one of the most powerful men in the US intelligence community. Vic acts as an asset to the man, allowing the individual the capability to kill someone when he can't access normal Agency resources. Their relationship is formalized in book 1. Which you need to read first.

Fourthly, Personality wise, Victor and Courtland are diametrically opposed. Vic is polite, professional and has a plan to kill everyone he meets. He has only two ultimate priorities. One, keeping himself alive. Two, ensuring he gets a large paycheck. Three, making sure his clients do not betray him. Violate one of these three aspects and Victor will find fix and finish you.
Furthermore, being a man without a country, Victor does not have any self righteous chest thumping that other contemporary spy fiction characters indulge in. He's coldly logical to a fault. For starters he has no illusions about falling in love and retiring. Vic has accepted that he will die in his profession and is content with the fact.

Courtland on the other hand is a foul mouthed idealist who doesn't have much faith in planning. He might be concerned about survival but his fatal flaw is that he's can't help but do the right thing, even if he gets screwed over, shot and abused in the process. The universe seems to want to squash him like a bug. However, even if the CIA wishes to destroy him, he's still a patriot , and dreams of retirement, a delusion that Victor lacks.

So you can see, these two killers are nothing alike.

Vaelin wrote: "Samuel wrote: "We'll start with these three. They focus around the life of a nice man who kills people for large sums of money. Think of him as the decedent of "Forsyth's Jackal", albeit a successo..."

I have read the Gray Man books. I was indifferent to the first one, absolutely hated the second, liked the third, loved the fourth and found the fifth bloody brilliant. Mark's a decent writer who has managed to hone his technique well with time and experience.

Vaelin wrote: "Samuel wrote: "We'll start with these three. They focus around the life of a nice man who kills people for large sums of money. Think of him as the decedent of "Forsyth's Jackal", albeit a successo..."

Hope I've been able to help!

I read the first Gray Man book & really liked it until the last quarter or so. It just got ridiculous. I didn't think it was worth reading more in the series. Are the later ones more realistic? Well, at least not so stupid?

Jim wrote: "I read the first Gray Man book & really liked it until the last quarter or so. It just got ridiculous. I didn't think it was worth reading more in the series. Are the later ones more realistic? Wel..."

Book 2 I dislike the most. Worse than book 1. Badly planned subplots and many annoying contrivances. Only great thing is a CIA special activities division team that gets to show their stuff in the central set piece of the novel.

Book 3 is a solid read which is a massive improvement from book 1 and 2 but judging from your comment about realism, I think you will loathe the ending with a passion.

Book 4 is my personal favorite and the ending is down to earth. (No large set pieces. Just two guys with Glock 19 pistols trying to shoot, punch and drown each other to death on the edge of a frozen over Belgian duck pond)

Book 5 is large scale fun and games. But it is well planned/structured large scale fun and games, miles away from the mindless storm the castle climax of book 1. It is also the culmination of Gentry's 'on the run story arc' and pretty important if you decide to read book 6 that comes out next year.

Thanks, Samuel. If I get a chance, I might pick up book 4. I'm reading The Fraternity Of The Stone by David Morrell now. Morrell does a good job of keeping things real. His characters are highly trained & warped (especially this guy, Drew) but they don't go all comic book hero.

Samuel wrote: "A complaint, I totally understand, it's one of the most common criticisms of Forsyth's work among critics and on goodreads.

A reviewer recently posed a hypothesis on why this is so. He said that ..."

He is a columnist for the Daily Express at the moment.