The Orion Team. discussion
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THE SEVENTH FLOOR
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WELCOME TO 2017. WHAT SPY THRILLERS ARE ON YOUR RADAR?
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Group member Joshua Hood puts one right between the reader's eyes with his second book. Badass characters, visceral action that can match the more freewheeling indie published thrillers bullet for bullet and a cast of badass professionals having a really bad day. It's also features a surprisingly sympathetic antagonist, a highly competent and genuinely terrifying Islamist terrorist and a well researched and chilling plot.
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A surprisingly competitive line up this year but ultimately, I realized that the first contender was the only contender. Amazon Indie Publishing tycoon Stephen England's third book is the sort of spy novel the world needs more of. Taking life imitating art to a whole new level, Stephen's book is a rare "epic" spy novel done right, focusing on today's world where extremism is in fashion and evil men are willing to wrap themselves in a cloak of self righteousness in order to achieve their dreams on top of mountains of corpses.
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After writing about a fictional conspiracy that would be mostly achievable in the real world, group member JT Patten took one of the most mocked, and parodied tropes in spy fiction and gave it back its teeth. Namely, the "world domination trope".
He did it by subverting many of its elements. There's no man stroking a Persian Cat in control of some kind of super weapon and hiding in a volcano. Instead, you have a group of clever men with a lot of guns, cash and killers who can buy, and sell the world at their leisure. But more importantly, the plan is already in motion when his book starts. No badass killer coming to wreck it, which creates the intriguing question of how Patten's traumitized hero Sean Havens can stop it............
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Another tough fight. But ultimately, it was a dark horse candidate who won out. Group member Andrew Warren has recently created a new spy thriller series focusing on a burned Special Activities Division officer by the name of Thomas Caine. Seemingly washed out, he begins to prove himself when his old masters at the Company drag him kicking and screaming back into the spy game. Channeling elements from the old masters of spy/action fiction, Caine is a most likable badass.
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Group member Joshua Hood does seem to be raking in the nominations. While there was a brief moment where the best bad guy nomination would slip out of Warning Order's grasp, ultimately, there was never any doubt.
Warning Order has two antagonists, one who I regret I can't focus on, despite him being hands down, the most morally ambiguous and sympathetic villain ever to grace 21st century military fiction.
So I'll focus on the second guy. His name is Al Qatar. By day, he's the last asset of US foreign intelligence operating in war ravaged Syria. By night, he's the terrifying operations director for Daesh. What sets him apart from his counterparts in the genre is that he's genuinely terrifying and competent. The man can back up his bark with his bite and for most of the story is several steps ahead of the main protagonist. Full of pure, homicidal rage, it's also unsettling when he breaks out his knife, has anyone unlucky enough to run into him strung up and even uses a Stalinist human resource management motivation technique to keep his underlings in line. And whats worse is that in spite of all of this, he's not a dumb brute. He comes up with a clever evil scheme that if successful would kill everyone in Iraq with one fell swoop, an evil scheme that can actually be done in real life.
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This one, we have a three way tie.
All these books I've picked because they're willing to bravely twist and distort the contemporary universe we live in in interesting and chilling ways, while at the same time remaining grounded in this world without seeming too outlandish.
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Some people will be surprised I picked this book. Reason why is because it manages to make "martini" spy fiction fun. It's like a love letter to all those classic tropes, but gives them an updated polish and veneer fit for 2016. So while its anti - hero is racing through Tokyo's neon lit streets in the sort of sports car the CIA accounting office would never sign off on, it also focuses on a relevant and timely geopolitical issue, along with a well thought out conspiracy surrounding it.
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Alright, I admit I'm cheating a little here. The hardcover version was published in 2015. But I read the paperback version in 2016 when it was released (UK INTERNATIONAL). Trigger Mortis is a textbook case that any author who is given the poisoned chalice of writing a continuation novel should read. It doesn't consume the original creator of the source material's vision, it has a plot that wouldn't look out of place among the original creators work, and it also attempts to differentiate itself and make its own mark.
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Group member Joshua Hood puts one right between the reader's eyes with his second book. Badass characters, visceral action that can mat..."
Honorable mention best military thriller.
Group member Peter Nealen wrote his first standalone military thriller this year. Kill Yuan is a ruthlessly edited, fast paced romp across the most geopolitically important body of water on earth. Highlights include the realistic use of jungle warfare and guerilla tactics and a highly detailed portrayal of China's PLA SOF, a group that will become increasingly important as the years go by.
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A surprisingly competitive line up this year but ultimately, I realized that the first contender was the only contender. Amazon Indie Pu..."
Runner up, best spy thriller.
Group member James Swallow recently decided to dive head on into espionage fiction after having spent years slaving away on the media - tie in novel business. His first novel, NOMAD is like the sequel to Three/Six Days Of The Condor that James Grady should have given us rather than the shoddily written Last Days Of The Condor that he did lump readers with. Packing all the paranoia that the 70's was famous for into a modern 21st century spy thriller, he also creates a excellent fictional unverse and cast of formidable characters that can equal their longer standing peers in other novels.
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After writing about a fictional conspiracy that would be mostly achievable in the real world, group member JT Patten took one o..."
Honorable mention Best Evil Scheme
Group member Kyle Mills in his second Mitch Rapp continuation novel sends the formidable government assassin to stop the biggest terrorist attack yet. A project sponsored by a pariah state to cover the Gawar Oil Field of Saudi Arabia in nuclear material. Mills explores the ramifications of such a scheme in great detail and clearly thought out its parameters very well indeed.
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Another tough fight. But ultimately, it was a dark horse candidate who won out. Group member Andrew Warren has recently created a n..."
Honorable mention Best fictional protagonist.
Group member Stephen England sends his man Harry Nicholas through the fire and shows us what he's made of. Hell bent on revenge, Nicholas proves that despite having Europe's best law enforcement agencies on his tale, he can still outwit, outgun and out pace those that come up against him.
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Group member Joshua Hood does seem to be raking in the nominations. While there was a brief moment where the best bad guy nomination would s..."
Honorable Mention Best fictional antagonist
Ladies, gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to a most dangerous man. His name is Marcus Cain, deputy director of the CIA. A highly experienced former case officer who made his name running the shadow war in Afghanistan against the Soviets, in 2007, someone from that past whom he would prefer to have remained dead emerges. A spymaster's spymaster, Cain is one of the most terrifying examples of a "stale beer" cold war type spymaster ever conceptualized. And having been brought into the 21st century and given the finest paramilitary units to be used at his disposal, there's no red line he will leave uncrossed and no enemy he will leave not killed, tortured or imprisoned in his blood splattered wake.
And as for Active Measures, you will love the bad guy introduced. His name is David Kazaroff. He's the agent provocateur to end all agent provocateurs. A consultant for Russia's GRU, he's been assigned to run a covert war to end all covert wars. Part Oliver North and part Anton Chigurh, Kazaroff is a charismatic monster who can talk a man to death. And he's only just getting started.
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This one, we have a three way tie. ..."
Honorable mention best fictional universe.
Group member Jeremy Duns returns to spy fiction with the fourth book in his sorely underrated Paul Dark saga. He beautifully recreates the 1970's Europe and Africa, the little nuances and important details. A particular highlight is the recreation of a certain diplomatic meeting on the stunning Victoria Falls bridge.
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Alright, I admit I'm cheating a little here. The hardcover version was published in 2015. But I read the paperback version in 2016..."
Honorable mention best continuation novel.
Like the actual nomination I'm cheating here. Book originally released 2015 but I read the paperback in 2016.
Mark's approach is different to Anthony's . He makes his own vision of the Jack Ryan universe dominant but at the same time, tries to keep all the elements and themes that Clancy loved to explore and use in his books intact, but also updates them for the 21st century. The result is a fast paced tour de force that in many ways is a love letter to what makes the Ryanverse great.
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The Sean McFate books. Written by another chap from 82 Airborne (like our own Joshua Hood). They're about a mercenary in the modern world.
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The seventh book in the Victor The Assassin series. The man finally has a mid - life crisis and at the wrong moment. With the CIA closing in and a lady friend needing his help to get every single armaments firm in North America off her back due to the hit they've put out on her.....
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Book 6 in the Courtland Gentry series.
Man takes on the SVR Zaslon unit and the MSS in a fight over a computer hacker on the lam in the Asia pacific.
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Brookes is a former BBC correspondent, who writes what is hands down the best spy thriller series focusing on Modern China today. And the plot synopsis for his third book goes like this:
In many ways, Pearl Tao was a typical American child. She spent summer days at the pool, played softball and lingered at suburban barbecues in her home city of Washington DC. Yet she is also an academic prodigy, with a university place sponsored by a secretive advanced technology corporation.
Only now, aged nineteen, has she begun to understand the terrifying truth of what her role is to be.
What her parents intend her to become.
Pearl's only hope of escape lies with two British spies: one, Trish Patterson, sidelined in disgrace; the other, former journalist Philip Mangan, gone rogue and following a trail of corruption.
Helping Pearl might be the most important and dangerous thing either will ever do.
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"Coming out this year. Group member Andrew Warren has finished the final edits.
Gotta say it's probably not gonna happen yet, but I'm hoping somebody will finish the late Tom Greer's (Dalton Fury) last manuscript. Also looking forward to Joshua Hood, C J Box, and Brad Taylor.
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I believe his wife commented on Brad Taylor's facebook page and said Major Greer had successfully completed the manuscript in spite of vomiting into a bucket repeatedly during treatment. A most formidable man I have to say.
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Also gonna be reviewing this book.
Thanks for the list Samuel. I don't feel I can say what are my 'best' novels for 2016 as I didn't read widely enough this year. But some great titles to check out when I can.
I know this is an older spy thriller (released 2014), but here is my review of Cold Blood by Alex Shaw if anyone is interested. Enjoyed this one mostly for its betrayal of the Eastern European situation post the collapse of the Soviet Union.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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I know this is an older spy thriller (released 2014), but here is my review of Cold Blood by Alex Shaw if anyone is interested. Enjoyed this one mostly for its bet..."
Great review Aiden. And I like how you point out spy fiction writers have a sometime bad habit of using the same set of gentrified settings a little too much. There's a whole wide world out there, and not every spy or government assassin spends their time in Paris or Rome. Which is one of the reasons why I loved The Benevolent Deception. A technothriller that takes place in Africa is somewhat rare and by using your experiences there, you managed to inject a lot of the local color into the narrative.
Thanks Samuel. You might be pleased to know I intend to set many more novels in that continent. And I plan to go back there one day.
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Another day, another review done. Best of all, I get to use a title I've been saving that perfectly fits the review and the subject of it.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Found this. By far the most creative title of a thriller novel in recent memory. Not like the current crop of titles Mark Greaney's publisher keeps saddling him with in his continuation novels.....
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Another item of interest.
Finished Eidolon. It's like the closest thing we would get to a James Bond that can exist in 2015/2017. He's a well dressed, drives a Bentley Continental GT (no gadgets however, but the 4WD proves useful when he needs to chase after the new SPECTRE number 1 through the English countryside) but he's a proper, blunt instrument. Just a cold hearted son of a gun who has an utter disregard for the lives of those who try to kill him.
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Another item of interest.
Finished Eidolon. It's like the closest thing we would get to a James Bond that can exist in..."
First comic VAGR is good, but I personally prefer EIDOLON.
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Another item of interest.
Finished Eidolon. It's like the closest thing we would get to a James Bond th..."
SPECTRE returns and its a truly lean and mean operation.
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Another item of interest.
Finished Eidolon. It's like the closest thing we would get to ..."
Plus, the new Number 1 is a badass. Can rip a person's head off with his gloved hands, and is a former SAS trooper who can go toe to toe with her majesty's blunt instrument.
Thanks for the nod and for creating such a great list. Indeed an excellent batch of recommendations, and a great year for thrillers in 2016.
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My pleasure man.
For your consideration I highly recommend the spy thrillers by Adam Brookes. I've got the two below on my smartphone app. As someone who used to be an intelligence professional, I'm sure you'll love the outstanding attention to detail and feast upon the moral ambiguity. Also, in the second book, members of the "Queen's Men" who you said will pop up in Presidential Retreat actually do make an appearance in the second book. SIS sends them down to Thailand to do a job.
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The first book is about a SIS asset who got sent up the river when the MSS detected him. One day, he does a jailbreak and enters Beijing, with the intention of finding a serving SIS asset who can get him in touch with Vauxhall Cross so he can bargain for his freedom. Unfortunately for him, the bargaining chip he's got is something the men who run China's intelligence community really do not want getting out of the country and thus, a manhunt ensures.
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The second book is about the director general of the PLA Second Directorate settling old scores. To do so, he drags the protagonist of the previous novel back into the spying game to be used as a pawn. This catches the attention of the SIS and one of their case officers who minutes after linking up with her top asset in Hong Kong, finds him murdered the the MSS on her tail. As the plotlines involving a player and a pawn come together, a terrible truth about two of modern China's most powerful men comes to the surface, threatening to bring to country to civil war.
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Mr Brookes takes the LeCarre approach. Elegant, morally ambiguous and punctuated with short, sharp bouts of blood splattered death as the exclamation point. But it's his deep look into Modern China that no other writer so far has been able to equal which is where he shines. He captures everything, the light, the dark, the maddening change and ambiguity, that sort of thing.
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But in the meantime, click the cover and search for my review. You'll love it. The only continuation novel in the series that brings Fleming's Bond back to life, and the only one that truly captures what made the books great.
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The Orion Team.
Books mentioned in this topic
Trigger Mortis (other topics)Red Phoenix (other topics)
Gunmetal Gray (other topics)
The Final Hour (other topics)
Shadow War (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Jeremy Duns (other topics)James Swallow (other topics)
Adam Brookes (other topics)
James Swallow (other topics)
James Swallow (other topics)
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And on a side note, what were the best spy/geopolitical thriller that you read in 2016? Best protagonist, antagonist, plot, most interesting threat are the categories to name a few.