The Orion Team. discussion

Happy New Year Group Members! We come into the new year with more fun spy/political/military thrillers set to be released. So, what books are on your "to read list"?

And on a side note, what were the best spy/geopolitical thriller that you read in 2014? Best protagonist, antagonist, storyline, most interesting threat are the categories to name a few.

I'll kick things off for the things that I enjoyed in 2014.



Best Antagonist for 2014. Prescott Drager. Competent and downright terrifying, Mr Drager helped dream up one of the most realistic fictional conspiracies I've seen in a long time. He's part of a dying breed in the post 9/11 espionage world, the classical spymaster who uses gambits and mind games to try screw with the protagonist. And what's more, he has a surprisingly sympathetic aspect to his story despite being a stone cold sociopath who is willing to make a mountain of corpses just to save his own skin.

Best threat for 2014. GPS failure. Brad Taylor is one of the hottest names in the military thriller genre currently. He proves it with a threat that threatens all of human civilization. GPS is in many things. Cars, planes, air-traffic control systems, guided munitions and is used in electronic financial transactions. So when it begins to fail, planes will not know where to go, air traffic control systems won't be able to help aircraft avoid any dangers, the smart bombs will not be smart and your domestic economy will stagnate with electronic transactions not knowing where to go.

Best storyline for 2014. LODESTONE novella. Stephen England writes "24" style works with the research of Tom Clancy behind them. This one is his best yet. Perfectly executed and paced, it takes place during a significant geopolitical event. From Hezbollah terrorists to IDF artillery shells, a joint Anglo-American op attempts to rescue one of the top Agency assets in the Levant without getting shot, blown into bite sized pieces or squished by hot lead.

Best Protagonist for 2014. Samak Banamyong. Okay, calling this guy a protagonist is a bit of a stretch. He's an antihero, pure and simple and even that can be debated. But he helps pull off a geopolitical coup for the ASEAN group and in the end gains control of the People's Republic Of China.

Samuel wrote: "I'll kick things off.



Best Antagonist for 2014. Prescott Drager. Competent and downright terrifying, Mr Drager helped dream up one of the most r..."




RUNNER UP: Russell Whitlock. This guy was fantastic and shows how far Mr Greaney has come as a writer. He's basically Mitch Rapp with the amusing/horrific insanity of Heath Ledger's Joker thrown in for good measure. Efficiently deconstructing Courtland Gentry and everything he stands for, Russell also puts up quite a decent fight in the climax.



HONORABLE MENTION: Nieve Andelton and Sinclair.
The best double act of 2014. One's a formidable South African private military contractor, the other is a devious SIS officer who is willing to tear up London to hunt down the person who could destroy her.

Samuel wrote: "

Best threat for 2014. GPS failure. Brad Taylor is one of the hottest names in the military thriller genre currently. He proves it with a threat that thre..."



RUNNER UP: Chinese Civil War.
One of the best geopolitical thrillers focusing on China. None of the "invade Taiwan" scenarios which has been done to death, instead this book focuses on a unique, plausible and terrifying scenario which anyone who thinks about regime change in China should look at. It efficiently explains the dangers and misery that would occur in China suffered another civil war. For starters, those nuclear weapons aren't going to look after themselves....

Samuel wrote: "

Best storyline for 2014. LODESTONE novella. Stephen England writes "24" style works with the research of Tom Clancy behind them. This one..."



RUNNER UP: TALISMAN short story
This was like an episode of "24" writ large. It begins with a simple plan on how to whack an Arab Prince who was indulging in some terrorist financing....and ends with an exciting infiltration and attack on a yacht off the coast of Monaco.

Samuel wrote: "

Best Protagonist for 2014. Samak Banamyong. Okay, calling this guy a protagonist is a bit of a stretch. He's an antihero, pure and simple and even that can be debat..."




RUNNER UP: VICTOR.
Yes, my favorite anti-hero missed the top spot. Nevertheless, he didn't do badly in this outing despite making one clear mistake that will haunt him in book 5. He gets to demonstrate that even when the firepower advantage is no longer his, he's still deadly with the Krav Maga moves he has at his disposal.

Apart from a certain 3 book backlog which I've been running from, here are the spy/military/geopolitical thrillers that I'm interested in for 2015

The first item I'm interested in because despite the research flaws and cliché's of the McGarvey series, I like his writing style and he does somewhat decent espionage pulp fiction. Also, it seems he's finally giving his characters decent kit. Heckler and Koch 416's and Glock 26 automatics are what everyone uses these days. not Steyr GB's.

The second item is because it has a very interesting plot for a geopolitical thriller. What if the US Navy pacific fleet was turned into slag? How would it be done? And what would the one country that would benefit do with this opportunity?

BLACKOUT/THE DARKEST DAY TOM WOOD VICTOR THE ASSASSIN.

First item. The main character is a goddamned legend. Putting him into Post 9/11 2015 shall be interesting to watch.

Second Item. A spy thriller set in China based around a manhunt for two SIS assets. It also delves into how the world's most sophisticated autocratic state maintains its edge. A prime example is the more than seven million security cameras in Beijing alone, each wired up to facial recognition software.

Third Item. Book 4 in the Victor series was fun but left me with a little anti-climax. Book 5's teaser seems to rectify this. It's set in the same place my favorite TV action drama is set and revolves around 12 hours where New York is turned off through someone sabotaging the utilities...

I plan to read only female authors in 2015 (don't judge, we all mostly read male authors, you know...). I'm open for suggestions! I'm working on my 2015 reading list now.

Favorite female author read in 2014 in the thriller genre: Christine Kling. These two: https://www.goodreads.com/series/1411...

I particularly enjoyed Jack July's Amy Lynn, as well. Jack hit several familiar themes in my life in that book that made it extra special to me (the setting is near where I grew up, I was a swimmer, etc.).
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

As usual, the husband and I listened to many many hours of unabridged Clancy novels (Audible is our friend!) whilst driving across the country (to visit family or doctors periodically). Lou Diamond Phillips is the best narrator of Clancy novels, for sure. Is it too weird that we have a favorite narrator?

Amelia wrote: "I plan to read only female authors in 2015 (don't judge, we all mostly read male authors, you know...). I'm open for suggestions! I'm working on my 2015 reading list now.

Favorite female author r..."
Amelia,
Jamie Freveletti, Gayle Lynds, Alexa Hunt, Catherine Coulter, Alex Kava, Patricia Cornwell, and Janet Evanovich are my favs.

I like the Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg collaboration series starring Fox and O'Hare. IMO the best thief & cop pair seen for some time.

I would go with Samuel to say my fav protagonist was Victor the assassin and the pair of Nieve and Sinclair. I have not read the others put down by Samuel so they will be on my to read list this year.

Some of you may be interested in reading my newly published thriller, TWISTED REASONS. The book is reviewed on Goodreads (avg rating 4.57)Twisted Reasons . Would love additional reviews, views from the group.

To answer the original question, not much is yet on my radar. The vast numbers of authors I like I will pick up anything new as a matter of course. But what I look forward to are the new discoveries and the new authors that I can add to my list of favourites.

Hey, Samuel--good to see you here.

Sometime in 2015, I have got to set aside the time to read Adam Brookes' Night Heron: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Some of my contacts in the intelligence community have been raving about the book's authenticity--which is incredible given that these people are usually pretty cynical when it comes to the thriller genre.

Stephen wrote: "Hey, Samuel--good to see you here.

Sometime in 2015, I have got to set aside the time to read Adam Brookes' Night Heron: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Some of my contac..."

Hello Stephen! Welcome to the group :)
This is a very pleasant surprise.

Now that I know even your sources are impressed with "Night Heron", it's shooting up to the top section of my reading list.

Another one on my reading list. One of the top authors in the military thriller genre has his protagonists go after the big one, a terrorist group which has in the span of several months, rapidly become the most infamous, reviled and loathed bunch of Islamic Extremists on the planet. Daesh. In this story, Daesh decides to go global in a big way and only the off the books counter-terrorist unit "Taskforce" stands between them and the possible death of hundreds.

Good to see you too--I've not been active on Goodreads really ever. Intending to change that.

Taylor is nothing short of a machine--I intend to get caught up one of these days, but he just keeps pumping them out.

Stephen wrote: "Good to see you too--I've not been active on Goodreads really ever. Intending to change that.

Taylor is nothing short of a machine--I intend to get caught up one of these days, but he just keeps p..."

He's simply fantastic. The first one was decent enough but after that, the quality took off like a rocket. Book 5 is my personal favorite.

Ian wrote: "I'm woefully behind on my thriller reading. I'm really wanting to catch up on the Dewey Andreas series by Ben Coes and I haven't even started reading Brad Taylor yet.

I suppose my 2015 top read i..."

The Dewey Andreas series is one of life's guilty pleasures. Mr Coes throws realism to the wind but for sheer pace, enjoyment and fun factor, he has no equal.

Mr Greaney's "Back Blast" looks very promising. Courtland Gentry has walked into the lion's den. It shall be interesting to see how he blasts his way out again.

My first thriller this year was Stella Rimington's At Risk. It was pretty awesome. I love finding a new author with multiple books I can look forward to enjoying.

Yep, I'm quite excited about Back Blast too.......

Amy Lynn, Golden Angel, should be out in a couple of months.

Jack wrote: "Amy Lynn, Golden Angel, should be out in a couple of months."


WOOHOO!

Hi everyone,

I'm a new group member and author of a new book in the genre. I grew up reading Tom Clancy and Nelson Demille. I graduated from the US Naval Academy in 2003 and flew helicopters in the Navy for 10 years. I got off active duty in 2013 and recently just published The War Planners . I'm working on the sequel now and would love to hear what people in this group think of it. I look forward to participating in group discussions in the future. Thanks! Andrew

Andrew wrote: "Hi everyone,

I'm a new group member and author of a new book in the genre. I grew up reading Tom Clancy and Nelson Demille. I graduated from the US Naval Academy in 2003 and flew helicopters in ..."

Hi Andrew, I was an Aviation Electronics Tech in the Navy. F-14's. I would love to give it a read. If you have an opportunity you can check out my book, Amy Lynn. It's the foundation book for a franchise, (I hope).

Thanks Jack! I'll check it out.

Samuel, thank you a ton for the invite to the group. I have to first ask, is the title Orion Group a homage to the invincible Vince Flynn's Orion Team? Just curious. I've read literally every author of the genre and have the library to prove it haha. I collect these books. I'd say the book I'm looking forward to the MOST is Stephen England's Embrace the Fire. This is the best series out there and arguably the only one that stands with Vince Flynn. Twelve Days by Alex Berenson was a great read as was No Fortunate Son by Taylor. Code of Conduct from Thor should be good but I feel like his last few novels have slipped from the level of his earlier ones. Matthew Dunn is a heckuva an author and his next one is highly anticipated. Stephen Templin's Tridents First Gleaming was a home run and if you haven't read his previous two book series Seal Team 6 Outcasts I highly reccommend them. But above all Mr. England's third novel installment is sure to be the best of the year and the author is a stand up guy and a great human being.
Again I thank you for the invite and I look forward to getting started on Goodreads.

Tyler wrote: "Samuel, thank you a ton for the invite to the group. I have to first ask, is the title Orion Group a homage to the invincible Vince Flynn's Orion Team? Just curious. I've read literally every autho..."

Hello Tyler, welcome to the group, I hope you will enjoy it here :) You are correct, the name is a tribute/nod to the CIA counter-terrorist project Mitch Rapp is part of.

Tyler wrote: "Samuel, thank you a ton for the invite to the group. I have to first ask, is the title Orion Group a homage to the invincible Vince Flynn's Orion Team? Just curious. I've read literally every autho..."

Stephen's work is simply astounding in its quality. I wasn't sure when "Embrace The Fire" was being released but if it is 2015, it goes on my reading list. Of all things, his novella, LODESTONE is the best spy thriller I read in 2014.

I seem to have acquired a taste for American paperbacks (it's the size, which I consider perfect. UK/international ones are just a bit too big)
Here's the cover art to the spy thriller I'm anticipating the most this year. A deadly waltz between two professional killers across Manhattan....during a catastrophic power failure...over the span of 12 hours....while a terrorist conspiracy is activated,
intending to take advantage of the blackout and target the city of New York.

(Strangely, the US art has come first. Normally it's the UK/International cover which is revealed before the American version.)

England will release it this fall. Tentatively. Before that I can't wait to read Independence Day from Ben Coes and Insider Threat by Taylor. Do you have any recommendations of series I have yet to hear of or read? Basically all of the more popular authors I've got. I need to add all of em on here still. I reccommend to you Brett Battles Jonathan Quinn, Cameron's Jericho Quinn and definitely Stephen Templin books.

Recommendations? Well, there's this series. I checked your book list and see that you've read books 2 and 3. Here's books 1, 4 and 5 featuring the awesome but amoral professional killer turned deniable CIA asset Victor.




The first book. One of the best establishing moments for a proper anti-hero. Caught between the CIA, SVR and a insane SIS officer who does murder for hire as a side business, the world's top contract killer attempts to survive the three way game of chess across Europe for a pretty important USB drive. (It's also being made into a film, the author has completed a deal with the guys who made the first TAKEN film)



The fourth book. On a particularly slow month, Victor receives a text message asking if he could do some close protection work for someone from his past. With nothing better to do, he flies down to London and falls into the gun sights of an intelligence officer and a hit-squad she has flown in.



The fifth book set to be released this year. When doing some counter-terrorist work, Victor gets rudely interrupted by another assassin. Being the proactive sort, he decides to track her down and kill her before she can kill him. Going to New York, he sets up a kill zone and at the wrong moment, Manhattan suffers a critical blackout. So for 12 hours, Victor is forced to salvage his plans and find out who turned off New York and what they wish to gain from doing so.

Tyler wrote: "England will release it this fall. Tentatively. Before that I can't wait to read Independence Day from Ben Coes and Insider Threat by Taylor. Do you have any recommendations of series I have yet to..."

Before "The Activity" comic book, there was "Queen and Country", the series which proved that comics didn't have to all be about superheroes. It focuses on the small but incredibly competent paramilitary department of the UK SIS, and their main shooter, Tara Chace, who is like a British Mitch Rapp but a lot more sardonic and psychologically damaged. Out of this comic came a trilogy of well researched spy thriller novels which cover the close of Chace's career in the field and the possible beginnings as the operations director of the SIS.

Tyler wrote: "England will release it this fall. Tentatively. Before that I can't wait to read Independence Day from Ben Coes and Insider Threat by Taylor. Do you have any recommendations of series I have yet to..."







My final recommendation. A spy thriller series about an organization which is basically a well intentioned, morally ambiguous version of the real life Intelligence Support Activity. The main character Daniel Petrovich is an operator in the "Black Flagged" program, run by the brilliant , devious General Terence Sanderson. The first book establishes the series. The three that come after are part of an arc involving a rare, morbidly fascinating but downright horrific biological weapon and the fight between terrorists, the American government and Russia's SVR to acquires/reacquire it.

Thank you sir! I look forward to getting these. I may not read the female protagonist ones. Not that I'm a sexist, I'm not at all, I just prefer the more realistic. Like Thor's Athena Club, they just don't do anything for me. What were your thoughts on the Nathan Mcbride series? I've only read a couple but can't seem to 'fall into' it like others.

Tyler wrote: "Thank you sir! I look forward to getting these. I may not read the female protagonist ones. Not that I'm a sexist, I'm not at all, I just prefer the more realistic. Like Thor's Athena Club, they ju..."

I only read two. The first I consider average, the second, I found slightly more interesting due to how the main character is forced to confront the reemergence of an enemy who psychologically destroyed him in the past, and how the protagonist tries to keep it together while hunting said antagonist. However, that being said, I've found other, more interesting spy thrillers out there so the series isn't high on my reading list.

These three books have a few things in common. They revolve around stolen nuclear weapons, and they have the same deployment method, namely via putting the nuke onto a boat and sailing it into a major city. However, there are also many differences, twists and all three books target different American cities.

Joshua's Hammer has Osama Bin Laden, in one of his first fiction appearances decide to ship a nuclear device to San Fransisco on the eve of a international sporting event which is being attended by the American President's daughter.

Memorial Day needs no introduction. Mitch Rapp goes up against a Bin Laden stand-in who in a complex gambit tries to pull off a one-two punch using nuclear bombs. Flynn also produced his best climax in this book.

The one at the top, Independence Day, is the most recent, and it shall be released this year. It's about the Russian Federation and how it decides to conveniently lose one of its nuclear weapons to Al Quaeda and then work to literally kill off any efforts at investigating the plot.

(unrelated note: See the Memorial Day cover art? It's one of the reasons why the current group banner image was chosen)

Thanks Samuel. I've read the entire Mitch Rapp series twice and am on Protect and Defend for the third time. I'm reading the series yet again, along with others, before Survivor comes out in October. It's the best series ever written in my opinion. Same said with England's Shadow Warrior Series. I ordered the whole set of Black Flagged and am finishing up the Victor series by Tom Hinschelwood. I appreciate the recs. have u already read Independence Day by Coes? My fav solo book is Coup D'état and I can't wait to May 27 when this one comes out. Check out www.spyguysandgals.com. Amazing website!

Tyler wrote: "Thanks Samuel. I've read the entire Mitch Rapp series twice and am on Protect and Defend for the third time. I'm reading the series yet again, along with others, before Survivor comes out in Octobe..."

Haven't read Independence Day yet but when the paperback version arrives, I might check it out. Eye For An Eye is my personal favorite of Mr Coes' work for sheer fun and the massive bodycount. And the website you linked is fantastic. It manages to cover all my favorite characters the series they feature in.

One of the books I'm currently started again now that my backlog has cleared. It's a technothriller, one which tries to do for UAV'S, what Clancy did for submarines in the Hunt For Red October.

It's revolves around the adventures of a very unique Private Military Corporation. Led by a former Special Activities Division Officer, their focus is on developing UAV's for various applications ranging from environmental cleanup to the targeted killing of threats to America's national security. Sure, they have shooters, but the main focus is on using innovative drones to reduce human casualties. And these aren't the kind which just blasts everything to kingdom come with a hellfire missile, they're a lot more....precise.

The events of the book concern a conspiracy in which a Mexican Drug Cartel, manipulated by a IRGC officer, roll into Texas and kill dozens of people in a mass shooting. One of the victims happens to the the son of the President Of The United States. Seeing the usual avenues of getting justice done shutting, she turns to the protagonists for help. I'm up to the part now where they're doing their own version of the baptism massacre from "The Godfather". Only this time, the weapon's they're using are a lot more ingenious than your usual automatic weapon.

I think I'm going to start on Brad Thor. I've never read one so it should be fun.

Jack, enjoy my friend. I started with Blowback and two days later finished and bought the entire series in hardcover. They're worth it. Not as good as Vince Flynn but he's up there!

Minor confession. I don't consider myself a fan of Brad Thor. Main reason is his writing style, I've seen much better in other authors like Brad Taylor for instance.

But I admire how he persisted over a decade (like his friend and fellow counter-terrorist thriller author Vince Flynn) to get where he is. In my opinion, he's gotten better as a writer with every installment in the Harvath series. And also, since I've read them all, he must be doing something right. Especially since the subjects he's covered as the Harvath series has progressed have gotten more interesting. Out of all the books he's written, I have four favorites.


Introduces Thor's best antagonists and was the book where I actually began to care about Scott Harvath, mainly due to the main bad guy's incredibly selfish motivations in having Harvath targeted.


The concept of this book is fascinating. A large scale terrorist attack in which Manhattan is cut off for several hours. Who would do such a thing and for what reason? On a side note, the super hero film, the Dark Knight rises appeared to have taken a few notes from this book.



Managed to predict the NSA "surveillance disclosures". Scott Harvath is up against a technology firm which has co-opted the best ELNIT tracking capability in the world and wants him dead, as they (correctly) believe he's the only man in the world who can stop their grandiose plans at turning off the USA, literally.



Released in 2014, this is the second book in which Harvath has gone up against a nation state (the first being STATE OF THE UNION). Chinese military intelligence decides it's time to activate their unrestricted warfare project targeting the USA. A interesting look into how even more wretched life has become in the DPRK and how targeting the things we take for granted can prove catastrophic are among the many highlights in this spy thriller.

Samuel wrote: "Minor confession. I don't consider myself a fan of Brad Thor. Main reason is his writing style, I've seen much better in other authors like Brad Taylor for instance. It's a subjective matter and ot..."

Thank You, I was kind of wondering where to start. I wasn't sure if he wrote with linearity or not.

Jack wrote: "Samuel wrote: "Minor confession. I don't consider myself a fan of Brad Thor. Main reason is his writing style, I've seen much better in other authors like Brad Taylor for instance. It's a subjecti..."

Here's the list. Best to read from the beginning as there's small but definite character arc where Harvath becomes more mature and less arrogant in every book. Although that only starts to kick in at "The First Commandment".
https://www.goodreads.com/series/4044...