# Patrick Robinson is out of his mind, but he's so bad he's good

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patrick-robinson-is-out-of-his-mind-but-hes-so-bad-hes-good/940718>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** books-writing-myths\
**Created:** [April 24, 2021, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patrick-robinson-is-out-of-his-mind-but-hes-so-bad-hes-good/940718 "2021-04-24T23:44:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patrick-robinson-is-out-of-his-mind-but-hes-so-bad-hes-good/940718/1 "2021-04-24T23:44:48Z")

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Robinson is a wanna-be Clancy, but his books are utterly nonsensical. Nevertheless, I love them anyway, if for no reason other than to turn the pages wondering how much worse it can get (and they _are_ entertaining.)

Some examples of his style:

- A special forces leader lectures his men about the virtues of eating dark whole wheat bread vs. empty-nutrition white bread;
- A terrorist travels all the way to rural America to see a woman (an old flame) whom he still loves and is willing to let himself get arrested by;
- A military submarine captain bellows “Mercury is in retrograde!” at his crew since he bases his decisions off of astrology;
- Taiwan runs a secret nuclear-weapons program in a remote island in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica;
- The United States attacks and sinks Russian Kilo-class submarines simply because they were being sent en route for delivery to China (the buyer);
- Terrorists hijack a submarine and start firing cruise missiles at the U.S. Eastern Seaboard
- An enemy nuclear-tipped torpedo blows up an American aircraft carrier, but the U.S. government tries to pass it off as “errr…a nuke stored inside one of our carriers accidentally went off.”

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patrick-robinson-is-out-of-his-mind-but-hes-so-bad-hes-good/940718/2 "2021-04-25T01:16:09Z")

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It’s useless hacks like this guy that always gave me hope I could make serious money in that genre too if I ever tried. Dan Brown being Exhibit 1 in that.

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**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patrick-robinson-is-out-of-his-mind-but-hes-so-bad-hes-good/940718/3 "2021-04-25T01:35:21Z")

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> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> It’s useless hacks like this guy that always gave me hope I could make serious money in that genre too if I ever tried. Dan Brown being Exhibit 1 in that.

Not too late for you to start wading in the water. Worth a try…

Speaking of Browns…you ever check out the USAF version of Dan Brown…_Dale_ Brown?

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patrick-robinson-is-out-of-his-mind-but-hes-so-bad-hes-good/940718/4 "2021-04-25T12:49:28Z")

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Oops. Yeah, _Dale_ Brown is the crappy writer of B-52 garbage MilFic I meant. _Dan_ Brown is the more famous writer of … other … garbage.

Thank you.