# Reccomend me long literary action/thriller novels **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 12, 2014, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605 "2014-06-12T04:58:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/21 "2014-06-13T23:36:56Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > You said “literary” and “action” well … how much more literary can you get than ["The Stress of Her Regard"](http://www.amazon.com/The-Stress-Her-Regard-Powers/dp/1892391791)by Tim Powers? Lord Byron and Shelley vs. vampires, but vampires that are like NOTHING you have seen in other stories on the topic, and Powers does his usual superlative job of researching the characters and the times and bringing them to life. This sounded interesting so I checked the public library - nothing by this guy, at all. The CPL kills me sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/22 "2014-06-13T23:42:51Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > You said “literary” and “action” well … how much more literary can you get than ["The Stress of Her Regard"](http://www.amazon.com/The-Stress-Her-Regard-Powers/dp/1892391791)by Tim Powers? Lord Byron and Shelley vs. vampires, but vampires that are like NOTHING you have seen in other stories on the topic, and Powers does his usual superlative job of researching the characters and the times and bringing them to life. First, I always appreciate it when someone provides a link, so thanks. Second, I’ve read this, and it’s a weird, wonderful book. I’m also a fan of his [Declare](http://www.amazon.com/Declare-A-Novel-Tim-Powers/dp/0062221388). ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/23 "2014-06-13T23:48:23Z")
> [@Damfino](#): > > A longish literary action thriller novel might be John le Carre’s \* The Little Drummer Girl \* Taken as a whole, the Smiley stuff definitely counts as a long and literary thriller. Umberto Eco’s _The Name of the Rose_ is worth a look for you, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/24 "2014-06-13T23:51:25Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I’ve never read any Ken Follett, so I don’t know whether any of his novels (a) fit the criteria the OP is looking for, and (b) are any good. Ugh. No - at least not his historical fiction ones. I really didn’t like… Hang on… WHAT? > [@robert\_columbia](#): > > If you’re looking for long-ass SF, some of L. Ron Hubbard’s works might do. Not the most literary works in the world, but could be pretty fun if you want starships and blasters and more starships. E.g. [Battlefield Earth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlefield_Earth_%28novel%29). NO! NOOOO!! NOOOOOOOOO!!! Please for the love of all that is good and right in the world, DO NOT READ THAT SERIES!! It is the literary equivalent of The Human Centipede. Not the movie “The Human Centipede”, but the actual, literal human centipede. If you extended it out to fourteen thousand people, and took what came out of person #14,000, and smeared it onto a wad of poor unsuspecting paper, I’d much rather cuddle up with that than a single paragraph of Mission Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/25 "2014-06-13T23:57:40Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Ugh. No - at least not his historical fiction ones. I really didn’t like… Hang on… WHAT? > > NO! NOOOO!! NOOOOOOOOO!!! > > Please for the love of all that is good and right in the world, DO NOT READ THAT SERIES!! It is the literary equivalent of The Human Centipede. Not the movie “The Human Centipede”, but the actual, literal human centipede. If you extended it out to fourteen thousand people, and took what came out of person #14,000, and smeared it onto a wad of poor unsuspecting paper, I’d much rather cuddle up with that than a single paragraph of Mission Earth. I liked the first half of Pillars of the Earth. The second half just turned into melodramatic, soap opera claptrap. Who’d have guessed Medieval men and women could be so thoroughly enlightened and modern. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/26 "2014-06-14T00:03:26Z")
> [@Damfino](#): > > A longish literary action thriller novel might be John le Carre’s \* The Little Drummer Girl \* Ooh, good one. John Le Carre writes excellent literary thrillers, as long as you’re okay with the fact that when you finish the last chapter you’re going to crawl under your bed and whimper for like two days before you can face the world again. > [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > The Count of Monte Cristo might be Original Gangsta adventure fiction, so much so that it’s now considered literature by some, but it doesn’t have Lord Frickin’ Byron and Percy Frickin’ Bysshe Shelly as its protagonists, now, does it? All it’s got is some no-account English count! Y’know, I love me some Tim Powers, so it pains me to hear you set him against Dumas. It’s like, Muhammad Ali is a great fighter, until you compare him to a velociraptor. **Declare** isn’t 600 pages long, but it’s far and away my favorite work by Powers. The last quarter of the book was among the most exciting things I’ve ever read. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/27 "2014-06-14T01:02:34Z")
I loved [Quincunx](http://www.amazon.com/Quincunx-Charles-Palliser-ebook/dp/B00IBZ5ZL0/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1402707717&sr=8-4&keywords=palliser) by Charles Palliser. Long, literary, and very suspenseful. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/28 "2014-06-14T14:47:41Z")
I thought **Les Miserables** was a page-turner and it certainly was long. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/29 "2014-06-14T15:05:18Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Ooh, good one. John Le Carre writes excellent literary thrillers, as long as you’re okay with the fact that when you finish the last chapter you’re going to crawl under your bed and whimper for like two days before you can face the world again. > Y’know, I love me some Tim Powers, so it pains me to hear you set him against Dumas. It’s like, Muhammad Ali is a great fighter, until you compare him to a velociraptor. > > **Declare** isn’t 600 pages long, but it’s far and away my favorite work by Powers. The last quarter of the book was among the most exciting things I’ve ever read. “Declare” is my favorite work by Powers, too. And while it’s not 600 pages long, it’s plenty long enough, and it’s kind of dense in the sense that there’s a lot to it. It’s Powers’ masterwork IMHO. The reason I nominated “Stress” and not "Declare’ is that “Declare” does not strike me as all that “literary” in tone … it’s got a Cold War spy thriller edge with supernatural overtones … what literary qualities it has are purely the quality of the writing, which is topnotch by any standard. As for the Dumas/Powers comparison … come on, not a serious comparison. It’s like I’m saying that “Count” would have been better if Dumas had made Shakespeare the protagonist. Hmmmmm … ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/30 "2014-06-14T20:00:25Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > I’m also a fan of his [Declare](http://www.amazon.com/Declare-A-Novel-Tim-Powers/dp/0062221388). > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > **Declare** isn’t 600 pages long, but it’s far and away my favorite work by Powers. The last quarter of the book was among the most exciting things I’ve ever read. > [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > “Declare” is my favorite work by Powers, too. And while it’s not 600 pages long, it’s plenty long enough, and it’s kind of dense in the sense that there’s a lot to it. It’s Powers’ masterwork IMHO. The reason I nominated “Stress” and not "Declare’ is that “Declare” does not strike me as all that “literary” in tone … it’s got a Cold War spy thriller edge with supernatural overtones … what literary qualities it has are purely the quality of the writing, which is topnotch by any standard. > > As for the Dumas/Powers comparison … come on, not a serious comparison. It’s like I’m saying that “Count” would have been better if Dumas had made Shakespeare the protagonist. > > Hmmmmm … I’m hoping the OP is spotting the trend here… ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/31 "2014-06-14T22:57:41Z")
Another classic suspense novel is **An American Tragedy** ; just don’t expect it to be all smiles and rainbows. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/32 "2014-06-15T01:40:00Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > As for the Dumas/Powers comparison … come on, not a serious comparison. It’s like I’m saying that “Count” would have been better if Dumas had made Shakespeare the protagonist. Sorry, I got whooshed (I was telling my wife derisively about the comparison earlier today, when I was suddenly all, “Hey, waitaminnit…”) Edit: That said, I just looked up **Declare** , and realized I was remembering the wrong book. Not only is it not my favorite, it’s probably my least favorite Powers book, for reasons I don’t entirely remember right now. **Last Call** was his work that I adored so much. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/33 "2014-06-15T02:08:07Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > The Count of Monte Cristo might be Original Gangsta adventure fiction, so much so that it’s now considered literature by some, but it doesn’t have Lord Frickin’ Byron and Percy Frickin’ Bysshe Shelly as its protagonists, now, does it? All it’s got is some no-account English count! His countship was Italian and his nationality French. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/34 "2014-06-15T02:33:03Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Sorry, I got whooshed (I was telling my wife derisively about the comparison earlier today, when I was suddenly all, “Hey, waitaminnit…”) > > Edit: That said, I just looked up **Declare** , and realized I was remembering the wrong book. Not only is it not my favorite, it’s probably my least favorite Powers book, for reasons I don’t entirely remember right now. **Last Call** was his work that I adored so much. Tease. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/35 "2014-06-15T02:47:09Z")
Stephen King’s _The Stand_. The unexpurgated version. One of my favorite books. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/36 "2014-06-15T02:49:24Z")
You want sprawling? I highly recommend the [Masters of Rome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_Rome) series by Maureen McCullough, best known as the author of _The Thorn Birds_, which I haven’t read. But her seven Rome novels, of around a thousand pages each, cover the century of ancient Rome that gave us Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, and Augustus Caesar, along with non-Romans like Mithridates, Vercingetorix, Herod, Jugurtha, and Cleopatra. Lots of wars, lots of political intrigue, and lots of mostly accurate history. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/37 "2014-06-15T03:18:00Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > His countship was Italian and his nationality French. Details, details! ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/38 "2014-06-15T03:57:45Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Umberto Eco’s _The Name of the Rose_ is worth a look for you, I think. Speaking of Eco, what about Foucault’s Pendulum? I recommend reading it through, even if you feel confused at times, and then if you require a second reading, taking your time. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/39 "2014-06-15T04:25:53Z")
The work of [Iain Pears](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9833.Iain_Pears) may interest you. Both _An Instance of the Fingerpost_ and _Stone’s Fall_ are long, involving stories cleverly told. Similarly _The Dream of Scipio_ covers 3 historical periods but is not as long. His Jonathan Argyll series are of more conventional length. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605/40 "2014-06-15T14:53:30Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Gary Jennings’s _Aztec_ is a big, sprawling historical novel set against the last days of the Aztec empire, just before and during the Spanish _conquistadores_’ arrival. Lots of sex, human sacrifice, adventure, diplomacy, sex, court intrigue, war, sex, family drama, exploration and - oh, yeah - sex. I’ll second that and toss in Jenning’s _The Journeyer_ as well. Marco Polo’s journey, and **Elendil’s Heir’s** description above pretty well covers this one as well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-me-long-literary-action-thriller-novels/690605.md?page=3)