If I like Michael Crichton and Dan Brown’s novels (that is fast-paced thrilllers with lot’s of (mostly) true technical and/or historical content) what other authors might I enjoy? Or feel free to simply recommend an individual book to me. I enjoyed Timeline, Angels & Demons, and The Da Vinci Code, if that helps.
And please only turn this thread into a thread about why the aformentioned authors are horrible/fantastic unless you also recommend an author or book to me!
Thanks in advance.
(BTW, the search function is currently down, so I apologize if I’ve missed a similiar thread)
I wasn’t impressed with Crichton but thats just me. I havent read Dan Brown and this is probly totally OFF topic but its Saturday morning so deal with it! evil laugh
I dont read a lot of fiction these days so here goes:
Antonia Fraser is a hell of a good writer about women’s history.
Michael Novacek is one of the best paleontologists around and writes a killer book on dinosaur evolution.
Vern Bulloughs stuff is mostly out of print but if you want the scoop on sex and sexuality he gives it … and without a lot of techno babble!
I quite enjoyed Ross King’s book on Filippo Brunelleschi: "Bruneelleschi’s Dome.
Okay I have wasted enough of your time and probly pissed you off as well!
Ken Follet does an amazing job with historical fiction, I’d start with “Eye of the Needle,” but basically all of his novels are awesome, a lot of WWII related ones but many others as well.
Tom Clancy writes more contempory thrillers that still have a lot of detail, either “Patriot Games,” for a fun, thrilling read with not too much details or “The Sum of All Fears,” for a very detailed, very historical thriller to start.
I just discovered Frederick Forsyth’s “The Day of the Jackal” which is a very well done thriller that reads like it could be based totally on fact.
Wilbur Smith writes some realistic “piratey” fiction, such as “Birds of Prey” and “Monsoon” (I liked the 2nd better) as well as more modern African based ones like “Eye of the Tiger,” one of my favorites.
Hope that helps!!
Thanks, guys. I’m heading off to the library right now. Keep them coming!
I don’t know if you’d enjoy these books but I know I did:
Redwall–Brian Jacques–an EXCELLENT fantasy fiction writer whom I am positively addicted to.
The Sword Of Truth–Terry Goodkind–again,sci-fi/fantasy and a series (there are 5 in the series so far) that is well-written.
Cat Fantastic–collection(various)–a collection of some of the most amazing short fiction/sci-fi/fantasy stories written by some well known authors like Mercedes Lackey, et al. I found a copy of this at a used bookstore, took it home and have loved it.
IDBB
Yup. “The Fourth Protocol” is the same.
If you like Sci-Fi, I was heavy into Lois McMaster-Bujold once.
Even if you “hate” lawyers, as many people are fond of saying they do, you may like John Grisham’s novels of lawyers and courtrooms. The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Chamber and, I think, a couple of others have been made into movies, but the books are better. I just finished The Summons and I’m almost finished with The Runaway Jury. Great reading.
If you like heavier stuff with more detail, try anything by James Clavell. His books are huge, but absorbing. Shogun was a couple thousand pages as I recall, in two volumes, but I had to force myself to put it down so I could get some sleep!
I like thrillers as well, but what makes a good thriller for me is historical perspective. In that vain anything by Colleen McCullough, especially the “First Man in Rome” series about the Roman Empire. Also well done is “The Lion of Ireland”, a fictionalized bio about Brian Boru, the man who in the 8th century united Ireland. I just finished reading “The Song of Troy”, a modern rendition of the Trojan War, and enjoyed it greatly. All have lots of action and portray the historical characters and events as accurately as possible.
For modern thrillers, Robert Ludlum writes very good ones; my personal favorite was recently made into a bad movie, i.e. The Bourne Identity. It is about a man that wakes up on a small island in the Med and does not know who he is, just that every time he turns around someone is trying to kill him. It was made into a great mini-series back in the late 80’s but the movie lost much of the appeal of the story. I also enjoyed most of his other books, including the follow on books in the Jason Bourne line, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.
I also enjoyed the Earth’s Children’s series by Jean Auel. Those books, starting with “The Clan of the Cave Bear”, tell the story of Ayla, a Stone Age human female that is raised by Neanderthals. The history is as accurate as possible and is a very good adventure story.
Jaws, by Peter Benchley, was OK if you like horror/thriller type books.