Tom Clancy series book recommendations

[Swansea]

There have been a number of authors since Tom Clancy passed away. I enjoyed the books he wrote and would like to continue the genre.
Any recommendations on the books written by any recent author (s) of the series will be appreciated.

[iamlucky13]

There have been a number of authors since Tom Clancy passed away. I enjoyed the books he wrote and would like to continue the genre.
Any recommendations on the books written by any recent author (s) of the series will be appreciated.

I'm not sure any of the ghost-written Clancy series were good enough to be worth comparing. It's been too long to recall the details, but I remember feeling like Op Center and Net Force came out of a different universe. They seemed more like CSI than Clancy.

Instead, you might give another author a try. Larry Bond was another good Cold War author, and in fact, they collaborated on Red Storm Rising. Bond was an actual naval strategist and helped Clancy develop realistic scenarios based on his experience helping the Navy plan for them in real life. Then he went on to write Red Phoenix, which gave a similar treatment to a hypothetical Korean conflict.

Nelson DeMille was also contemporaneous. I've only read The Charm School, but found while his technical knowledge wasn't nearly as extensive or accurate as Clancy's, he definitely was able to create more compelling intrigue. I intend to read more of his work. I'd compare it most closely to The Cardinal of Kremlin

Wandering a little further out in the extent of the techno-thriller genre, if you haven't read any of Michael Crichton's more popular books (Jurassic Park, Congo, Sphere, Prey), I think they should appeal to the same sort of reader. I certainly enjoyed them.

An in-law who knows I liked Tom Clancy's work has several times recommended Clive Cussler to me. I haven't had a chance to try his work, though.

Also, Blind Man's Bluff is a non-fiction book about real submarine operations that anyone who enjoyed The Hunt for Red October should consider reading.

[iamlucky13]

Almost forgot - Ludlum's Bourne series are on my reading list, too. I've seen the movies, and based on my usual reaction to movies derived from books, and comments from those who have read the books, I'm pretty sure I need to read these.

[NoblesvilleIN]

iamlucky13,

Thank you for your recommendations. I also greatly liked Tom Clancy and was disappointed by the ghost writers that capitalized off of his name. I will try a couple of your suggestions. I'll also second your recommendation for the Robert Ludlum books. I have read most of his books and enjoyed them.

[tenkuky]

I am partial to Frederick Forsyth, and his more recent offerings are decent (Avenger, Cobra, Afghan, Kill List, Fox).
Nothing compared to Day of the Jackal, Odessa File, Devil's Alternative and Fist of God though.

[Clever_Username]

I am partial to Frederick Forsyth, and his more recent offerings are decent (Avenger, Cobra, Afghan, Kill List, Fox).
Nothing compared to Day of the Jackal, Odessa File, Devil's Alternative and Fist of God though.

Oh wow, Day of the Jackal ... that brings back good memories. I was in tenth grade and read it and doing so caused me to want to read more books like it. I eventually found my way to the Tom Clancy novels from there.

[Chip]

Mark Greaney co-wrote a couple of the Clancy books. I liked his Gray Man series. Be sure to read them in order.

[triggertreat]

David Hagberg - Brad Thor - Dale Brown - Steven Coonts - Clive Cussler

[MDfan]

One of my favorite spy/thriller books of all time is by Allan Folsom. It really was one of those where I couldn't put it down once I started reading.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Th ... frontcover

[deserat]

WSJ listed some favorite spy/thrillers that had been written and then a lot of readers chimed in through comments. I copied a list I found interesting - it is below. I also read a recommended book by Fitzroy Maclean called "Eastern Approaches." He wrote it in the 1940s after WWII and it detailed his experiences as a diplomat and SAS military man in Paris; Moscow, Russia; the Caucuses; the north African desert; and, Yugoslavia before and during WWII. It was an amazing book: exciting, historical and very well written.

WSJ readers’ favorite spy novels
• Eric Ambler’s “A Coffin for Dimitrios”—recommended by George Kistler, John Wetzler
• Eric Ambler’s “The Intercom Conspiracy” —Jan R. Reber (“maestros engaged in a simple scheme of deception that is not simple at all”)
• Noel Behn’s “The Kremlin Letter”—Mary Needham (“Long out of print, it is brilliant!”)
• William Boyd’s “Restless”—Donna Ticchi (“My favorite spy novel”)
• William F. Buckley Jr.’s “Saving the Queen” —Bill Meehan (“the first of 11 novels featuring the CIA’s Blackford Oakes”)
• Jack Carr’s “The Terminal List” and “True Believer” —Gabriel Diaz (“they really need to be read together”)
• Tom Clancy’s “The Hunt for Red October” —Joby Gray, A.C. Venzon
• Karen Cleveland’s “Need to Know” —Robert Schwed (“the story is, perhaps, one of the best fictional examples of ‘the long game’”)
• Charles Cumming’s “The Trinity Six” —Dave Dettloff
• Charles Cumming’s “Typhoon” —John Wetzler (“terrific”)
• Len Deighton’s “Berlin Game” and his Bernard Samson series —Bill Rule, Constance Thompson and others
• Nelson DeMille’s “The Charm School” —April Mattikow
• Ian Fleming’s “Dr. No” —Frank Hughes
• Vince Flynn’s “American Assassin,” “Protect and Defend” and other Mitch Rapp books —Dana McCreesh, Matt Scott and others
• Ken Follett’s “Eye of the Needle” —Len Caronia
• Frederick Forsyth’s “The Day of the Jackal” —Alan Erickson
• Alan Furst’s “A Hero of France” —Carl Shurley
• Graham Greene’s “Our Man in Havana” —Chris Lingwall
• Robert Harris’s “Enigma” —Seth Hirschfeld
• Robert Harris’s “An Officer and a Spy” —Eric Jorde
• Terry Hayes’s “I Am Pilgrim” —Lawrence Eskew, Lillian Pittroff, Martha Rome (“extraordinary!”) and others
• George Howe’s “Call It Treason” —Robert Hugins
• David Ignatius’s “Body of Lies” —David Nichols
• Joseph Kanon’s “Leaving Berlin” —Marlowe Charmaine
• John le Carré’s “The Night Manager” —Carol Ann Theuer
• John le Carré’s “Smiley’s People” —Bill Burpitt, Stephen Meyers, Leslie Sherman
• John le Carré’s “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” —Rosalie Brosilow, Terry Gawryk, David Kelsay, George Kistler
• John le Carré’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” —Phyllis Demko, David Kelsay, Carl Shurley, Ellen Verwiebe, Chris Vilfordi
• Robert Littell’s “The Company: A Novel of the CIA” —Chris Blake (“Fantastic”)
• Robert Littell’s “The Defection of A.J. Lewinter” —Jan R. Reber (“articulates the essence of what the CIA’s James Angleton called ‘the wilderness of mirrors’ ”)
• Robert Ludlum’s “The Bourne Identity” —Richard A. Barnhill, Karen Durham
• Jason Matthews’s “Red Sparrow” and the “Red Sparrow” trilogy —Mark Fisher
• W. Somerset Maugham’s “Ashenden” —David Nichols
• Charles McCarry’s “The Tears of Autumn” —Steven Jager, Marshall Peterson
• David Morrell’s “The Brotherhood of the Rose” —Sean Cameron (“my favorite spy novel of all time”)
• David Morrell’s “The League of Night and Fog” —Paul Fauber
• Patrick O’Brian’s “The Fortune of War” —Charles Long (“I love the character Stephen Maturin, although I admit I was conflicted to root for him against the French-American Alliance”)
• Baroness Orczy’s “The Scarlet Pimpernel” —Eric Jorde, Deborah Kronenfeld (“And note the follow-up series written by modern-day author Lauren Willig”)
• Joel C. Rosenberg’s “The Jerusalem Assassin” —Jeremy Compton
• Daniel Silva’s “The Kill Artist,” “The New Girl” and the rest of the Gabriel Allon series —Richard A. Barnhill, Grant Bledsoe, Patrick Downs, Gerald Flecknell, Joe Harris, Rikki Klieman (“start at the beginning”), Barbara Kruppa, Brian Merrick, Matthew Swendiman
• Brad Thor’s “Backlash” —Gabriel Diaz, Mark Gilbertson, John Hohneker
• Brad Thor’s “Code of Conduct” —Jeff Culbertson (“should be read by everyone”), Jacqueline Maier
• Brad Thor’s “The Lions of Lucerne”—Mark Oglesby
• Brad Thor’s “Spymaster”—John Hohneker, Daniel Jahnke
Milo Weaver series starting with "The Tourist "by Olin Steinhauer
I believe Charles McCarry is the finest American espionage novel author, starting with "The Miernik Dossier" and all the books that include Paul Christopher. I am re-re-reading "Shelley's Heart," one of the best inside-Washington novels ever, whether you are conservative or liberal or moderate or non-aligned.
"The Red Fox" by Anthony Hyde is a terrific thriller. The rare novel that comes together on the very last word of the book.
David Ignatius Agents of Innocence
The Slough House series by Mick Herron is terrific. Wickedly smart and funny and yet sober. Set in the MI5 and MI6 London world.
Oliver Bleeck. All of Thomas' novels are great spy/caper stories. Well worth the time.

That list should keep you all busy reading for awhile

[rebenzer]

Since we are branching to other authors, I would like to add CS Forester to the mix. I am in agreement with you all about the early Clancy books(Hunt for Red October is probably my all time favorite), but for good exciting historical fiction, the Hornblower series can't be beat. I know, I just dated myself. The Good Shepherd also by Forester is a good read about the convoy wars of WW2.

[Swansea]

Thanks to you all for the recommendations. I used to be able to go to the library and browse, then pick up something that looked promising. But the library has been closed since March due to the virus. They just this week have now arranged for no contact pick up of books.

[beernutz]

Barry Eisner's John Rain series is not at the level of Clancy but I find them more plausible and well-written than most. Rain is an assassin not a spy but you can't have everything.

If you are looking for a long running series that will take you a while to read and is consistently high quality then Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series is my go to recommendation. Again not in the same genre as Clancy's novels.

That is about the same level of recommendation enthusiasm I'd give to Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitor series as both are consistently good with only rare exceptions. I also just reread David Benioff's City of Thieves and man, what a terrific book.

FWIW, my favorite fiction author is and forever will be Raymond Chandler.

[heartwood]

WSJ listed some favorite spy/thrillers that had been written and then a lot of readers chimed in through comments. I copied a list I found interesting - it is below. I also read a recommended book by Fitzroy Maclean called "Eastern Approaches." He wrote it in the 1940s after WWII and it detailed his experiences as a diplomat and SAS military man in Paris; Moscow, Russia; the Caucuses; the north African desert; and, Yugoslavia before and during WWII. It was an amazing book: exciting, historical and very well written.

WSJ readers’ favorite spy novels
• Eric Ambler’s “A Coffin for Dimitrios”—recommended by George Kistler, John Wetzler
• Eric Ambler’s “The Intercom Conspiracy” —Jan R. Reber (“maestros engaged in a simple scheme of deception that is not simple at all”)
• Noel Behn’s “The Kremlin Letter”—Mary Needham (“Long out of print, it is brilliant!”)
• William Boyd’s “Restless”—Donna Ticchi (“My favorite spy novel”)
• William F. Buckley Jr.’s “Saving the Queen” —Bill Meehan (“the first of 11 novels featuring the CIA’s Blackford Oakes”)
• Jack Carr’s “The Terminal List” and “True Believer” —Gabriel Diaz (“they really need to be read together”)
• Tom Clancy’s “The Hunt for Red October” —Joby Gray, A.C. Venzon
• Karen Cleveland’s “Need to Know” —Robert Schwed (“the story is, perhaps, one of the best fictional examples of ‘the long game’”)
• Charles Cumming’s “The Trinity Six” —Dave Dettloff
• Charles Cumming’s “Typhoon” —John Wetzler (“terrific”)
• Len Deighton’s “Berlin Game” and his Bernard Samson series —Bill Rule, Constance Thompson and others
• Nelson DeMille’s “The Charm School” —April Mattikow
• Ian Fleming’s “Dr. No” —Frank Hughes
• Vince Flynn’s “American Assassin,” “Protect and Defend” and other Mitch Rapp books —Dana McCreesh, Matt Scott and others
• Ken Follett’s “Eye of the Needle” —Len Caronia
• Frederick Forsyth’s “The Day of the Jackal” —Alan Erickson
• Alan Furst’s “A Hero of France” —Carl Shurley
• Graham Greene’s “Our Man in Havana” —Chris Lingwall
• Robert Harris’s “Enigma” —Seth Hirschfeld
• Robert Harris’s “An Officer and a Spy” —Eric Jorde
• Terry Hayes’s “I Am Pilgrim” —Lawrence Eskew, Lillian Pittroff, Martha Rome (“extraordinary!”) and others
• George Howe’s “Call It Treason” —Robert Hugins
• David Ignatius’s “Body of Lies” —David Nichols
• Joseph Kanon’s “Leaving Berlin” —Marlowe Charmaine
• John le Carré’s “The Night Manager” —Carol Ann Theuer
• John le Carré’s “Smiley’s People” —Bill Burpitt, Stephen Meyers, Leslie Sherman
• John le Carré’s “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” —Rosalie Brosilow, Terry Gawryk, David Kelsay, George Kistler
• John le Carré’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” —Phyllis Demko, David Kelsay, Carl Shurley, Ellen Verwiebe, Chris Vilfordi
• Robert Littell’s “The Company: A Novel of the CIA” —Chris Blake (“Fantastic”)
• Robert Littell’s “The Defection of A.J. Lewinter” —Jan R. Reber (“articulates the essence of what the CIA’s James Angleton called ‘the wilderness of mirrors’ ”)
• Robert Ludlum’s “The Bourne Identity” —Richard A. Barnhill, Karen Durham
• Jason Matthews’s “Red Sparrow” and the “Red Sparrow” trilogy —Mark Fisher
• W. Somerset Maugham’s “Ashenden” —David Nichols
• Charles McCarry’s “The Tears of Autumn” —Steven Jager, Marshall Peterson
• David Morrell’s “The Brotherhood of the Rose” —Sean Cameron (“my favorite spy novel of all time”)
• David Morrell’s “The League of Night and Fog” —Paul Fauber
• Patrick O’Brian’s “The Fortune of War” —Charles Long (“I love the character Stephen Maturin, although I admit I was conflicted to root for him against the French-American Alliance”)
• Baroness Orczy’s “The Scarlet Pimpernel” —Eric Jorde, Deborah Kronenfeld (“And note the follow-up series written by modern-day author Lauren Willig”)
• Joel C. Rosenberg’s “The Jerusalem Assassin” —Jeremy Compton
• Daniel Silva’s “The Kill Artist,” “The New Girl” and the rest of the Gabriel Allon series —Richard A. Barnhill, Grant Bledsoe, Patrick Downs, Gerald Flecknell, Joe Harris, Rikki Klieman (“start at the beginning”), Barbara Kruppa, Brian Merrick, Matthew Swendiman
• Brad Thor’s “Backlash” —Gabriel Diaz, Mark Gilbertson, John Hohneker
• Brad Thor’s “Code of Conduct” —Jeff Culbertson (“should be read by everyone”), Jacqueline Maier
• Brad Thor’s “The Lions of Lucerne”—Mark Oglesby
• Brad Thor’s “Spymaster”—John Hohneker, Daniel Jahnke
Milo Weaver series starting with "The Tourist "by Olin Steinhauer
I believe Charles McCarry is the finest American espionage novel author, starting with "The Miernik Dossier" and all the books that include Paul Christopher. I am re-re-reading "Shelley's Heart," one of the best inside-Washington novels ever, whether you are conservative or liberal or moderate or non-aligned.
"The Red Fox" by Anthony Hyde is a terrific thriller. The rare novel that comes together on the very last word of the book.
David Ignatius Agents of Innocence
The Slough House series by Mick Herron is terrific. Wickedly smart and funny and yet sober. Set in the MI5 and MI6 London world.
Oliver Bleeck. All of Thomas' novels are great spy/caper stories. Well worth the time.

That list should keep you all busy reading for awhile

Thank you! The WSJ published a similar list of Subscribers' favorite historical books last weekend. The intro mentioned the spy novels list and a mysteries list. They gave no links or dates. I wrote the page moderator asking for the lists but haven't heard back. You don't happen to have the mysteries list?
Thanks again for the spy novels list.

update: Found them by googling WSJ subscriber mystery list or spy list.

[Barsoom]

Vince Flynn. Just like Clancy. He died too young, prostate cancer.

-B

[tm3]

Great thread! I'm always looking for new authors and I see many new ones here to check out.

As far as the OP question, I read a couple of the ghost writer books and gave up -- they were awful.

Clancy was one of my favorite authors as I like his storytelling "style" (and the subjects). I agree that Crichton is somewhat similar, and I would say that Michael Connelly and some John Grisham books are somewhat similar.

[tenkuky]

Thanks to you all for the recommendations. I used to be able to go to the library and browse, then pick up something that looked promising. But the library has been closed since March due to the virus. They just this week have now arranged for no contact pick up of books.

Many public libraries have an arrangement with Overdrive where you can get Adobe Dig Ed or pdf versions of books to check out. Will need your library card to check out.
I've been doing this through the pandemic.
https://www.overdrive.com/libraries
Or check with your own library website.

[NotWhoYouThink]

Many thanks to deserat for a great list, I've bookmarked it for further review.

[Clever_Username]

Oooh, interesting to see Ian Fleming novels in the list. I don't think of him as similar to Clancy, but they are, collectively, great reads. Some of the material didn't age well. I suggest reading them in the order they were released (which is not the same as the movies' order), but that isn't strictly necessary.

[NotWhoYouThink]

Barry Eisner's John Rain series is not at the level of Clancy but I find them more plausible and well-written than most. Rain is an assassin not a spy but you can't have everything.

If you are looking for a long running series that will take you a while to read and is consistently high quality then Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series is my go to recommendation. Again not in the same genre as Clancy's novels.

That is about the same level of recommendation enthusiasm I'd give to Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitor series as both are consistently good with only rare exceptions. I also just reread David Benioff's City of Thieves and man, what a terrific book.

FWIW, my favorite fiction author is and forever will be Raymond Chandler.

Not picking on beernutz, I've enjoyed Connelly's writing and to a lesser extent Coben's. I started reading Coben's books before I found this forum, and now have finally figured out what's wrong with them. It's Win. Not Win's occasional evening activities, we all have our hobbies. It's the fact that he hand selects investments for the clients Myron refers to him, carefully curating just the right portfolios with consistent success. Not a believable character at all.

[beernutz]

Barry Eisner's John Rain series is not at the level of Clancy but I find them more plausible and well-written than most. Rain is an assassin not a spy but you can't have everything.

If you are looking for a long running series that will take you a while to read and is consistently high quality then Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series is my go to recommendation. Again not in the same genre as Clancy's novels.

That is about the same level of recommendation enthusiasm I'd give to Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitor series as both are consistently good with only rare exceptions. I also just reread David Benioff's City of Thieves and man, what a terrific book.

FWIW, my favorite fiction author is and forever will be Raymond Chandler.

Not picking on beernutz, I've enjoyed Connelly's writing and to a lesser extent Coben's. I started reading Coben's books before I found this forum, and now have finally figured out what's wrong with them. It's Win. Not Win's occasional evening activities, we all have our hobbies. It's the fact that he hand selects investments for the clients Myron refers to him, carefully curating just the right portfolios with consistent success. Not a believable character at all.

Fair point. Win is probably my favorite character in the series but I admit that when I first read the books I wasn't capable of applying a boglehead scrutiny to his investment system. Thanks NWYT, you've given me a good reason to reread the series from start to finish.

I've thought about who would be a good actor to play Win in the inevitable Bolitar movie and a preppied up Brad Pitt used to be my number 1 choice but he's probably too old now.

[Duckie]

There have been a number of authors since Tom Clancy passed away. I enjoyed the books he wrote and would like to continue the genre.
Any recommendations on the books written by any recent author (s) of the series will be appreciated.

Jack Ryan books in order

[Eowyn]

You might like Robert Dugoni's "Charles Jenkins" series. I think it has a similar vibe to the Jack Ryan books but is more current. So far only 2 books in the series, one book available now, one coming in September, hopefully more to come.

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/robe ... sister.htm

[iamlucky13]

Since we are branching to other authors, I would like to add CS Forester to the mix. I am in agreement with you all about the early Clancy books(Hunt for Red October is probably my all time favorite), but for good exciting historical fiction, the Hornblower series can't be beat. I know, I just dated myself. The Good Shepherd also by Forester is a good read about the convoy wars of WW2.

I almost mentioned the Hornblower series, but decided not to since I suspected the OP was specifically looking for techno-thrillers, which a 19th century sailing navy doesn't really fit.

However, there is definitely similarity in that the Hornblower series also looks at warfare and the intrigues that go along with it from a combined perspective of the people involved in the conflict and the ways the technology and tactics shape the outcome. Forester also put a fair amount of effort into making Hornblower a real, fallible human being, which I think it part of the appeal of Jack Ryan's character as well.

Some here may already know that Star Trek was heavily influenced by the Hornblower series, and Kirk by Hornblower himself.

As long as we've brought up Hornblower, I hear consistent praise of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series (eg - Master and Commander). He reportedly read naval officer's logs extensively to guide his writing.

And one more non-fiction book I almost mentioned earlier: Band of Brothers is an awe-inspiring story. I've fascinated by all of the Stephen Ambrose books that I've read, but Band of Brothers probably has the closest relevance to this thread.

[deserat]

Oooh, interesting to see Ian Fleming novels in the list. I don't think of him as similar to Clancy, but they are, collectively, great reads. Some of the material didn't age well. I suggest reading them in the order they were released (which is not the same as the movies' order), but that isn't strictly necessary.

I did read all of the Ian Fleming books this spring. They were excellent. The quality of the writing was much better than a lot of what is currently written. I've found a lot of authors start to 'phone it in' after awhile.

There are distinct American and British writing styles as well. I've also been reading more foreign authors in the mystery-crime thriller genre. It's interesting how they are translated and then how their distinct author style and their culture come through in the writing.

I echo Raymond Chandler as an author. I also like PD James and the queen Agatha Christie.

As for the Hornblower series, I did not read it but watched the DVD series that was done by the British. Wow. I absolutely loved that show....and being female, enjoyed watching the lead as he was also wonderful eye candy . I loved the development aspect of Horatio as he progressed through the ranks with the lessons he learned. Good Space Opera stories have that element as well, only move the environment to space.

[Theseus]

Some of the Alistair Maclean's books on WWII ended up as movies. I am a big fan of his writing style. Guns of Navarone , Where Eagles Dare, Ice Station Zebra were made in the movies that remember.

[tenkuky]

Some of the Alistair Maclean's books on WWII ended up as movies. I am a big fan of his writing style. Guns of Navarone , Where Eagles Dare, Ice Station Zebra were made in the movies that remember.

Love AM books. My faves actually were the heartbreaking HMS Ulysses (his first) and the grisly Puppet on a Chain.

[Theseus]

Some of the Alistair Maclean's books on WWII ended up as movies. I am a big fan of his writing style. Guns of Navarone , Where Eagles Dare, Ice Station Zebra were made in the movies that remember.

Love AM books. My faves actually were the heartbreaking HMS Ulysses (his first) and the grisly Puppet on a Chain.

Was Puppet on the Chain set in Amsterdam and about drugs or something? If so then I remember reading it.

[tenkuky]

Some of the Alistair Maclean's books on WWII ended up as movies. I am a big fan of his writing style. Guns of Navarone , Where Eagles Dare, Ice Station Zebra were made in the movies that remember.

Love AM books. My faves actually were the heartbreaking HMS Ulysses (his first) and the grisly Puppet on a Chain.

Was Puppet on the Chain set in Amsterdam and about drugs or something? If so then I remember reading it.

Yup. Some pretty icky parts too.
In all his books there are memorable scenes that are so visual. Last Frontier is another fave.

[Theseus]

Some of the Alistair Maclean's books on WWII ended up as movies. I am a big fan of his writing style. Guns of Navarone , Where Eagles Dare, Ice Station Zebra were made in the movies that remember.

Love AM books. My faves actually were the heartbreaking HMS Ulysses (his first) and the grisly Puppet on a Chain.

Was Puppet on the Chain set in Amsterdam and about drugs or something? If so then I remember reading it.

Yup. Some pretty icky parts too.
In all his books there are memorable scenes that are so visual. Last Frontier is another fave.

I will have to go back and reread all of his books. He was my favorite author for a long time.