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What do you as a reader, get out of reading a Spy/Spec Ops book?
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Terri
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Aug 26, 2012 10:02AM
Hey NYKen: I love to read about the technology, the guns, the way the operatives put together ops, the way they get out of sticky situations. I guess just the sheer smarts, guts, and savvy it takes to do what they do. It's adrenaline rushing, heart pumping stuff that I love reading. Kind of weird maybe for a 55+ yr old woman, but I love it nonetheless.
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Reading Spy/Spec Ops books are exciting. I would rather read an action series that feels like to expendables than reading some tearjerker that have way too complex characters. In Spy/Spec Ops novels its quite simple you get your antagonist and protagonist with some action and limited emotions. In addition, the technological aspect within the plots can be surreal that your mind works just to comprehend the ideas that may be spread worldwide.
I think I get three things out of reading spy thrillers:1) A story that goes beyond the mundane events of everyday life but is still more realistic than science fiction or fantasy
2) Examples of tradecraft, tactics and techniques that have always interested me in fiction and real life.
3) Inspiration for my own writing.
NYKen: What do you get out of reading spy fiction?
Thanks for the question.
Have fun.
G
I'd have to say that spec/ops books develop in my mind better than movies do on the big screen. They just captivate me because most of the authors I read do such a good job of developing their characters that I almost feel as if I am them when reading the story. I like the strategy and political mind games that drive the motive during these stories. As much as I love the bravado of the actions of the main characters I'm equally absorbed in how the peripheral characters manipulate for the benefit of themselves or their country. It's like watching a game of chess, where even though you're privy to what both sides are doing there's the mystery of the motives behind each move and where they will end up.To sum it up
The movies are better in my mind than on the big screen
Kickass main characters who embody someone I'd like to be
Political entrigue and strategy
And patriotism.
Interesting opinions. I just wanted to bump up for the newer members to share their opinions about the topic. Thanks.
I like reading what is wrong or what is accurate. Sometime I find a "Hmmm, that could actually work."
I find it interesting to have something ordinarily extraordinary in spy thrillers...as if they can happen right now. The sheer intelligence that the authors have to come up with for the stories is both frightening yet comforting and thus I find myself enjoying all of these kinds of books for they all hold a different mindset and, well, story.
I think Gamal said it best, for me: I'm a techno-thriller author, and my competition (Brad Thor, Barry Eisler, Jim Rollins, and Steve Berry) provide me with operative tradecraft, new spy tech, and examples of the double-bind tension that I can use for my own writing. My contacts within intelligence services and tech labs help, but the spy fiction of others helps more. Of course, my own experience, though stale now, helps too.
I like that when I read a good one, I escape to these exotic locales. It's like a literal vacation. I love the way some jetset from place to place and one chapter I'm in Mumbai, then Oslo, then Mumbai, finally in Paris and then DC. This is one thing I'd say Silva does really well. Nelson DeMille is the master! I also love the tradecraft! I feel like I've learned so much from them. I'm by no means ready to take Pike Logan's place, but I'm a bit more prepared than I would be before. I know to find a table with nothing behind me, facing the entrance. To scout the bathroom, and find all points of egress. I watch more around me, and I pay attention to remember details and things that may change.
I love learning what they go through to become great! Reading the entire Mitch Rapp series, then having him publish American Assasin, that was almost enough to bring me to climax! Seeing what Mitch Rapp went through and how he became the killing machine he is, was a treat! Today I recommend to newbies to start with Term Limits, then American Assassin and go from there. But having read him back when the books were coming out, was wonderful.
I also love the romance. These guys are all studs! Literally women want them, and men want to be them. And they're heroes! I'm the type that when I'm in an airplane traveling and I've got my favorite Metallica song on or similar, the song builds up the tension and I close my eyes and imagine myself freeing a children's hospital rigged by the Taliban with explosives, and right as the music hits it's crescendo, I get the last kid free and we leap from the window onto a zipline and swing to safety. With parents of the kid, and pretty girls waiting to fuss over me and tell me I'm a hero! And in these books, that's what these guys get to do. They live my dream.
I've always wondered if when the crap hit the fan, would I run or stay? Would I be the guy that walks toward gunfire or away? I'd hope I'd be the hero, but who knows? It hasn't happened. But these guys Scott Harvath, John Corey, Gabriel Allon, Ben Treven, Dewey Andrea, Mark Beamon, Mitch Rapp, Jack Reacher, Pike Logan...they are who I am in my finest hour.
Thank you JT! I reread it and thought to myself..."that really is it..."
I'd say what you just described is exactly what an author is trying to target to get a reaction and visualization from the reader so you escape from reality a few pages at a time.Although I'd like to read that you visualized punching a mall cop in the trachea, too. (Insert legal disclaimer)
That is totally the visual I imagined! Although he was a museum cop of course ;)
That is totally the visual I imagined! Although he was a museum cop of course ;)
I'll say one thing too, when you read many of these authors. You actually have a better perspective of current events in many ways. I hear people say things at work or similar and think "so naive," ;). I realize it's not all true, but there is truth behind much of it. And the potential is there. Some of these books make me wonder how many of these similar situations have actually happened and we've averted? Probably more than I'd like to know about.
I'd take the mall cop any day. Mall cop would only reach for a radio. Hard ear slap and leg sweep neutralizes that. Museum guy probably has a long flashlight. He'll reach for that... Up to you what happens next.Re truth, I agree. Hardest part for me was to scale back and out far fetched to blend. Scenarios for most who have been there then wrote are probably pretty close to something. The great writers who have not experienced it, usually research it and get a lot of first hand accounts told in story form to them.
Matt wrote: "I like that when I read a good one, I escape to these exotic locales. It's like a literal vacation. I love the way some jetset from place to place and one chapter I'm in Mumbai, then Oslo, then M..."Matt wrote: "I like that when I read a good one, I escape to these exotic locales. It's like a literal vacation. I love the way some jetset from place to place and one chapter I'm in Mumbai, then Oslo, then M..."
Matt, That might all make a good read but Real life is considerably different, The majority of the things you mentioned are pure fiction and things you are trained to avoid in most cases.
Field ops usually require the operator to pass themselves off as something else for years at a time, go to mundane jobs and remain as inconspicuous as possible. The hot chicks are just not a good idea, and jumping from theater to theater is just not done.. it takes years to develop a personality that is invisible in plane sight.
I still have trouble speaking English when I first wake up or if you scare me.. or answering to my birth name.
Being fluent in English or wearing your wedding ring the left hand or something as simple as putting your change from a purchase directly in your pocket were things that could be a red flag that could easily get you compromised.
Every operation I was ever involved in had a "NO Sex" policy and operators were often provided "wives" or "Girlfriends" to help avoid any suspicion. We used it to try to compromise them ... we knew they were smart enough to do the same.
The incidents worth writing about tended to be few and far between...
