Who is your favorite writer for unarmed combat scenes?

[Gamal]

I prefer watching good fight scenes (hand to hand or archaic weapons) in movies than reading them in books because the visceral excitement seems hard to capture in prose. I've always enjoyed Barry Eisler combat scenes. Who are your favorite combat writers and what are the best examples of their work?

Thanks
Gamal

[Samuel , Director]

Gamal wrote: "I prefer watching good fight scenes (hand to hand or archaic weapons) in movies than reading them in books because the visceral excitement seems hard to capture in prose. I've always enjoyed Barry ..."

Mr Eisler is the best in the business.
The only other authors whose work has the level of unarmed combat that he has are Adam Hall and Tom Wood.
Mr Hall learned Karate and it was the primary means of defense for his super spy Quiller, a man who shunned firearms as much as possible. He preferred the plausible dependability a lack of firearms gave him and thus unarmed combat was his forte.

Mr Wood currently trains in Krav Maga. According to him, his first book got him in contact with a Krav Maga instructor who happened to have become a fan of his work and sent pointers and suggestions on where he could improve. His
third and fourth books utilize this growing expertise.
His character Victor is a deniable asset for the company. He sometimes finds himself in situations without a gun and needs to defend himself. Which he does. Very well.

[Samuel , Director]

Mr Wood's work.

[Samuel , Director]

A sample of the prolific Adam Hall's work.

[Tyler]

Personally, I think that in terms of hand to hand only combat scenes Tom Wood and Mark Greaney. For the real life military/ spec ops, and operation combat scenes my favorite is Flynn, Alex Berenson, Stephen England, and Dalton Fury(10 year commander of DELTA)

[Slaven]

You guys have to check out Clear by Fire the debut Search & Destroy Thriller by decorated combat veteran Joshua Hood. It's got more combat than you can handle
in one sitting.

[Samuel , Director]

Slaven wrote: "You guys have to check out Clear by Fire the debut Search & Destroy Thriller by decorated combat veteran Joshua Hood. It's got more combat than you can handle
in one sitting."

I'm reading it now. It's great.
Fascinating at times. Atmospheric and oh so very visceral.

[Feliks]

Here's a quick list of the authors in the Orion team bookshelf (Goodreads doesn't seem to offer this so I tallied up each name myself)

Now, when we're talking about best combat writers, can we really be definitive? I can't. Because I sure haven't read each author in this list. I just wonder whether we're overlooking some name that really needs to be called out for especial merit in this area.

(177 names)

Abernethy, Mark
Abrahams, Tom
Allen, Chris
Asche, Gideon D.
Baldacci, David
Barber, Tom
Barrett, Chuck
Barrington, James
Barron, Greg
Battles, Brett
Bell, D.R.
Bell, Ted
Ben-David, Mishka
Berenson, Alex
Betcher, John L.
Bidinotto, Robert
Black, Sean
Blackwood, Grant
Blake, Russell
Bond, Larry
Britton, Andrew
Brookes, Adam
Brown, Graham
Brownell, Daniel
Burge, Weldon
Buschi, Dave
Cain, Tom
Cameron, Marc
Campbell, Rick
Campion, Phil
Carré, John le
Cenney, Bernard
Cerasini, Marc
Chapman, Drew
Clancy, Tom
Clarke, Richard A.
Coes, Ben
Coonts, Stephen
Corleone, Douglas
Couch, Dick
Coughlin, Jack
Cumming, Charles
Dawson, Mark
Dinallo, Greg
Dryden, Alex
Dunn, Matthew
Duns, Jeremy
Edwards, Jeff
Eisler, Barry
England, Stephen
Fesperman, Dan
Fleming, Ian
Flynn, Vince
Forsyth, Frederick
Freemantle, Brian
Furst, Alan
Fury, Dalton
Galdi, Ted
Garrison, Paul
Grady, James
Graham, David
Graham, Ian
Grant, Andrew
Granzow, Nate
Greaney, Mark
Griffin, H. Terrell
Grimsdale, Peter
Haas, Derek
Hagberg, David
Hall, Adam
Hamilton, Donald
Hannibal, James R.
Harris, Robert
Haynes, Gary
Henshaw, Mark E.
Higgins, Jack
Hood, Joshua
House, Richard
Huggins, James Byron
Hunter, Stephen
Jackson, Steve
Jacobson, Alan
Jepson, Duncan
Jones, Ethan
Jones, S. L.
Jordan, Will
Jr., Steven Hildreth
Kane, D.S.
Kaplan, Andrew
Kaplan, Howard
Kennedy, J. Robert
Kephart, M.J.
Kernick, Simon
Konkoly, Steven
Konrath, J.A.
Larsen, Ward
Leather, Stephen
Lee, Alan L.
Lee, Patrick
Leverone, Allan
Lewis, Damien
Littell, Robert
Ludlum, Robert
Lustbader, Eric Van
Maden, Mike
Magson, Adrian
Maloney, Leo J.
Mann, Don
Marigny, Gerard de
Marten-Zerf, C.
Matthews, Jason
Mayer, Bob
Mayland, Dan
McCarry, Charles
McDermott, R.E.
McDonald, Murray
McEwen, Scott
McNab, Andy
McNeff, Mike
Meyer, Eric
Mitchum, Allen
Morcan, James
Muhammad, Khalid
Murphy, Jack
Nealen, Peter
Palmer, Matthew
Patten, J.T.
Patton, Kerry
Pearce, Roger
Porter, Henry
Reilly, Matthew
Rollins, David
Rotella, Sebastian
Rucka, Greg
Russinovich, Mark
Ryan, Chris
Sargent, M.H.
Savage, Michael
Scott, Trevor
Seymour, Gerald
Sierer, Barry
Silkstone, Jack
Sinclair, Rob
Steinhauer, Olen
Stephens, Jeffrey S.
Stevens, Tim
Stock, Jon
Strong, Terence
Suarez, Daniel
Swallow, James
Tata, A.J.
Taylor, Brad
Telep, Peter
Thomson, Keith
Thor, Brad
Thorp, Roderick
Tigner, Tim
Turner, James Houston
Tyree, William
Villiers, Gérard de
Wasdin, Howard E.
Watts, Andrew
Weber, Joe
Weisman, John
Whitman, John
Williams, T.L.
Wilson, Edward
Wolf, Dick
Wood, Tom
Young, Tom

[Samuel , Director]

Feliks wrote: "Here's a quick list of the authors in the Orion team bookshelf (Goodreads doesn't seem to offer this so I tallied up each name myself)

Now, when we're talking about best combat writers, can we rea..."

Ah. That's a surprise. Didn't realize the list had grown that large.

Unarmed combat is getting rare. Either authors actually train in it (Hall, Wood and Greaney), get pointers from those who know how to do it (Forsyth and the neck breakers he had Shannon and The Jackal do) or have their characters stick to shooting people. (Clancy, Flynn).

[Samuel , Director]

"The protagonist and the arch villain have an hour-long battle with bare fists and anything handy to use as a club, beating each other relentlessly. No matter the damage, they always come back for more. In reality, hand-to-hand combat between trained men is incredibly destructive, and very, very tiring. Add in improvised weapons, and it tends to end quickly. I know some folks who could give Jason Bourne a run for his money, but if you cracked them with a tire iron full-on, they wouldn't bounce back up with a round-house kick. At the end of the day, skill matters, but skill doesn't increase a person's magic armor like a video game. A human body is still a human body. It can only take so much punishment".- Brad Taylor, counter-terrorist thriller writer and former Delta Force Operator.

[Joshua]

Amen

[Gamal]

Wow. This is a great list. Samuel, I'm definitely going to check out Tom Wood. Thanks for the suggestion. And your right, from what I know of combat, it's an instantaneous, ten seconds or less kind of affair. That's the reason I like Eisler so much. His characters might spend 100 pages trying to set up an ambush, but when the fight actually starts, it's over in a page or less.

[Gamal]

Feliks wrote: "Here's a quick list of the authors in the Orion team bookshelf (Goodreads doesn't seem to offer this so I tallied up each name myself)

Now, when we're talking about best combat writers, can we rea..."

Nice list. It would take me years to get through this. Thanks, Feliks.

[Feliks]

something like 644 books by 170-odd authors. there were some duplicates.

data skillz yo! :)

p.s. Samuel did a great job amassing all those names in the first place

[Samuel , Director]

Feliks wrote: "something like 644 books by 170-odd authors. there were some duplicates.

data skillz yo! :)

p.s. Samuel did a great job amassing all those names in the first place"

The more the merrier. ;)

[Samuel , Director]

Gamal wrote: "Wow. This is a great list. Samuel, I'm definitely going to check out Tom Wood. Thanks for the suggestion. And your right, from what I know of combat, it's an instantaneous, ten seconds or less kind..."

Barry is taking a break from John Rain. Got a new stand-alone novel coming out. A whistle blower, a spymaster and the ultimate SIGINT surveillance system called THE GOD'S EYE VIEW. And how they all collide.

[Samuel , Director]

Gamal wrote: "Wow. This is a great list. Samuel, I'm definitely going to check out Tom Wood. Thanks for the suggestion. And your right, from what I know of combat, it's an instantaneous, ten seconds or less kind..."







I also recommend this guy who is the originator of the quote I previously posted. Being a former US Army Officer he knows his unarmed combat very well. Nothing flashy, but good, simple moves that can kill someone in a few seconds.

[Samuel , Director]

Gamal wrote: "Wow. This is a great list. Samuel, I'm definitely going to check out Tom Wood. Thanks for the suggestion. And your right, from what I know of combat, it's an instantaneous, ten seconds or less kind..."

You'll love Mr Wood's work. He does his research quite well on the medical damage unarmed combat can do. Pressure points, critical veins, the works.

[Samuel , Director]

Gamal wrote: "Wow. This is a great list. Samuel, I'm definitely going to check out Tom Wood. Thanks for the suggestion. And your right, from what I know of combat, it's an instantaneous, ten seconds or less kind..."

Nowadays you don't go around on the street kicking people, punching people — because if you do (makes gun shape with hand), well that's it — I don't care how good you are.- Bruce Lee

[Samuel , Director]

Edited the title. I think it needed to be a little more specific. Perhaps someone here could do a list of "authors and gunfights". Although the posts on that would be endless.

[Danield]

Samuel you put me onto Steven Konkoly (black flagged)
Steven's combat scenes are nearby perfect,well researched (why a gun can't shoot at 300 yards) and then they are pretty brutal but in those situation you do not go in by saying sorry gentlemen tthat we interrupted your 5 o'clock tea generally you need answers pretty quick and above all coorect
Actually 3 that I like pretty much Peter Telep,Jos Hood and now Steven Konkoly.all the others are great but I think they put the break on well explained brutal scenes
Best regards from Luxembourg. Daniel

[Samuel , Director]

Danield wrote: "Samuel you put me onto Steven Konkoly (black flagged)
Steven's combat scenes are nearby perfect,well researched (why a gun can't shoot at 300 yards) and then they are pretty brutal but in those sit..."

Oh yes, the Black Flagged series. Yeah, Jessica and Daniel don't play by Queensbury rules. They play by "Oscar Wilde" rules which, according to the man himself, is basically annihilating the threat in the most efficient, brutal manner possible.

[Samuel , Director]

Danield wrote: "Samuel you put me onto Steven Konkoly (black flagged)
Steven's combat scenes are nearby perfect,well researched (why a gun can't shoot at 300 yards) and then they are pretty brutal but in those sit..."

Jessica in particular. Konkoly seems to have done his homework for what she does with her combat knives.

[Gamal]

Samuel wrote: "Gamal wrote: "Wow. This is a great list. Samuel, I'm definitely going to check out Tom Wood. Thanks for the suggestion. And your right, from what I know of combat, it's an instantaneous, ten second..."

I follow Eisler on FB and he's been nice enough to encourage my own writing on the subject. I'm waiting for that new book to come out, but I will miss Rain. The last time he took a break from that series it wasn't really a break, just an Avengers-like spinoff that eventually collected all his characters in one book. Hopefully, this new book will be set in the same universe.

[Samuel , Director]

Regarding unarmed combat scenes. Here's a preview of one for a upcoming film. It's a homage to another iconic scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8dzX...

[Samuel , Director]

Samuel wrote: "Regarding unarmed combat scenes. Here's a preview of one for a upcoming film. It's a homage to another iconic scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8dzX..."

The homaged scene in question. It's amazing how killing the music can make a brawl so much more intense. I suppose it allows one to hear all the smashing better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DrMd...

[Samuel , Director]

Samuel wrote: "Regarding unarmed combat scenes. Here's a preview of one for a upcoming film. It's a homage to another iconic scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8dzX..."

Eye gouging. Nice touch.