BigDan | 01 May 2017 3:57 p.m. PST |
I just finished Chinese Bandit by Stephen Becker and looking for something similar. Any recommendations? I have a long deployment coming up at the end of the year and stocking up on books for the ship's library now. Thanks, Dan |
wrgmr1 | 01 May 2017 4:35 p.m. PST |
If you like murder mysteries, Raymond Chandler wrote some classic books with Phillip Marlow as the main character. The Big Sleep is a familiar one with a number of movies made about it. Also The Brother Cadfael books are set in the 1200's England, the main character Brother Cadfael is a monk who solves murders. Which ship are you deploying on? |
The Shadow | 01 May 2017 6:01 p.m. PST |
For fiction from the pulp era; I recommend "The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett and a collection of "El Borak" aka "The White Wolf" stories by Robert E. Howard. He's a great adventure hero. For fiction created later than the pulp era; "Catch 22" by Joseph Heller, "Fahrenheit 451", by Ray Bradbury, "Animal Farm" by George Orwell and "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding. All very interesting, immersive and thought provoking. |
Crazyivanov | 01 May 2017 6:59 p.m. PST |
El Borak is "The Swift". The White Wolf in "Son of the White Wolf" is the symbol used by the villain of that piece. |
Hafen von Schlockenberg | 01 May 2017 8:00 p.m. PST |
I guess you'll be wanting to get the two others in the Becker trilogy. I recommend Alan Furst: alanfurst.net/books His are set just before,and during, WWIII. I just finished The Polish Officer and Midnight in Europe,both gripping. |
Vigilant | 02 May 2017 2:48 a.m. PST |
+1 for the Chandler books. Great stories and beautifully written. |
The Shadow | 02 May 2017 8:15 a.m. PST |
Crazyivanov Right. Don't know what I was thinking. Francis Xavier Gordon is known as El Borak aka "The Swift. The best collection of stories is "El Borak and Other Desert Adventures" published by Del Rey. This from Booklist: "This volume of Del Rey's collections of the works of the creator of Conan the Destroyer contains the adventures of Texan Francis Xavier Gordon, known as El Borak, who fights outlaws, messianic madmen, and other deadly opponents in Afghanistan and the Middle East in the 1920s and 1930s; and of Texas Irishman Kirby O'Donnell in the same region and time". |
BigDan | 02 May 2017 10:12 a.m. PST |
Thanks Gents! I've read many of these and the rest are now in my box on Amazon. I'm on the USNS Guadalupe…Queen of Gas. When we deploy only about a quarter of our crew are active duty Navy so we don't get the library support from the Navy so a few of us are stocking the library. Thanks again, Dan |
Vigilant | 02 May 2017 11:46 a.m. PST |
Safe trip, enjoy your reading time. |
Huscarle | 02 May 2017 12:08 p.m. PST |
Anthony Conway – John Caspasian Quartet, 1st book is "The Viceroy's Captain" Paul Malmont – "The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril" Jon Cleary "The Faraway Drums" I always enjoy some of the older stories from the likes of A Merritt, Sax Rohmer, Rider Haggard, Chandler & Hammett. Anthony Price's "David Audley" series are a great read, especially if you have an interest in military history & mysteries. link Tim Powers writes some cracking stuff too, "The Drawing of the Dark", "On Stranger Tides", etc. Try some of "The Mammoth Books" such as Private Eye stories, Pulp Action, The Mummy, Pulp Fiction, etc. |
boy wundyr x | 02 May 2017 2:02 p.m. PST |
If you're looking for old school pulp reprints, Altus Press has tons. I have the Carroll John Daly "Race Williams" pair and about 6-8 more on my wish list. They also do new pulp. link Actually I just skimmed the site while digging up this link – my wishlist might be 20+ books now… |
robert piepenbrink | 02 May 2017 3:04 p.m. PST |
Might take a look at High Road to China--book and movie both interesting and quite different. There is also at least one biography of Ungern-Sternberg, the White Russian cavalry officer who seems to have become a Buddhist war god. Depends on your setting, of course, but any "Back of Beyond" game could use him and his associates. (Fossil hunting in the Gobi also has its points.) Hmmm. And try to find an Avram Davidson short story titled "Dagon" set in Beijing at just about the time Chinese Bandit starts. (Davidson was stationed there himself.) No one does local flavor like Davidson. |
Hafen von Schlockenberg | 04 May 2017 7:40 a.m. PST |
Robert--this is the one I read: link Quite a character. As far as Pulp China goes, maybe Bartle Bull: link He's no Alan Furst,but fairly enjoyable. There's a followup,"China Star",and I suppose another on the way,to match his Africa Trilogy. I may have read Dagon many years ago,but have no memory of it--I'll need to search through my collection,something I've been meaning to do,as I read the Esterhazy stories recently,and really enjoyed them. |