SSG: Spy/Spec-Ops Group discussion

Most spy / spec-ops books are about the War on Terror these days. I think that's fair to say.

Check out the bookshelves over in the Orion Team (our sister-group). Its probably 75% of the content under all the titles listed there.

So let me ask you. For all this frenetic publishing in this recently-minted flavor of counter-terrorism writing ..what would you say, is the lone, solitary, flagship novel?

For example, Tom Clancy's 'Red Storm Rising' showed how far a techno-military thriller could be taken.

Michael Crichton demonstrated the limits of medical thrillers with 'The Andromeda Strain'.

And Frederic Forsyth, is still #1 in assassination thrillers with 'Day of the Jackal'. His book is still being read.

So: in counter-terrorism thrillers, is there just one novel as obviously paramount as any of these? There's big names out there, of course: Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, etc...but has any of them really written a book which is the new standard?

I for one, don't find terrorism thrillers which are 'too authentic' to always be the best. Said another way: if an author just got back from serving overseas in a hunt for arab terrorists--and pours his experiences into an action-romp--that's not necessarily enough to do it for me. In a novel, I want inventiveness, rather than what I see in newspapers. The media is filled with the War on Terror--to the point where it's beyond tiresome, now--and I think perhaps that's the problem.

I want *escapism* in a thriller--and as I've pointed out elsewhere on Goodreads, you can't escape into a book which mirrors daily life too well.

Your thoughts, please.

So, Feliks, you want a good counter-terrorism thriller, but with more fiction elements in it, correct? What about mixing a counter-terrorism story with some elements from science-fiction?

Example number 1: A group of Islamic extremists get hold/usage of a time machine and jump back in time to assassinate key American figures and thus bring the downfall of the United States or the dismantling of American foreign policy concerning the Middle East. The CIA gets wind of that and sends agents back in time to eliminate the terrorists before they cause irreparable damage. Only the time travel part would be sci-fi and would be only a minor part of the story, with the chase of the terrorists by the CIA agents being the main plot.

Example number 2: Anti-terrorism in a space setting. In the near future, a new, larger international space station is launched, with the view of eventually using it as a departure point for Mars-bound spaceships. However, Washington learns that there is a terrorist plot to make the space station fall out of its orbit and crash on Earth, hopefully causing huge damage on the ground. A CIA or FBI agent with a scientific background is then sent to the space station to try identify and neutralize the threat.

So, would any of those two scenarios, or other scenarios mixing Counter-Terrorism and Sci-Fi, appeal to you, Feliks?

To answer your initial question more directly, Feliks, I can't name a novel or movie that you could call the counter-terrorism equivalent of 'THE JACKAL'.

Its a tall order, I admit. There's a very singular mixture of elements which makes 'Jackal' or 'Andromeda' the hits they were. Something about such projects just cements itself with the public on many levels. They bring something new to the table and it just rolls over the audience like a wave, pulling us all in.

Not necessarily science-fiction or technology at all--there was no especial hi-tech in 'Jackal'. Forsyth simply brought a realism and a frankness to the story-motif that no one else had yet done.

Cussler did it too, with 'Raise the Titanic!'. Morrell with 'First Blood'. Just a great story told well--that's what these projects all have in common.

Closest I can think of are these two. One above is about an American CIA NOC officer who converted to Islam and infiltrated Al Quaeda for half a decade. In the plot, he's forced to break cover to stop a terrorist plot and reconcile how he and the America he left to protect have radically changed. Moderately original concept and it was perhaps the first Post 9/11 spy novel which didn't try to make a torture happy Jack Bauer/Mitch Rapp rip-off. Instead the main character was a tortured self-doubting fellow, but one who would pick up a gun and do the damn job he was assigned to at the end of the day.

One below is a pre-9/11 story about
"Die Hard In The White House" published two years before September 11 2001. Not the most creative story, but one with a lot of influence.

It's the first appearance of the American Assassin Mitch Rapp, a character who for better or worse would influence multiple American spy fiction authors today along with many spy fiction protagonists.

While botching the geopolitics (Saddam Hussein would never in a million years make an alliance with the Iranian Hezbollah puppet), the general concept of Islamic terrorists executing a large scale terrorist attack in the land of the free was somewhat impressive for its day, not to mention focusing on the next relevant issue while other authors were panicking about the USSR imploding leaving them devoid of material.

a good acid-test is if you mention a title and I haven't heard of it.

I have heard of 'American Assassin'. But not, 'American Assassin #3'.

Have never heard of 'John Wells'.

Maybe the answer really is, 'Die Hard'; though it has a totally tangled-up origin. I think there's three novelists who claim credit for it.

Or, perhaps, 'Black Sunday' should be considered.

Before I forget! Wanted to mention this:

...in the movie adaptation of 'Day of the Jackal', do you remember the really tall guy in the beginning of the flick? Wolenski? The Surete tortures the hell out of him to get a meager few scraps of syllables, but which are just enough lead them to the hotel where the assassination plan was hatched?

I didn't realize it either at first, but that's actor Jean Martin. Where'd I ever see him before? Well, the answer is that he played the ruthless French paratrooper colonel in the famous flick from 1966, 'The Battle of Algiers'.

Now I'm thinking--if only that great movie had a source novel-- it'd probably be my pick for best counter-terrorism story. It has the verve I'm talking about above. Takes you through a guerrilla resistance, step by methodical step.

'Battle of Algiers' is a moving, harrowing film experience. It's shot documentary style, on location in Algiers, using many battle-hardened citizens as extras and actors; and a story informed by their experiences.

Jean Martin's character is the army colonel faced with breaking the airtight, pyramid-structured, urban terrorist cell network of the Algerian resistance. Realism galore.

Yep--I'd definitely vote it all-around best counter-terrorism tale, even over 'Black Sunday', which (let's face it) is a lurid fictional action romp. 'Battle of Algiers' is no joke.

Feliks wrote: "Before I forget! Wanted to mention this:

...in the movie adaptation of 'Day of the Jackal', do you remember the really tall guy in the beginning of the flick? Wolenski? The Surete tortures the hel..."

You may be right. First film to have an in-depth look at counter-terrorism, the inherent futility/necessity of the enterprise and realistic moral ambiguity.

How about this? Features perhaps the first terrorist attack in fiction.

yep. good pick, that.

I've got a project I'm writing lately which refers back to a character in that tale.

Feliks wrote: "yep. good pick, that.

I've got a project I'm writing lately which refers back to a character in that tale."

I see. Which one?

The Professor. His quirky traits are so vivid they're worth reincarnating.

Feliks wrote: "The Professor. His quirky traits are so vivid they're worth reincarnating."

Ah yes, fiction's first terrorist bomb maker. Quite the madman I recall, which makes his characterization an excellent choice. The character even came up with the world's first suicide bomb vest before a working model was built in real life.