Action/Adventure Aficionados discussion

to help speed along my action reading I'm looking for smart plots. Kind of along the line of Bourne kind of clever and with plot twists.

LUDLUM is the place to be for twisted plots. he's the best in my opinion. but, he's not the only one. Try these?

The Tightrope Men
The Enemy

The Holcroft Covenant (my favorite Ludlum)

The Covert One series (listed under Ludlum but written by others)

The Sigma Protocol

The Parsifal Mosaic

Thanks Hugh yes I loved Bourne and read it after having just seen the movie. I was actually glad that the film was so different because the brilliant and twisted plot in the book would not work so well on film.

The best I can remember for twisted plots that were twisted, but fair, generally, is Ludlum. He's the man when it comes to Thick mystery on top of Intelligent Mayhem.

Having said that, Since I know you like Classics to, Don't forget Alistair MacLean. You probably have heard of his books Where Eagles Dare and The Guns of Navarone (the latter staring Anthony Quinn, David Niven and Gregory Peck! (go Atticus... Atticus...Aticcuss!)

and a cast of very well known others...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054953/f...

There's a thread for MacLean ....

Here!
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/6...

and one of our members has a great website for Alistair MacLean books....HERE!

http://alistairmaclean.com./

Thank you Randomo! MacLean wrote a lot more than just war stories. He came before Ludlum and, therefore is likely the teacher not the follower here.

There are also guys like Hammond Innes who wrote The Strode Venturer and a number of other books, a lot of which could be considered thrillers with some pretty complicated plots.

Frankly, we don't see the same level of complexity in the Action stories that Ludlum brought to the fold with him very much anymore.

Enjoy those too!

Its sad in a way. I think that good action adventure can be written to be clever in the same way. Thanks for the recommendations. Once I'm done with my current reading I'll give them a look.

Actually Jonathan back in '88 Richard Chamberlain started in a TV mini series of the Bourne Identity that stayed very close to the books plot. I like it far better than the recent abor..... err, umm, I mean movie attempts.

Just me of course.

I thought Matt Damon was a good choice for Bourne after reading the books and comparing. And then I had to accept that the film attempt was a different thing altogether. Tv mini-series would work for the book because there's too much to cover in a two to three hour film to go over all the book.

It gets worse if you go to my favorite Ludlum book

The movie starred an aging Michael Caine and a pair of really "beautiful Ladies" but they hacked so much out of the book for the screen play it was trash.

I think they were trying to capture Caine's great performance in "The Day of the Jackal" (Forsythe) and, it just didn't work.

Uhh Hugh...unless there were 2 movies Michael Caine wasn't in Day of the Jackal?????????

right, The Fourth Protocol,.. my bad.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Fourth-Prot...

Okay, that wasn't it either, but at least Caine was in that one.

He was in the original "The Italian Job" Playing Corker, which fits this genre string but that's not the movie I'm thinking of.

He was in The Holcroft Covenant. Maybe that was it, that's a Ludlum book.

No, that's my example of a "OH, look what they did to my favorite book..." You know, one of those standing in the rain shaking a fist at the big building "You bastards, you cut out it's brain!"

but, I wax theatrically here.... Book great, movie meh, but way better if you never read the book.

Maybe it was "Sleuth"?

Oh...sorry. I know the feeling though. It was just the only Ludlum book I could think of with Caine. Who was in Odessa File? Dogs of War was Christopher Walken.

Oops yeah, John Voight.

(All passes over head) Have you actually settled on which film it was?

I've settled on, not important...stick with Ludlum, MacLean, and others mentioned here if you want a tangled plot!

Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "Actually Jonathan back in '88 Richard Chamberlain started in a TV mini series of the Bourne Identity that stayed very close to the books plot. I like it far better than the recent abor..... err, um..."

I know this is late but... YES Chamberlin as Bourne and, Jacklyn Smith as the female lead. (I think)... I could be wrong. (and have been frequently)

That's the one. I checked a while back and it was pretty pricy to get a video copy.

might find it on Netflix? I'll check on Prime and see what they have it for. Hulu.com is also a possibility.

Best Price at Amazon looks like $25 for VHS. yeesh!

It was a mini-series. I thought it was a big screen production. Of course that makes sense seeing who's in it.

Wow that's a fair amount of cash for a VHS.

Yeah it is!.

I wonder why?

They're becoming collectors items? Unfortunately the only VHS movies I possess are not exactly sort after. For example Mulan, Prince of Egypt and The Phantom Menace...