Best top - 10 NON Sci-fi authors for Traveller & Why

[ElliottWJames]

Liam asked for comments on Sci-fi sci-fi authors for Traveller.

Granted the tech-level for worlds does vary. What non-scifi authors would you recommend and why/

For example some the Desmond Bagley wrote a series of action adventures in the 1960's and 70's that fit in quite well.

You can't beat John Le Carre for hard spy fiction, although Len Deighton is good too; try out "The Ipcress File" & "Funeral in Berlin" as antedote to James Bond.

Brian Callison does good sea stores and the Trapp series like "Trapp's Peace" work well in space.

I'm a great fan of Anthony Price if you like spys and millitary history you'll love this author. All his stories have an historical theme, start with either "The Labrynth Makes" or "Our Man in Camelot" for a feel of the writer.

So, lets have some suggestions.

 

[Shadowdancer]

For commando unit action, you can't beat the "Rogue Warrior," Dick Marcinko.

Of course, Tom Clancy's stuff is good.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Action Adventures...non trave/non fiction (in case i rpeat earlier posts):

Jack Higgens/Harry Patterson-ALL

Robert Ludlum/"Bourne Identity", "Horse underwater", etc.

Alistair MacLean (until ye get to GoodBye California, and thats not too bad fer Terrorists vs Agents)

Dashiell Hammett, Eric Ambler, for those whodunit/ mystery-action stuff thrillers...

Clancy's yarns are good, (but he's fallen in love with his characters methinks...and the technology always works as William points out-he and I & others know-it don't always do that...!)

There were several other British authors I read when I was younger-good Naval stuff, WW-2 era, battles, persons, sex, and ships...Ahhh good stuff.

 

[travalv]

I have heard good things about Patric O'Brian's sea stories, set in the Royal Navy of the Napoleonic Wars. In regard to time lag and a thinly spread out navy, it is a good analogue to the Imperial Navy. The series starts with "Master and Commander"

And naturally, there is C.S. Forester's Hornblower series as well. His books are also a pleasant read for the Imperial Navy fan....

In regard to new authors, I am reading "Invisible Cities" by 'a real literary writer', Italo Calvino. In the story, Marco Polo is telling Kublai Khan about the various cities in the Khan's slowly dying empire. The tales are short and impressionsitic/'fabulist': with some reworking, you can turn them into worlds of the Imperium.

I'm going to wander off-topic now, and just relay some sources of cool adventures...

If you want first-rate Great Adventurers of olden days, there is "Dead Reckoning: Great Adventure Writing from the Golden Age of Exploration 1800-1900." For the serious scout...

I also like going thru old issues of National Geographic - just file off the serial numbers, and you have some nice stories.

For a more trader/merchant angle, a quick survey of the front page of the Wall Street Journal can sometimes scare up something interesting. Two competing passanger lines: one led by a man of aristocratic bearing who desires prefection in his line, but is suffering from debt (Royal Sovereign lines). The other passanger line is managed by a man who fought his way from the bottom (Carnival lines)? This practically screams to be made int o a Trsveller senario!

 

[plop101]

Non Sci Fi fiction authors eh? Thats a tough one. I don't read that much non Sci Fi fiction.

Euguene Burdick; did The Ugly American and A Role in Manila.
The latter is a collection of short stories; I highly recommend "The happiest man in Berlin."

Harold Coyle; Team Yankee, Dead Hand, among others.

Tom Clancy obviously.

Ernest Hemingway, Jack London. Can you imagine what these guys would have done if they had written Sci-Fi?

 

[lord irial]

Hmmm...

Arthur Fox-Davies, for heraldry and fuedal theory.

National Geographic Magazine, for a bunch of topics that can be made into cultures, encounters, and adventures.

Tom Clancy, for plots and tech and more plots.

Fritjof Capra, for the Turning Point, for much insight into society, the universe, and systems.

Ian Fleming, for espionage.

R. Ewart Oakeshott, for low-tech weapons and armor.

...can't really think of any more just at the moment. Maybe later, though.

 

[Shadowdancer]

I forgot to mention Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels. With some modification, could make some decent "searching for Ancients/past civilization artifacts/objects" type adventures.