Reading recommendations?
On a whim, I picked up Robert Harris's Fatherland, and have been enjoying it far more than I expected to, especially because the alternate history setting means it can be read science-fictionally (see Jo Walton's recent Tor.com post on the subject). Vistas of shelves full of unread thrillers open themselves before my mind's eye, a genre I have hitherto neglected, indeed largely avoided, apart from one Bond novel and a foray into John Le Carré'sSpy who came in from the cold plus one chapter of The perfect spy before I decided it was too mannered. There are, however, an awful lot of thrillers out there and according to Sturgeon's Law, 90% of them are crap.
Any recs? My taste is likely to run to noirish/political/Cold War settings with emphasis on conspiracy and corruption in high places rather than Hollywoodish action scenes or serial killers, and preferably no loving lingering descriptions of fetishized weapons and gore for people who get a kick out of imaginary brutality. No medical thrillers and probably no cheesy science fiction that dare not speak its name à la Jurassic Park either; ideally third person rather than first person narratives but this is less important. That said I will consider anything well written with strong characterization and plot. Except medical thrillers, no way no how.
Any recs? My taste is likely to run to noirish/political/Cold War settings with emphasis on conspiracy and corruption in high places rather than Hollywoodish action scenes or serial killers, and preferably no loving lingering descriptions of fetishized weapons and gore for people who get a kick out of imaginary brutality. No medical thrillers and probably no cheesy science fiction that dare not speak its name à la Jurassic Park either; ideally third person rather than first person narratives but this is less important. That said I will consider anything well written with strong characterization and plot. Except medical thrillers, no way no how.