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Hey there, I've got a bit of a project on that I need some inspiration for - I'm looking for good espionage/spy type books with good plots and twists and preferably a techy/near future angle as well.
I could do with some suggestions from Ask Hatrack (tm)!
Posts: 2245 | Registered: Nov 1998
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I was going to say Clancy, too. (Don't see the need for a stone -- Cardinal fits the bill perfectly.)
Posts: 1877 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I meant I'd be stoned for that being the only Clancy I've never read... *everyone* says it's the best of them.
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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If you want techy, this isn't a good suggestion, but there's an Allistair McLean novel called "The Secret Ways" (U.S. title) or "The Last Frontier."
It's about a British agent attempting to get back a defector/kidnapped atomic weapons designer from Hungary. Best spy novel I ever read.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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They're not near future, but I'd suggest a series called, I think, Great True Spy Stories. The name is accurate, its written by a former head of the CIA, iirc.
Many of them are somewhat techy, though a slightly older tech.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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I didn't key in on the techy aspect - Le Carre's novel was written in the 60's, I believe, so it probably won't fit the bill. Great novel though.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I third the John Le Carre suggestions, even though his works aren't techie. He was actually a spy for the British, I believe. Which gives his stories a little extra weight.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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The most recent John Grisham novel (The Broker, I believe it is called) sounds right up the alley you are seeking.
Posts: 87 | Registered: Apr 2006
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Now, to qualify it a bit further - I'm looking for something that's almost a cross between spy/james bond and the matrix - anything like that out there?
Posts: 2245 | Registered: Nov 1998
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Spin State by Chris Moriarty qualifies: the lead charactor is an intelligence officer who regularly plugs into an information space that spans light years, via quantum entangled communication networks. Thanks to nano-enabled wetware, it's not like todays internet but far more immersive.
As the Kansas City Star said (I'll steal jokes but always source blurbs):" An impressive hard sci-fi debut..." It's a good read, though Moriarty trys to tackle too much. But I'd rather a writer be too ambitious and only partially succeed than try to be mediocre and succeed wonderfully. I'm planning on reading the sequel, inevitably titled Spin Control.
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Hmm, I know of a book that's exactly what you might be looking for. Long story, but I don't know the title or author, just where it is on the library shelf. Will you still be looking this weekend? I can get it for you then.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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Oh... not exactly about espionage, and really not the direction you are headed with this, but a must read for a variety of reasons is Neal Stephenson's Crytonomicon... and it comes complete with your own, fairly secure, code cypher developed by a legitimate, real-life spy!
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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"Ghost in the Shell" Anime movie or series. OK, they are not books per se, but, hey there fun.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Heck, most of the Clancy "Jack Ryan" novels involve a bit of espionage, that one is the most heavily dependent on it.
The Bear and the Dragon also has a subplot on espionage that might interest you if that's the only think you're interested in, but all the J. Ryan books are based on the CIA (or a CIA agent after he leaves the CIA).
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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The Blue Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver is about a computer techie using social engineering to do bad things. Some of the computer facts were stretched, but not by much.
Posts: 1209 | Registered: Dec 2003
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