I’ve had a couple of requests for a recommended reading list, largely for stuff similar to the Praetorian series. I’ve also been asked about stuff similar to the Jed Horn series, just not as often (since Jed seems to have a slightly smaller following, that shouldn’t be surprising). So, after a little thinking (and a little turning around to stare at the bookcases behind my desk), I’ve got a few recommended reads, fiction and non-fiction, that might fill the bill.
Non-Fiction
Secret Commandos, John Plaster
The Village, Bing West
War Story, and The Devil’s Secret Name, Jim Morris
First Recon: Second To None, Paul R. Young (Included here mainly because this was the book that first got me interested in Recon, and led to my Marine Corps career as an 0321.)
First In, Gary Schroen
Jawbreaker, Gary Berntsen
Hunting the Jackal, Billy Waugh
The Last Hundred Yards, H. John Poole (if you can find a copy; this was Poole’s first, and appears to be out of print. The rest of his bibliography is well worth it for a good look at true light infantry tactics.)
The March Up, No True Glory, The Strongest Tribe, and The Wrong War, Bing West
El Narco, Ioan Grillo
Killing Pablo, Mark Bowden
McMafia, Misha Glenny
Convergence: Illicit Networks and National Security in the Age of Globalization, Michael Miklaucic (This one is big. It’s a long read, and extremely detailed, but it was one of the formative pieces of research for The Devil You Don’t Know.)
The Bush War in Rhodesia, Dennis Croukamp
War Dogs, Al Venter
Fiction
This is going to be more of a hodge-podge, crossing lines of thrillers, science fiction, and fantasy.
Dead Six, Swords of Exodus, and Alliance of Shadows, Larry Correia and Mike Kupari
The Deckard Series, starting with Reflexive Fire, Jack Murphy
The PRIMAL Series, Jack Silkstone
The Countdown series, Tom Kratman
The Pike Logan series, Brad Taylor (Personally, I think the earlier ones were somewhat stronger, though I haven’t read any of the newer ones since No Fortunate Son.)
The Kolt Raynor series, Dalton Fury (RIP)
Hell and Gone, and Tier Zero, Henry Brown
The Profession, Steven Pressfield
The Ben Williams series, Steven Hildreth
The Task Force Intrepid series, Dan Tharp
Hammer’s Slammers, David Drake
The Monster Hunter International series, Larry Correia
The Dresden Files series, Jim Butcher
Iron Chamber of Memory, Awake in the Night Land, and Somewhither, John C. Wright (Actually, just buy everything the man has written.)
***
That should keep y’all busy for a while, at least until I can get Lex Talionis finished. The list will likely expand as my own genre writing expands; this is a wavetops list, at best. Once I’ve got some HF and SF out there, it’ll definitely get longer to include those genres.