Favorite Gun Fiction Authors?

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jAK-47

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Who are your favorite fiction writers when it comes to guns? I'll start it off with Stephen Hunter (great name :D ). Right now I'm reading "Black Light" and cannot put it down. He is a great writer!

Hunter doesn't dedicate a huge chunk of the book describing weapons, ballistics, etc. but he does a great job of weaving gun stuff throughout the novels. He is a FORMER liberal/gun HATER turned GUN LOVER! Ya gotta love the guy for that!! Overall, he does a great job on researching the guns, ballistics, etc. his characters use in the books.

Here's a neat website on Hunter if you're interested in learning more about Hunter and his characters like "Bob the Nailer" and Earl Swagger. Bob was based on real life sniper Sergeant Carlos Hathcock.
http://www.stephenhunter.net/

So, let us know your favorite authors so we can check them out!

Enjoy,

jAK-47
 
Joel Rosenberg is very good. He is a CCW instructor, and I know he posts at Glocktalk.

editted to add:

Mr Rosenberg posts here at the high road as well.
 
I like Steven Hunter too, except his first book "Master Sniper" kinda stunk.

My favorite of all time was Robert Heinlein. "Time Enough For Love".
 
Have to agree with Stephen Hunter (have read all of the Swagger books (Bob & Earl)). I've read a couple of Steve Thayer's books (Wheat Field and Wolf Pass). Similar in style to Hunter.
 
Donald Hamilton wrote the Matt Helm series of spy novels.
They were written to a formula, but not bad reading.
Hamilton was a small bore rifle match shooter in his younger years. Later he took up waterfowling, deer, antelope and elk hunting, and shot some black powder shotguns occasionally.

I only recall one mistake on gun stuff in his books. When not writing fiction Hamilton did some articles for Gun Digest and the old men's magazine, True. He knew his stuff.

Don't waste your time on the Matt Helm movies starring Dean Martin. The one I rented was awful.
 
Stephen Hunter was asked why he includes guns in his books. This was his response -

"Frequently I hear, 'I love your books except for all that gun stuff. Why don't you just cut the gun stuff and just tell the stories?' That misses the point: the stories start with the gun stuff because it's the guns, really more than the words, that are at the center of my imagination. Show me a pair of ballet slippers, a pencil, a microscope, a dog or a president, and ask me to write a story, and here's what you'd get: zilch. Nothing. My brain doesn't work that way. Show me, say, a well-used Colt 1911A1, built in the year 1934 and suddenly I'm excited: Hmmm? Marine Corps? Used in Nicaragua and China? Or a mobster's gun, carried by Babyface himself. Or maybe in the holster of a western lawman, fighting against enforcers from a copper mining company. Or a D.A. in Chicago. Or a woman fleeing a brutal, drunken husband. My imagination is the only thing I have and it's how I make my living: the guns are absolutely at the center of it, the one thing that stimulates it to produce images, characters and, most of all, energy. You can't write 12 books in 20 years while holding down a fulltime job and raising a family without energy."

Hunter thinks and feels like many on these boards!
jAK-47;)
 
Louis L'Amour and Stephen Hunter. Which of the Swagger books was it where brought a bunch of characters based on real-life gunwriters and actors together? It was a hoot (not to mention, a BLAST!)!

I remember one character was based on Elmer Keith, another on Audie Murphy, along with one inspired by Jack Connor. There were a couple of others, but names escape me.
 
Which of the Swagger books was it where brought a bunch of characters based on real-life gunwriters and actors together? It was a hoot (not to mention, a BLAST!)!

"Pale Horse Coming" Great book. I think I like "Black Light" better!

jAK-47
 
Gerald Hammond writes some good mysteries with a gunsmith and friends as the characters. I don't think you could find a gun mistake in the entire series.
 
Steven Hunter...I didnt care for Black Light...LOVED Master Sniper...I havent read anything of his since...Seems like I should start again...Anyone got Pale Horse Coming on paperback, that they are done with??

Robert Heinlen...Good stuff


NOW I am gonna throw one at ya that you might have missed...Dean R. Koontz....I dont know what his personal feelings are with the RKBA, but his books are decidedly 2nd amendment...


Cant think of any more right now...

The Glue is slowly killing my memory..:p
 
Robert Heinlein - and his really seminal book _Beyond This Horizon_ was just republished in hardback - better grab it while you can!

I think I'll start another thread about that, but it's really an interesting picture of a very different society - very armed, and generally very polite. (Also with ubiquitous genetic engineering.)

This is an early book, and his writing skills weren't nearly as strong as in e.g. _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_, but the social ideas are very interesting.
 
John Sandford's "Prey" series with Lucas Davenport is good. Sandfords a shooter and while the plots aren't gun-driven like they are in Hunter's books, he gets the details right and presents a quiet pro-gun attitude.

I just finished a couple novels by Donald Harstad. He's a retired Iowa Deputy Sheriff who writes police procedural thrillers about, what else, an Iowa Deputy Sheriff. Lots of good gun stuff in there as well. In one book a rare Soviet PSM pistol was the murder weapon and in another one of the drug dealer suspects had a SVT-40, but the investigators realized it couldn't be the murder weapon because it fired the wrong type of 7.62 ammo.
 
I'll suggest Robert Crais. The martial arts/fighting stuff in his books is kinda like straight out of a Hongkong movie but his stories in general are absolutely gripping and suspenseful.

I think he is a pro-gun person because Joe Pike, one of his fictional heroes, owns a gun shop and surrounds himself with lots of military weaponry.

I just finished reading "LA Requiem" and thoroughly enjoyed it.

His novels are mostly about two ex-military guys making a living as P.I.'s in LA, and IMO he ranks right up with Robert B. Parker. His stories are not only thrilling but also very funny, full of wisecracks and have a human touch to them.


Regards,

Trooper
 
Wow, I love the way this board thinks. I have read a majority of the authors mentioned and love them.

I just recently finished reading some of John Sandfords.

I personally like

Louis L'Amour
(read last of the breed, set in modern days, awesome)

Andy McNab
(Remote Control, Bravo Two Zero true story)

Stephen Hunter

I can't think of the author off hand, but the fellow who writes the
Repairman Jack books. Awesome books.
 
Let's not forget our own Matt Bracken!!
Enemies:Foreign and Domestic.

Very good book. I consider it and UC "MUST" reads.


MiKeMaN
 
I like Robert Crais too, but his earlier efforts, though very good reads, were truly howlers from the firearms perspective - he apparently would choose a random gun manufacturer and caliber to create most of the guns used, I seem to recall a .25 Ruger pistol or some such.

I came very close to writing and saying "dude, if you need help picking real guns for your books give me call..."

That said, he has improved markedly over the years - both in writing skills and firearm selection/knowledge.
 
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