[Gothos]

Assail, on 17 May 2010 - 08:03 AM, said:

Oh and yeah, I'm headed down to Southern Helmand. Area around Marjah.

Oh man, you guys going to clean up after Moshtarak? Good luck once again, you could use a double dosage.

Also: Corps vs Army... Army gets supplies, Marines make do?


Also2: Looking at the scenery, you could give Dune books a shot / another shot
I'd have some historical fiction for you but I doubt you can read polish

This post has been edited by Gothos: 17 May 2010 - 10:56 AM

[Obdigore]

I agree with the Pratchet (Discworld Series)

You could pick up anything and everything by Gene Wolf.

I would suggest both Enders Game and 'Armor' by John Steakley, they have both resenated well with all my miltary service friends.

All four Abercrombie books.

I also suggest you get the encyclopedia britanica, so you can use it to armor your humvee instead of your personal body armor.

Come back sir, as we all have every intention of discussing the merits (or lack thereof) of a certain author who shall not be named.

[Vengeance]

If you are interested in Historical fiction I would second Shogun and the rest of James Clavell's books.

Also
James Michener's Novels: Texas, Hawaii, Chesapeake, The source, Centennial, Alaska, Poland. Each one is a thousand or so pages and good reads. I usually skip his first chapters as they deal with how the land was created and what not.


Stay safe.

[Abyss]

Some solid recommendations upthread.

I suggest you get yer camo clad self to http://www.baen.com/library/ and immediately grab the following series (yes 'series', each one below has at least three or more books):

Bahzell - classic fantasy heroes and evil gods sort of thing

The Stars At War - actually about six loosely connected books with some GREAT massive armadas of spaceships battles and such

The Alldenata / Posleen War series - armoured corps vs aliens hordes

Council Wars - sf/fantasy mash up, includes dragons vs orcas and orc in space...

The Prince Roger/Bronze Barbarians series - marines crash on fantasy setting planet, overthrow governments, etc etc

more or less anything by Ringo, White, Drake or Weber will be entertaining.

And while you're over there, please note that it is your critical duty to share the works of Terry Goodkind with the Taliban.


- Abyss, all about winning the hearts and mindzzz....

[Gatekeeper]

I really had no idea so many of us on here served. Perhaps that's why we like Erikson so much? ha! Good luck man, hope it' s a quick tour, and you come back safe, happy, and whole. Your brothers and sisters here on the board will be thinking of you.

Hail the Marines! had to do it.........

[caladanbrood]

Cause, on 17 May 2010 - 09:39 AM, said:

Some good historical military writing can be got from this man

Steven Pressfield

I can personally vouch for his books

Gates of fire
The afghan campaign

Not read the rest but I would take the chance

Gates of Fire and Tides of War are both excellent. The others... meh.




And best of luck.

[Darkwatch]

Fiction
Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space and related books.
Ian Irvine's Well of Echoes and if you want The View from the Mirror
Harry Turtledove's novels of A World War and Magic might interest you (a fantasy version of WWII).

Non-Fiction
The Clock of the Long Now by Stewart Brand. One of my all time favourite books.
The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. A good introduction to astrophysics, quantum mechanics and string theory. Be careful about the string theory though, it's not quite solid.
Persian Fire by Tom Holland. A great history read, easy and fun. It details the two Persian Wars against Greece.

Make sure you give better than you get.

This post has been edited by Darkwatch: 17 May 2010 - 02:54 PM

[Assail]

Well, we're staging here in a little bit and I've got some last minute stuff to do. Thanks for all the help guys, it's much appreciated. Take care, I'll stop by in 7 months and let you know how it went.

@Gothos Yeah, it should be a blast Rather be in Kandahar though, if you ask me.

[Gothos]

Assail, on 17 May 2010 - 02:53 PM, said:

@Gothos Yeah, it should be a blast

dude, I hope the pun-ish thing wasn't intended

[Jusentantaka]

Gothos, on 17 May 2010 - 10:55 AM, said:

Also: Corps vs Army... Army gets supplies, Marines make do?

Army gets the bad toys, Corps gets the bad boys.



Guess you won't see it now, but good good luck all the same.

[Dutch]

Raymond Luxury Yacht, on 17 May 2010 - 06:43 AM, said:

Get Shogun and the rest of the books in the series (I think the series is called the Asian Saga)by James Clavell. It'll keep you busy and iis great, except for the last one. They aren't direct sequels so you can always just skip the last one, which is what I always do. HIstorical fiction at its finest in shogun especially.

Shogun
Tai-Pan
Gai-Jin
King Rat
Noble House

These are the James Clavell books that I know so far.

Some more tips, not sure if these are mentioned before:

fantasy

Karen Miller - Empress of Mijak, Godspeaker Book One
- The Riven Kingdom, Godspeaker Book Two

Fiction (like Shogun, based in Japan during the time of the Samurai)

Takashi Matsuoka - Autumn Bridge
- Cloud of Sparrows

More fiction (Templar Knights)

Robyn Young - Brethren
- Crusade
- Requiem

And last but not least, The Dirk Pit and Kurt Austin Novels + the Oregon Files by Clive Cussler.

The Oregon Files consists of six books so far and these I can really recommand if you like action, gadgets and so on.

Sacred Stone
Golden Buddha
Plague Ship
Skeleton Coast
Dark Watch
Corsair

Take care and good luck

This post has been edited by Dutch Master of the Deck: 17 May 2010 - 06:51 PM

[Happymad]

I would suggest anything by Robin Hobb but especially The Farseer Trilogy and the tawny man trilogy.
The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks
The Crown of Stars Series by Kate Elliot, Had some rather dry parts but one of my favorite fantasy characters is in this series
I would have to second the recommendation for anything by Guy Gavriel Kay, I would suggest Tigana
David Eddings, the Malorian and Belgariad
Hitchhikers Guide by Douglas Adams

This post has been edited by Happymad: 17 May 2010 - 07:52 PM

[Coco with marshmallows]

possibly a little late,

but if historical fiction is your thing, I'd recommend the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell.

About an English soldier fighting in the Napoleonic era, with the added bonus of the fact that he's a ranker who gets a field commission to officer, and so encounters a degree of prejudice for not being a gentleman.

Vaya con dios,
stay safe.

[worry]

Happymad, on 17 May 2010 - 07:43 PM, said:

I would suggest anything by Robin Hobb but especially The Farseer Trilogy and the tawny man trilogy.

Can't leave out the Liveship trilogy! It's so well constructed from start to finish (like the Mistborn books turned out to be, which was pleasantly surprising), and actually comes rather close to SE-style convergence in a way that's equally masterful. Plus, it's pretty much all the guts of what is essentially a 9 books series, despite the trilogy setup.

[hmqb]

Hey, heres my stratagy with the kindle reading stuff.
Just go search by catagory and download a ton of free trials of anything you think you might like, then after that just start sifting through them and buy everyone you liked.
just the way i've used a few times.
PS. when I tried doing it i only went down like 200 of the 8000 results and had found like 20 pretty good looking series (MBoTF was there too) and tons of novel aswell. Of course you might not have the time so, you probally wanna stick with suggestions, ect... maybe not spend days on it


and if army gets supplies and corps make do what the hell does everyone else do? I.E Navy, air force, coast guard ect...
lol

This post has been edited by High Mage Quick Ben: 17 May 2010 - 08:16 PM

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Dutch Master of the Deck, on 17 May 2010 - 06:48 PM, said:

Raymond Luxury Yacht, on 17 May 2010 - 06:43 AM, said:

Get Shogun and the rest of the books in the series (I think the series is called the Asian Saga)by James Clavell. It'll keep you busy and iis great, except for the last one. They aren't direct sequels so you can always just skip the last one, which is what I always do. HIstorical fiction at its finest in shogun especially.

Shogun
Tai-Pan
Gai-Jin
King Rat
Noble House

These are the James Clavell books that I know so far.

The last book in the series is called Whirlwind. It's about Iran during the time of the revolution and extremely boring and a discredit to the rest of the series. The rest are all solid though, buit Shogun is excellent. It makes my top three favorite books of any genre.

[Assail]

Well we have a bit of a layover in Manas, Kyrgyzstan. So I thought I might drop a line and say G'Day. Thanks for all the thoughts, all the book reccomendations and I'll definitely be back to say hello again when I get back. Take care everyone, thanks again.

@Gothos, the worst thing is man, I didn't even think about it until you brought it up hahahahaha.

Peace all. Take care.

[MTS]

Take care man.