Political Fiction

[ChloeTzang]

One of the things I really enjoy are novels with a very overtly political theme. Doesn't matter whether they're left wing, right wing or off in outer space somewhere. Thought it might be interesting to start a thread to share really politically driven FICTION with each other. Love to see what the rest of you guys read - just keep it to fiction, NOT non-fiction.

So I'll start the ball rolling with an oldie but a goodie (and okay, it's not Starship Troopers" altho Heinlein kind of deserves a place of honor). My first pick is John Brunner's "The Sheep Look Up". The writing's not that great but considering it was written back in 1972 it's rather prescient in many ways. I won't spoil it but it's quite a good read.

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[Chris_Michael]

You know, gaming lore can have really good political themes which can relate to the real world. The Elder Scrolls is a good example. The Witcher 3 is another.

Sometimes, the lore is more fleshed out in a game than in a novel.

 

[ChloeTzang]

You know, gaming lore can have really good political themes which can relate to the real world. The Elder Scrolls is a good example. The Witcher 3 is another.

Sometimes, the lore is more fleshed out in a game than in a novel.

Yes, but more of a role playing game rather than a novel. Took a look coz I'm not really into games at all and it's kind of a little off-track from what I had in mind which was really strongly political fiction. I have a few in mind but really, I'd like to see the sort of politically-themed novels the rest of you read and just toss one out there every now and then myself. Unlike my politics, my reading is all over the map. I mean, there's the obvious stuff like 1984 and Animal Farm and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon", but there are a lot more out there.

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[Chris_Michael]

How about The Handmaid's Tail?

Animal Farm and 1984 are yearly audiobooks for me.

 

[sr71plt]

For a fictional primer on political machinations, I don't think you can beat the three volume set of C.P. Snow's Strangers and Brothers.

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or the four-volume set of Alan Drury's Advise and Consent.

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[Iceprincess12]

Vince Flynn novels are very good.

 

[lilmissfilthy]

Anything George Orwell, Tom Clancy, or Ayn Rand.

For something newer, Treason: A Novel by Newt Gingrich has gotten really good reviews. I've not read it yet, but it's high on my to-read list.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Vince Flynn novels are very good.

Hey, now there's an author I'd never come across before. I KNEW this was a good idea So which ones of his do you think are the best? Or are they all equally good. I just went with the first four that popped up when I queried on Average Customer Reviews.

The Last Man - The head of clandestine operations in Afghanistan has been kidnapped, his four bodyguards executed in cold blood. With the CIA plunged into crisis mode, Rapp is dispatched to find his missing friend, Joe Rickman, at all costs. He isn’t the only one looking for Rickman; an FBI special agent is at his heels, determined to blame Rapp for the bloody debacle. Rapp is, however, the only one who knows certain things about the vanished black ops master—secrets that in the wrong hands could prove disastrous. With elements of his own government undermining him—and America’s security—at every turn, Rapp must be as ruthless and deceitful as his enemies to complete this razor’s-edge mission.

Transfer of Power - On a busy Washington morning, amid the shuffle of tourists and the brisk rush of government officials, the stately calm of the White House is shattered in a hail of gunfire. A group of terrorists has descended on the Executive Mansion, and gained access by means of a violent massacre that has left dozens of innocent bystanders murdered. Through the quick actions of the Secret Service, the president is evacuated to his underground bunker, but not before almost one hundred hostages are taken. While the politicians and the military leaders argue over how to negotiate with the terrorists, one man is sent in to break through the barrage of panicked responses and political agendas surrounding the chaotic crisis. Mitch Rapp, the CIA's top counterterrorism operative, makes his way into the White House and soon discovers that the president is not as safe as Washington's power elite had thought. Moving stealthily among the corridors and secret passageways of the White House, stepping terrifyingly close to the enemy, Rapp scrambles to save the hostages before the terrorists can extract the president from the safety of his bunker. In a race against time, Rapp makes a chilling discovery that could rock Washington to its core: someone within his own government is maneuvering in hopes that his rescue attempt will fail.

Memorial Day - CIA intelligence has pointed to a major terrorist attack on the United States, just as the nation’s capital prepares for a grand Memorial Day tribute to the veterans of World War II. Racing to Afghanistan, Mitch Rapp leads a commando raid on an al Queda stronghold in a remote border village—and defuses plans for a nuclear strike on Washington. The crisis averted, the special ops work is done. But Rapp knows, in the face of a new kind of enemy, nothing is as it seems—and it’s up to him alone to avert a disaster of unimaginable proportions.

Separation of Power - The confirmation of Dr. Irene Kennedy as the CIA’s new director explodes into chaos as a deadly inside plot to destroy her and prematurely end the president’s term emerges. Meanwhile, as a dangerous world leader gains power in the nuclear arms race, Israel forces the president’s hand with a chilling ultimatum. With the specter of World War III looming, the president calls on top counterterrorism operative Mitch Rapp, who scours the alleys of Baghdad and the avenues of Washington for America’s enemies. But with only two weeks to take out the nukes, Rapp is up against a ticking clock—and impossible odds.

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[ChloeTzang]

For a fictional primer on political machinations, I don't think you can beat ...... or the four-volume set of Alan Drury's Advise and Consent.

You know, I'd heard vaguely of "Advise and Consent" but I've never read it and I had no idea it was a four book series. Reading thru the reviews, I have GOT to sit down and read these.

Advise and Consent - Allen Drury’s Advise and Consent is one of the high points of 20th Century literature, a seminal work of political fiction—as relevant today as when it was first published. A sweeping tale of corruption and ambition cuts across the landscape of Washington, DC, with the breadth and realism that only an astute observer and insider can convey.

A Shade of Difference - a novel of the United Nations and the racial friction that could spark a worldwide powderkeg. International tensions rise as ambassadors and politicians scheme, using the independence of a small African nation as the focal point for hidden agendas. A cascade of events begun in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations could lead to the weakening of the United States, the loss of the Panama Canal, and a possible civil war. Allen Drury paints a vivid and laser-accurate portrait of Washington and international politics, from top secret conferences, to elite cocktail parties, club luncheon rooms, and the private offices of the key players in government.

Capable of Honor - It is one of the most fundamental questions facing America today: How justifiably, or irresponsibly, do the volatile and unbiased American media—press, television and radio—attempt to interfere with, and control, the political process and the foreign policy of the nation? In a hotly fought Presidential primary, the news media fractures along ideological lines, supporting and distorting the candidates’ records, manipulating the news rather than covering it. Capable of Honor, the third novel in the grand, bestselling Advise and Consent saga, is a compelling blockbuster that shines a harsh and revealing spotlight on how the media shapes the news, guides public opinion, creates policy—and tries to shape history itself.

Preserve and Protect - The United States is thrown into chaos as the President is killed in a plane crash shortly after securing his party’s nomination in a hotly contested race for re-election. As suspicions are cast upon the circumstances of the place crash, the incumbent party quickly convenes to nominate a candidate in a storm of domestic and international chaos. Against the backdrop of a rich cast of characters, the motivations and drives of each candidate and player help shape the future of the nation and the world. Allen Drury’s Preserve and Protect brings to a climax the epic saga begun with Pulitzer Prize winning Advise and Consent—and ends with one of the greatest cliffhangers in all of political fiction.

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[ChloeTzang]

For a fictional primer on political machinations, I don't think you can beat the three volume set of C.P. Snow's Strangers and Brothers.

Aaaaand yes, another author I'd never heard of. Heaven is new books by authors I haven't heard of before ..... - and this is a 10-book series?

George Passant (Strangers and Brothers Book 1) - In the first of the 'Strangers and Brothers' series Lewis Eliot tells the story of George Passant, a Midland solicitor's managing clerk and idealist who tries to bring freedom to a group of people in the years 1925 to 1933.

The Light & The Dark (Strangers and Brothers Book 2) - The story is set in Cambridge, but the plot also moves to Monte Carlo, Berlin and Switzerland. Lewis Eliot narrates the career of a childhood friend. Roy Calvert is a brilliant but controversial linguist who is about to be elected to a fellowship.

Time of Hope (Strangers and Brothers Book 3) - the story of Lewis Eliot’s early life. As a child he is faced with his father’s bankruptcy. As a young man, he finds his career at the Bar hindered by a neurotic wife. Separation from her is impossible however.

The Masters (Strangers and Brothers Book 4) - The fourth in the Strangers and Brothers series begins with the dying Master of a Cambridge college. His imminent demise causes intense rivalry and jealousy amongst the other fellows. Former friends become enemies as the election looms.

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[ChloeTzang]

Anything George Orwell, Tom Clancy, or Ayn Rand.

For something newer, Treason: A Novel by Newt Gingrich has gotten really good reviews. I've not read it yet, but it's high on my to-read list.

Treason by Newt Gingrich - THE WORLD'S MASTER TERRORIST, known only as the Falcon, has infiltrated Washington's highest corridors of power, threatening the very existence of our democracy in this realistic tale of modern day TREASON. Major Brooke Grant has been waging war against terrorism since her parents were murdered during 9/11, keenly aware that her enemy transcends borders. But a coordinated attack on the president at the funeral of a Washington power broker leads her to a terrifying revelation: the enemy is closer than she'd ever imagined and is hiding in plain sight. The Falcon has gained a weapon no terrorist has ever wielded before: an American-born traitor burrowed inside the U.S. government itself.

And of course Ayn Rand.....

The Fountainhead - When The Fountainhead was first published, Ayn Rand's daringly original literary vision and her groundbreaking philosophy, Objectivism, won immediate worldwide interest and acclaim. This instant classic is the story of an intransigent young architect, his violent battle against conventional standards, and his explosive love affair with a beautiful woman who struggles to defeat him. This edition contains a special afterword by Rand’s literary executor, Leonard Peikoff, which includes excerpts from Ayn Rand’s own notes on the making of The Fountainhead. As fresh today as it was then, here is a novel about a hero—and about those who try to destroy him

Atlas Shrugged - Who is John Galt? When he says that he will stop the motor of the world, is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battles not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves? Atlas Shrugged, a modern classic and Rand’s most extensive statement of Objectivism—her groundbreaking philosophy—offers the reader the spectacle of human greatness, depicted with all the poetry and power of one of the twentieth century’s leading artists.

Keep the Aspidistra Flying - George Orwell - Well, 1984 and Animal Farm were already mentioned and this isn't one of his better know books, but a lot of them aren't novels. The Road to Wigan Pier and "Homage to Catalonia" being good examples of great political books, but they're not fiction. Keep The Aspidistra Flying is one of his lesser known works. Waging a losing war with the Money God, Gordon Comstock lives in a small bed-sit and works in a bookstore. A deeply dark yet compassionate satire about the role of money in the mid-20th century western world, Keep the Aspidistra Flying is at turns tragic and comic as Gordon struggles to reconcile his disdain for the entitled world in which he was raised with his own need to build a future for himself and his girlfriend Rosemary.


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[ChloeTzang]

And here's a few that are more right wing politics and guns.... and one that isn't.

Enemies Foreign And Domestic by Matthew Bracken - a domestic terrorism thriller set in the near future. The novel begins on opening day of the NFL season, when bullets begin to rain down upon the upper deck of a packed football stadium. A panic stampede ensues, leading to mass casualties. The alleged sniper is found holding a smoking assault rifle, and is killed by a police marksman. One week later, congress bans the private possession of all semi-automatic assault rifles. Gun owners are given one week to turn in their semi-automatic rifles, or face a five year mandatory sentence. In some ways its quite well written - in others its weak. The plot's good, the protagonist is almost painful to read, and that makes it hard to stay in the book, but the rest of it was good enough to keep me going....

A State of Disobedience by Tom Kratman - It's Time to Remember the Alamo All Over Again-Here Comes the Second Texan Revolution! In the long war against terrorism, the US Government had taken on extraordinary powers. And now that the war was won, powerful forces in the government had no intention of relinquishing those powers. As in 1860, the country was on the verge of civil war. And as in 1860, a leader arose to save the country-but it was not the President this time. Instead, the Governor of Texas was the woman of destiny. . . . Kratman's written a bunch of excellent novels but this isn't his best. It's the only one actually set in the US though, and while it;s not his best, it's good. The book kicks off with not very thinly veiled depiction of the Waco massacre of the Bill Clinton era, it's written as if Hillary won the election and it just gets better from there.

Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach - and by way of a complete contrast, writteb back in 1975, here's a Greenie's drean future (albeit back in the past now). Ecotopia was founded when northern California, Oregon, and Washington seceded from the Union to create a "stable-state" ecosystem: the perfect balance between human beings and the environment. Now, twenty years later, the isolated, mysterious Ecotopia welcomes its first officially sanctioned American visitor: New York Times-Post reporter Will Weston. Like a modern Gulliver, the skeptical Weston is by turns impressed, horrified, and overwhelmed by Ecotopia's strange practices: employee ownership of farms and businesses, the twenty-hour work week, the fanatical elimination of pollution, "mini-cities" that defeat overcrowding, devotion to trees bordering on worship, a woman-dominated government, and bloody, ritual war games. Bombarded by innovative, unsettling ideas, set afire by a relationship with a sexually forthright Ecotopian woman, Weston's conflict of values intensifies-and leads to a startling climax.

The Brigade by H A Covington - and here's a completely different view of a fictional White Nationalist war of independence resulting in the North West seceding from Murika. Covington's a talented writer alright and it's one hell of a story.

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[Iceprincess12]

All of the Vince Flynn books are good. I didn't read them in order and they still made sense. Mitch Rapp is a well developed character and I really liked sitting down to get immersed in his adventures.

Term Limits was his first novel if you want to start at the beginning.

 

[magicalmoments]

I can thoroughly recommend callenbac's Ecotopia.

I read it first back when it was first published and several times since then. A classic of it's kind.