Just recalling that I used to read a ton of pulp adventure thriller writers as a teenager but never do anymore. Alistair Maclean, Desmond Bagley, Dick Francis, Clive Cussler, Robert Ludlum, Wilbur Smith (all incidentally available widely in India often in cheap pirated editions)
Conversation
I think Clive Cussler was my favorite. NOAA explorer-investigator Dirk Pitt.
2
8
Dick Francis (horse racing world adventures) was second favorite. Among the generics I think I liked Bagley best, though Nackean was more famous.
3
1
This genre kinda appears to have died.
2
2
Cold War genre really, even if not spy-vs-spy, which I never enjoyed as much, though some John Le Carre and Len Deighton were kinda good.
2
3
TV basically replaced pulp fiction for me
1
2
I read a ton of westerns too (Louis L’Amour and J. T. Edson) simply because they were easily available. But never enjoyed them as much. Less universal appeal than Cold War thrillers.
1
3
Wonder why this stuff is so heavily gendered. All the writers and most readers are male. Though I think women read this stuff far more than guys read romances.
Replying to
Trying to decide if the spirit of thrilling adventure is kinda dead. It might be. It’s all procedural crime and bureaucracy now.
2
1
8
Fingers crossed for post-Covid global reconstruction/climate action adventure thriller genre. Monosyllabic tough guys investigating vaccine and wind- farm corruption. Girl protagonists acceptable too so long as they’re monosyllabic and tough with no inner life. Voids ‘r us.
1
11
Replying to
The men/therapy meme but “men will read the dumbest possible plot to avoid thinking about character”
1
2
5
Replying to
A big factor for me was that my dad LOVED these books and would let me share his paperbacks. A big treat was him returning from a trip and handing over his latest book to me. Then I was allowed to stay up late and read on the weekend


