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Post by Jaqhama on Sept 12, 2008 10:39:13 GMT
I saw the thread about Harry Patterson, who was of course Jack Higgins, who is also James Graham, and a few more to boot. Funny thing about Higgins...some of his novels are excellent, some are mediocre and some are just a waste of good reading time. And until you've read the particular book, you won't know which is which. The four thrillers he wrote as James Graham (early in his career) are all great. A Game for Heroes. Bloody Passage. The Wrath of God. The Khufra Run Each one a bloody good read. As Higgin's he had some gems also: The Last Place God made. The Savage day Solo Night Judgement at Sinos. The Iron Tiger East of desolation After a while his stories and characters tend to blur together in the mind. Most of the ones I enjoyed were all set in exotic locales. The problem with ole Higgy is that he frequently copies half a book into another. He wrote a novel about a highwayman in old Ireland that he later changed into a novel set in recent times...whole pages were word for word the same. I think his earlier works were his best, he became a lazy writer as time went by...and the same can be said of his publisher, who must be aware that half the latest stories are simply re-hashed version of his earlier tales. I consider Harry Patterson (his real name) to be a true pulp writer. He has ceaselessy churned out the same kind of stories for four decades or more. If I had to recommend the best of his work I'd choose The Wrath of God. The entire list of his books are here (of course) at Wikiknowitall. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_HigginsCheers: Jaq.
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Post by benedictjjones on Sept 12, 2008 11:22:50 GMT
i've read a few Higgins (under the higgins name) but can't think of any!! you're definetly right though he has written some absoloute tripe but also some gems. for 'the eagle has landed' alone he's a star! (but he nearly ruined it with 'the eagle has flown')
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Post by pulphack on Sept 15, 2008 13:31:43 GMT
he's one of those authors who just kept going when sales dipped, solidly producing a book a year, and caught the wave extolled in the Bookseller about eighteen months back, whereby writers of his generation, like Wilbur Smith and Clive Cussler, Ken Follett maybe, have seen a resurgance in their sales as a new generation of readers have caught up with them. The Robert Ludlum franchise is probably the most successful example of this.
is he pulp? in the sense that he delivers tight thrillers for his faithful, yes. but i tend to think of pulp writers as writing for the moment - published usually in paperback only, and with the idea that it has a short shelf-life, is usually contemporary in theme, and then move on...
higgins fits in with a slightly different tradition, springing post-war from the likes of Hammond Innes, Alastair MacLean and Desmond Bagley (pre-war the likes of Eric Ambler and Victor Canning, though to be accurate Innes published a couple of books in '38/39). hardback writers, they and their publishers saw them as having long shelf-life, with a few lesser-sellers to build a reputation until a breakthrough book, with the backlist them picking up sales from the new converts.
this may seem like nitpicking, but the way the publisher and writer saw the career determined whether or not titles would stay in print. so while, say a moffat pre-richard allen or douglas enefer would write a thriller then it would slip out of print as the SUBJECT was the most important, so a Higgins or a Bagley would see a small selling book stay on the list until the 'breakthrough' title either exploded or flopped.
in essence, i guess, true pulp writers were secondary to the subject, in publisher eyes, whereas the hardback thriller writers were seen as the subject in themselves.
or something like that. anyway, apart from The Eagle Has Landed (for which he deserves his place in popular fiction history alone), i've only read a couple, and that some thirty years ago. but recently i was talking to a cousin of mine and the subject came round to books. now he's been a Higgins fan for the best part of forty years, and he reckons any Higgins book you care to mention has three things:-
* a gravedigger
* an irish priest
* a LOT of rain
so i think it's safe to assume that these are the man's trademarks. and here's a subject for a new thread: the trademarks of writers (can i bang on about John Lymington and HEAT again?).
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Post by benedictjjones on Sept 15, 2008 13:58:01 GMT
^ludlum is writer i really don't like that much and i have tried! i might actually get the sigma protocol back out and reread it just to make sure!!
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Post by Jaqhama on Sept 15, 2008 15:14:13 GMT
* a gravedigger
* an irish priest
* a LOT of rain
Yeah. That one I mentioned, Wrath of God, had all that. The whiskey drinking Irish priest carried a Thompson machine gun, and wasn't afraid to use it.
The Wrath of God was re-hashed in recent times as Dillinger.
When I talk about 'pulp' I mean the kind of writing/story. Matthew Reilly, the modern Aussie author writes pure, over the top pulp style adventure. (I haven't been able to finish his last couple of novels. Just too silly. Kids books with bad language basically)
So to my mind it's the style of the writing, not the shelf life the writer/publisher envisions for the book.
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Post by benedictjjones on Sept 15, 2008 15:28:46 GMT
^i enjoyed 'temple' and the ice station one when they came out but yes he just seemed to be getting sillier and sillier. there is a reilly quick read out at the moment thats only a couple of quid so i might pick that up.
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Post by Jaqhama on Sept 16, 2008 3:40:27 GMT
^i enjoyed 'temple' and the ice station one when they came out but yes he just seemed to be getting sillier and sillier. there is a reilly quick read out at the moment thats only a couple of quid so i might pick that up. A short paperback featuring Shane 'Scarecrow' Schofield? It's the original first couple of chapters that made up the Ice station story. Before the storyline was re-written. Turned into a novella. Shane and the marine's fighting intelligent, machine gun wielding apes. Part of a secret government experiment. I cannot recommend it. But pure 1940's pulp for sure. My lady works at a local bookshop, she has met Matt a couple of times. Three of our books have been signed by him, when he's there to do book signings. I confess I'm always amazed at Matt's popularity. Though he has got a lot of young teens reading, and that must be a good thing. I've never met him myself. Probably just as well, because he might ask me what I think of his books, and I don't like to upset people unless they annoy me.
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Post by benedictjjones on Sept 21, 2008 13:04:14 GMT
^i think the QuickRead was called 'terror island', is that the one??
the idea of his first self published novel sounded decent 'contest' but i haven't read that one.
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Post by Jaqhama on Sept 21, 2008 16:39:36 GMT
^i think the QuickRead was called 'terror island', is that the one?? the idea of his first self published novel sounded decent 'contest' but i haven't read that one. Contest and Ice Station were the best two. I'll check the name of the mini book tommorow.
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Post by benedictjjones on Sept 21, 2008 21:01:03 GMT
cheers. i actually quite enjoyed 'temple' like i said, he can definetly write at quite a pace that drags you through his tomes. i saw the other day that he's been writing a set 'seven wonders of the world' or something like that.
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Post by Jaqhama on Sept 22, 2008 5:49:12 GMT
In Oz it's called Hell Island.
Must be the same book. Given away free quite often as a promotional tool. Only ten bucks here. Not worth more then 2 quid UK i should think.
Matt's been signed to do six novels in a series. 2 are already out. Seven Ancient Wonders. Six Sacred Stones
The next one will probably be called: Five Fingers of Death or something. Oh hang on, someone's done that already.
I think his stories are getting worse as he goes along meself. Like hollywood movies (which he really wants to get a book done for) he uses massive, over the top action scenes to fill out the books.
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Post by benedictjjones on Sept 22, 2008 13:57:18 GMT
might well be hell island over here to. yeah it only costs about £2 same as all the quick reads.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jun 3, 2009 8:05:36 GMT
* a gravedigger * an irish priest * a LOT of rain Yeah. That one I mentioned, Wrath of God, had all that. The whiskey drinking Irish priest carried a Thompson machine gun, and wasn't afraid to use it. Just finished A Prayer For The Dying - great little thriller. For the record, it's pissing down for about 95% of the book. Dandy Jack Meehan is a funeral director, so there's at least one gravedigger as well as lots of info about funerals etc. There's a Catholic priest, not Irish, but an ex-SAS man who was tortured in Korea and is handy in unarmed combat. The 'hero' is an ex-IRA killer. Curiously enough, one of the chapter headings is The Wrath Of God. Two others are The Executioner and The Devil And All His Works.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jul 26, 2009 17:38:38 GMT
Jack Higgins/ Harry Patterson - Hell Is Always Today - 1968, republished by Arrow 1977.
They called him the Rainlover. That was the only thing about him that was certain. He only murdered when the nights were dark and the streets were wet- when they'd be no witnesses around. And his victims were always women. That was all they knew. But the Rainlover could be anyone. He could be rich or poor, young or old, someone's husband, someone's brother, someone's handsome son. He could be any one of thousands of men. For Miller and Mallory - hounded by the public and the press and racing against time to prevent the next gory killing - there was only one question. Which one?
Ignore the hyperbolic blurb - the killings aren't gory at all. No Catholic priest, no gravedigger, but rain there is plenty of. It's another squeaky-clean but enjoyable Nick Miller romp. Unfortunately the cast of characters is really too small for there to be that much mystery of who the killer is but it was an entertaining little read.
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