Hacker News Reader

I always recommend The Dogs of War as a first Forsyth novel, and No Comebacks as a first Forsyth reader.

No Comebacks:

1. Are all short stories, so good for the reader who is not yet invested in Forsyth

2. Starts with the titular story, which (IMO) is a pretty good capture of Forsyth plot and story-telling.

I find it hilarious how Dogs of War is different as the book and the movie. The movie is a classical '80s thing with big guns and explosions. The book on the other hand gets into great detail about the logistics of organizing a coup, holding accounts, export licenses for arms, etc. Forsyth would've probably preferred to write it as a non-fiction book, but making it a work of fiction vastly extended his life expectancy.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com