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Subject: "Espionage" Archived thread - Read only
 
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Conferences General Topic #1468
Reading Topic #1468
ebony14
Member since Jul-11-11
437 posts
Jan-16-17, 02:23 PM (EDT)
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"Espionage"
 
   So, I find myself interested in learning more about the history of the OSS, the SOE, and assorted other parts of the Great Game in the 20th Century. Can anyone recommend a good book to start with?

Ebony the Black Dragon

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."


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  Subject     Author     Message Date     ID  
  RE: Espionage Gryphonadmin Jan-16-17 1
  RE: Espionage Pasha Jan-18-17 2
  RE: Espionage zwol Jan-20-17 3
     RE: Espionage Pasha Jan-23-17 4
         RE: Espionage zwol Jan-23-17 6
             RE: Espionage Gryphonadmin Jan-23-17 7
                 RE: Espionage zwol Jan-23-17 8
                     RE: Espionage ebony14 Jan-24-17 9
  RE: Espionage Gryphonadmin Jan-23-17 5

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Gryphonadmin
Charter Member
22374 posts
Jan-16-17, 03:56 PM (EDT)
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1. "RE: Espionage"
In response to message #0
 
   >So, I find myself interested in learning more about the history of the
>OSS, the SOE, and assorted other parts of the Great Game in the 20th
>Century. Can anyone recommend a good book to start with?

For SOE, start with Leo Marks's Between Silk and Cyanide. Marks was a cryptanalyst during the war and provides an excellent, moving, and often hilarious account of the tribulations of being "SOE-minded".

I haven't done a lot of reading about the OSS, now that you mention it, and should probably remedy that. Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes is a good read as long as you don't mind being very, very depressed at how chronically criminal and incompetent the CIA has been throughout its history.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Pasha
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1018 posts
Jan-18-17, 02:39 PM (EDT)
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2. "RE: Espionage"
In response to message #0
 
   >So, I find myself interested in learning more about the history of the
>OSS, the SOE, and assorted other parts of the Great Game in the 20th
>Century. Can anyone recommend a good book to start with?

Most of what I have is about the paramilitary workings, but still on my shelves after a recent non-fiction purge are:

The aforementioned "legacy of ashes",

History of MI-5:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307275817

Keegan's Intelligence in War
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBJE2O/

Douglas Waller's bio of Wild Bill:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003UV8TF4

Body of Secrets - Not so much fun stories of spies as the history of the NSA
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001334IXS/

--
-Pasha
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."


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zwol
Member since Feb-24-12
299 posts
Jan-20-17, 01:16 PM (EDT)
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3. "RE: Espionage"
In response to message #0
 
   Charlie Stross just posted capsule reviews of five books on 20th century espionage on Tor.com. They all appear to be focused on the Cold War and afterward, which is later than what you were asking about, but still might be useful.


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Pasha
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1018 posts
Jan-23-17, 02:29 PM (EDT)
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4. "RE: Espionage"
In response to message #3
 
   LAST EDITED ON Jan-23-17 AT 02:30 PM (EST)
 
>Charlie Stross just posted
>capsule reviews of five books on 20th century espionage on Tor.com. They all
>appear to be focused on the Cold War and afterward, which is later
>than what you were asking about, but still might be useful.

Mostly because his new book (Empire Games) is *all* about the USA relearning Old School espionage because they're dealing with a threat that their panopticon hasn't pierced (mostly because it's in another timeline)

--
-Pasha (edit fucking dcforumlinkwordrapfuckery)
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."


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zwol
Member since Feb-24-12
299 posts
Jan-23-17, 03:55 PM (EDT)
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6. "RE: Espionage"
In response to message #4
 
   > his new book (Empire Games) ...

I bounced really hard off the Merchant Princes books. I'm going to get this one out of the library and try to read it anyway, but I'm ... not actually all that sanguine.


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Gryphonadmin
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22374 posts
Jan-23-17, 04:04 PM (EDT)
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7. "RE: Espionage"
In response to message #6
 
   >I bounced really hard off the Merchant Princes books. I'm going to
>get this one out of the library and try to read it anyway, but
>I'm ... not actually all that sanguine.

For me it was Halting State. I mean, I acknowledge his ballsiness in actually writing a novel in the Internet Porn Voice*, but sometimes transcending parody just isn't enough.

--G.
* second-person present tense. seriously, he did that.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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zwol
Member since Feb-24-12
299 posts
Jan-23-17, 07:08 PM (EDT)
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8. "RE: Espionage"
In response to message #7
 
   I liked that one okay? But I think I have an unusually high tolerance for experimental form and also I may have been exactly the target audience subject-matter-wise.

With Merchant Princes, it was more the constant background refrain of "all the ways I find high fantasy unrealistic, let me show you them" that got to me.


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ebony14
Member since Jul-11-11
437 posts
Jan-24-17, 09:26 AM (EDT)
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9. "RE: Espionage"
In response to message #8
 
   >I liked that one okay? But I think I have an unusually high tolerance
>for experimental form and also I may have been exactly the target
>audience subject-matter-wise.
>
>With Merchant Princes, it was more the constant background refrain of
>"all the ways I find high fantasy unrealistic, let me show you them"
>that got to me.

Yeah, I stuck with it for a few of the books, but really haven't pursued that series. I did like some of the stuff in it, and it worked for me to come at it as if it were a set of spy novels, rather than fantasy novels. Coincidentally, what got me interested in this was the Laundry books, which I like a lot better than the Merchant Princes stuff.

Ebony the Black Dragon

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."


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Gryphonadmin
Charter Member
22374 posts
Jan-23-17, 02:48 PM (EDT)
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5. "RE: Espionage"
In response to message #0
 
   I am vaguely amused by this thread when I notice it in the list, solely because years ago, I had a Sims 3 character who was a writer, and one of the things I had to do a lot of while playing him was make up titles for his books. One of his best-sellers was called Espionage! (followed a short time later by the less successful, but still well-received, More Espionage!).

A number of them turned up later on as books by the UF version of Rahne Sinclair in the Featured Document about same, including the Espionage! trilogy, although I can't remember now if Espionage! III: Intrigue in Lyons actually appeared in the game. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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