News and Updates
12 August 2008
Yeah, I know, it's been a long time. Well, I have no Craig news whatsoever. It looks like this year we will be marking 10 years since Craig's last novel Slipping into Shadow.
I did notice that Amazon UK are including Slipping into Shadow in a 5 novel "Adventure Pack". The price is good.
Last year I mentioned James Barrington's book Foxbat. It's coming out in paperback and is worth a look. It's nice to read a thriller with characters discussing the capabilities of Russian fighter jets! I've missed that!
He also has a new thriller called Timebomb out in hardback.
Not to be confused with Gerald Seymour's new novel also called Timebomb which is up to his usual high standard.
Ever heard of a movie called The MacKintosh Man? It
dates from the 1970s, features Paul Newman and is based on a novel called The Freedom Trap by Desmond Bagley.
The Craig connection is the music was done by Maurice Jarre who did the music to Firefox. Maybe it's just me but I can hear bits of the Firefox theme in there.
You can hear the music (and see the start of the movie) at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-5oOnTeCh0.
By the way, the movie 'introduced' me to a lovely French actress called Dominique Sanda. Here's a little photo simply because I feel like it:
Until next time...
2 May 2007
Author James Barrington kindly send me the revised blurb for
his novel Foxbat.
A mysteriously empty aircraft hangar in the middle of Algeria.
The crash of a transport plane in northern Russia.
A violent robbery at a disused airfield in Bulgaria.
The body of a front-line Russian fighter pilot found shot dead,
execution-style, in the woods outside Perm.
A series of apparently unconnected events leads trouble-shooter Paul Richter to Moscow,
where his old adversary Viktor Bykov needs his help. The Russian government has a problem.
They’re calling it ‘inventory errors’, but the truth is that someone’s been stealing their
MiG-25 Foxbats, and they’ve no idea who, or why.
On the other side of the world, alarm bells ring in the USA when North Korea
launches an intercontinental ballistic missile. But it’s only when the Americans
begin to mobilise their forces that the full extent of the threat becomes clear.
And Richter finds himself back in the pilot’s seat of a Harrier over North Korea,
fighting his way past surface-to-air missiles and dodging supersonic interceptors to
complete his mission before Seoul is destroyed by a devastating chemical weapon attack.
11 April 2007
There's a novel out in September that may be of interest. It's called Foxbat and is the third
novel by James Barrington.
File it under "it sounds slightly like Firefox".
The following blurb was found at
www.panmacmillan.com.
The third high-octane techno-espionage thriller featuring agent Paul Richter
Back in 1976, a Russian front-line pilot defected to Japan in a MiG-25 Foxbat interceptor, flying virtually at sea level to avoid pursuing fighters and surface-to-air missiles. With about thirty seconds of fuel remaining, he landed at Hakodate Airport, bursting a tyre and skidding off the runway. Before the aircraft was handed back to the Russians, American intelligence agencies reduced it to a pile of components and then rebuilt it. Despite the wealth of intelligence gleaned, they completely failed to realise the purpose for which the Foxbat was created.
Moving to the present, American satellites have detected unusual activity at several Algerian air bases, and at Aïn Oussera one large hangar has been cordoned off and armed guards posted outside. Western intelligence agencies suspect that Algeria might be working-up its forces prior to launching an attack on Libya or Morocco, with potentially destabilising effects in the region. They’re also concerned that they might have obtained new aircraft or weapon systems, perhaps secreted in the guarded hangar at Aïn Oussera. The only way to find out is to get someone to look inside the building, and it will have to be a covert insertion.
This is where Paul Richter is called in, as ‘a deniable asset’, in an exciting non-stop thriller that moves rapidly through Bulgaria, Russia, and ultimately North Korea.
24 March 2007
Mary Evans is also trying to get in touch with Craig. I am to mention
"Greyhounds and Horses"...
22 March 2007
Message for Craig and Jill: Jill's cousin Colin is trying to regain contact with her.
Please drop me a line and I will forward contact details to you. If any reader
out there actually knows Craig and Jill please give them a shout!
24 February 2007
Lots of non-Craig news to get through! First of all seeing as
2007 marks 10 years since I started this page (!!!) I figured it
was time for a new logo and a new look. I've followed the look of the logo
I put on my Gerald Seymour page.
I've also added a message board.
You would think I could have done
that a few years ago, but better late than never!
I've finally read Asterisk by
Campbell Armstrong. I bought this book second-hand many years ago.
It's a good read and is very well written. Armstrong's style reminded
me a little of Craig's. I have his whole back-catalog to work through
so it'll keep be going for a bit.
The cover below has art by David Scutt
who contributed art to many of Craig's novels. Nowadays most book
cover art are cut-and-paste jobs from photo libraries. I miss the old
paintings!
A book that caught my eye on Amazon UK last week was Ascent by Jed Mercurio.
He created the excellent BBC drama Bodies and has written a novel about
the Russian space program in the Cold War. I don't know what it's like but I'll
be having a look when it comes out in March.
I don't often look at Amazon France but the other night I noticed this French DVD, Les Chevaliers Du Ciel.
My French is almost non-existant but the plot seems to involve a stolen Mirage 2000 jet
being used by terrorists. Perhaps someone who has seen the movie can let us know if it's any good!
A Russian movie that has been released in UK cinemas is The Ninth Company.
I noticed it because a clip on TV had lots of footage of the Mi-24 Hind helicoptor gunship.
(If you've read Craig's novels you will know all about the Hind!) The movie is set in Afganistan
during the 1980s. I'll be having a look when it comes out on DVD.
Another movie coming out in March is Shooter based on Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter.
I read the book back in 1993 (!!!) and enjoyed it very much. It's a thriller about a sniper set up to
take the fall for an assassination he's hired to help stop. You can read more about Stephen Hunter's novels
at www.stephenhunter.net.
Finally I've been thinking about doing a Hardware page to describe all the planes and
helicopters that feature in Craig's novels. We'll see...
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