Where to find some good examples of combat or action scenes?
I always learn a lot about about writing by reading other works and following their examples. Right now I'm very bad at writing action scenes; the best I can do is write around them, describing the situation and the outcome without ever delving into the details of the physical action. So now I'm on the lookout for anything that could serve as an example for me to study.
The last book I read with action scenes still vividly in my memory is Dune. I liked it because it did a good job at describing the nuances of the scenes while always keeping every detail relevant and crucial to the overarching story. Overall though I've read very little in the way of action.
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I'm just now reading the Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin, which has plenty of good swordfights and describes the mechanics pretty well.
Mercedes Lackey is good at describing tactics of army movements (at a swords-and-sorcery tech level) with generic fighting descriptions.
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I pretty vividly remember the fight scene in about all of Robert Ludlum's novels. If the name doesn't ring a bell: he wrote the Jason Bourne novels ("The Bourne Identity" is the first in the series).
Not sure which to recommend, probably the Bourne Identity (if you've seen the movies, the hand-to-hand scenes are on the same level in the books).
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David Gemmell and Bernard Cornwell are both well-known (in certain circles at least) for their excellent battle scenes. Simon Scarrow also does an excellent job with combat scenes. Robert Low is actually a bit too gorey for my tastes, but he has some excellent battles at sea and on land.
Scarrow, Cornwell, and Low all write historical fiction and are therefore more realistic. They also have a good mix of individual combat and full-scale battles between armies. Low writes about Viking warfare. Scarrow writes about the Roman Legions in ancient Britain and the Middle-East as well as novels following the lives of Arthur Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte. Bernard Cornwell has written books about the American Civil War, the Napoleonic Wars, Arthurian Britain, Alfred the Great's Britain, The Hundred Years War...Well, you get the idea. He also has excerpts available on his site here: http://www.bernardcornwell.net/
Naomi Novik also writes good action scenes. She writes about a draconic air force during the Napoleonic Wars, but there are many good naval and ground fights as well.
Conn Iggulden is good too. He's written a tetralogy retelling Julius Caesar, and is currently writing a series about Genghis Khan.
Lee Child's Jack Reacher series is very good. He can make any scene suspenseful. His writing style is somewhat unique as well. The series is about a former MP living off the radar, but usually getting involved in trouble of some sort in every town he passes through.
I can think of so many more...Brent Weeks, Rafael Sabatini, Jim Butcher, Lois McMaster Bujold....
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Cannot go wrong with Robert Ludlum such as the Bourne Trilogy which someone already mentioned or Prometheus Deception.
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