The Pub Discussion Board

Help! I need books to read.

But before you dust off that list of your favorite Tolkkein disciples and Asimov clones... I'm looking for something specific.

Action. Fighting. Two men enter, one man leaves. Hero sneaks into the villains lair, stealthily taking out guards one-by-one, grabs the atomic mcguffin, then blasts his way out. Bank robbers jump into the getaway car and peel out just as the cops arrive. Brave soldiers stranded on planet Shezagoer help the peaceful natives fight off the winged beast Fuxitup. Captain Awesome goes toe to toe with Mutox.

Basically all the stuff I suck at. Okay, half the stuff I suck at, but I'll ask about your favorite sex scenes another time.

When I write anything that isn't dialog, I feel like I'm describing team yoga for the blind or olympic full-contact cat-herding using Logo. I'm not clever enough to write "My Dinner with Andre 2" so I'm looking for better tools to tell the stories already in my head.

So, if you've read something action-packed that knocked your socks off, that made you feel like you were right there taking it on the chin, darting through traffic, leaping off the wing with two angry henchmen and one parachute... I need to know what it is. If the story and characters are good too, all the better.