All three of them were Tom Clancy novels. First of all, Patriot Games, one of the J.R. series, was very good, I finally read the book where he becomes Sir John. Coming after that, Red Storm Rising is an awesome book, I would recommend it to anyone who reads war novels, unlike the norm for TC books this one starts off with a bang and keeps on banging away. But as for The Red October, I think the movie was better than the book, IMO.
John Moore's Bad Prince Charlie
it's a fantasy novel but satire at the same time. I've also recently read his The Unhandsome Prince which is a twist on about a dozen fairy tales but done excellently.
Here's their blurbs:
John Moore is doing what he can to keep us from reading fantasy novels with a straight face. Heroics for Beginners shows that you, too, can be a hero (sort of); The Unhandsome Prince makes it impossible to take Rapunzel seriously ever again (be honest; you did, didn't you?); now he's tackling that old standby, the young prince unexpectedly called to the throne.*
Charlie was away at school when his father died suddenly; when he returns for the funeral, his uncles, instead of grabbing the throne of Damask for themselves, tap him for the job. There's a reason, of course. A shifty reason.
Damask, you see, is a very good place to be from—far from. Charlie's uncles want Fortescue, king of neighboring Noile, to conquer it and be stuck with its many problems. (The fact that Fortescue is paying them off also enters into their calculations.) But they can't just hand the kingdom over, not if they want to continue to live there. They need a king—a bad king—against whom the people can revolt, so that Fortescue's arrival will be seen as a welcome return to peace and order.
And Charlie seems like the perfect choice. For one thing, the late king never got around to marrying his mother, so he's not really the legitimate heir. For another, he doesn't much like Damask and wouldn't mind having to leave permanently. But he doesn't much like his uncles, either, and isn't inclined to agree to their proposal—until they mention that marriage to the beautiful Lady Catherine Durace is part of the deal. So he accepts the offer, and sets out to raise taxes, abuse his power, anger the nobility and oppress the common people, as per plan….
Only it doesn't quite work out that way.
—Ellen Asher, Editor-in-Chief
*To demonstrate the growing maturity of his work, he includes footnotes. Also, he wants to write a bestseller. Worked for Terry Pratchett, didn't it?
The Unhandsome Prince-
Caroline, the most beautiful girl in the Kingdom of Melinower, was standing barefoot in a swamp, capturing frogs. A lot of frogs. A lot of mosquitos, too, for that matter.
It all started when the late sorceress, Amanda, cast her spell. The village girls had gone about their searches willy-nilly. Caroline turned hers into a science—seven weeks of mapping the swamp, building traps and kissing every slimy little beast she could get her hands on. But what should all her hard work net her, so to speak? A very unhandsome prince, that’s what. In fact, Prince Hal is kind of dorky-looking. And poor but popular Caroline is determined to marry a handsome prince and live happily ever after. After all, that’s what the sorceress promised, isn’t it?
Emily, Amanda’s daughter, thinks Hal is kind of cute. But now she has a problem. If the villagers decide that Caroline deserves compensation, they’ll confiscate Amanda’s huge library of magical books. Emily has to do something and quickly. She’s going to the big city, anyway; why not take Caroline with her and help her find a noble and handsome husband?
For his part, Hal isn’t eager to marry a girl so obsessed with appearances. But it seems to him that a lot of people have a stake in his impending nuptials—including a sorceress in training, an irritating dwarf, a wolf in royal clothing and Hal’s family, who seem to have misplaced large portions of the treasury. And the biggest reason for him to marry Caroline—true love be darned—is that if he doesn’t, it’s back to the lily pads for him…permanently.
