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- A Conversation with MIlitary Thriller Author, Mark Greaney
Posted by : Robert Child
Wednesday
I sat down last week with author, Mark Greaney, to discuss his latest book. The New York Times bestselling author is back with a topical edge-of-your-seat thriller. Someone is eliminating the world’s leading experts on robotics and artificial intelligence. Is it a tech company trying to eliminate the competition or is it something even more sinister?
It is a story that certainly could be "ripped from the headlines" with the growing presence of artificial intelligence in all parts of society. Watch the interview below.
Mark Greaney’s The Gray Man is marvellous entertainment, superb disinformation for those looking for a job in the CIA, MI6 et al and as noted elsewhere in the London Times "you’ll forget it the moment you stop watching it". So why spend so much on such a fictional film just to make James Bond and Jason Bourne look like slow horses? Why include gratuitous gruesome nail-pulling torturous stuff if this is meant to be the best escapism money can buy?
There are many decent novels and films in the espionage genre that satisfy the demand for “fast and furious”. Surely the Russo bros must know that few viewers want non-stop “fast and furious” for two hours two minutes? Excellent examples of the skilful juxtaposition of “fast and furious” action packed scenes with more cerebral stuff feature in many of Len Deighton’s fictional works whether in writing or on screen with Caine or Cole as Harry Palmer or arguably even more strikingly in Bill Fairclough’s fact based spy novel Beyond Enkription in The Burlington Files series.
One classic espionage writer, namely John le Carré, was never noted for the “fast and furious”. If only John le Carré, Mark Greaney and the Russo Bros had collaborated one with another years ago! Mind you, apparently Fairclough approached le Carré on collaborative works and was turned down. As John le Carré allegedly commented “Why bother now?” A realistic response from an expert in spy fiction in his eighties! But was it true? To find out more, best read the news article dated 31 October 2022 in TheBurlingtonFiles site and read Beyond Enkription if interested in MI6 and Pemberton’s People. By the way, Beyond Enkription has been heralded by one US critic as “up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”.