Guest post written by author Dan Moren
Dan Moren is the author of the Galactic Cold War series of sci-fi spy novels, including The Nova Incident, The Aleph Extraction, and The Bayern Agenda, as well as The Caledonian Gambit. His work has also appeared in The Boston Globe, PopSci.com, Yahoo Tech, The Magazine, Tom’s Guide, TidBITS, Six Colors, and Macworld, where he formerly worked as a senior editor. The Nova Incident is available to purchase.
Dark alleys, cryptic code phrases, peril unseen around every corner: there’s nothing quite like a classic spy story, replete with narrative twists and turns that keep you guessing until the very last moment. And though we might often associate the genre with flashy fare like the James Bond franchise, there’s a rich tapestry of spy stories told across every medium, all of which embody its truest hallmarks: secret agendas, dangerous knowledge, and high suspense.
As a writer of sci-fi spy novels, I’ve devoured more than a few of both kinds of stories over the years. Here, then, are a few top notch spy stories for every medium, all of which will keep you riveted, whether you’re turning pages at the beach or curled up in front of the TV on a cold winter afternoon with your favorite hot beverage.
Comics: The Coldest City
If there’s an epicenter to Cold War espionage, it can only be one city: Berlin. The divided city is home to any number of great spy stories of the post-World War II era, but the heady days of the late 1980s is perhaps its heyday, as the cracks in the Iron Curtain start to widen. That’s the backdrop for the stellar graphic novel The Coldest City by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart (later adapted into the blockbuster film Atomic Blonde, starring Charlize Theron). Lorraine Broughton is an MI6 agent dispatched to Berlin in the closing days of the Cold War on a mission to find a stolen list of covert agents. The narrative zigs and zags and, as with the best spy stories, you can never be sure exactly who you can trust.
Honorable Mention: Queen & Country by Greg Rucka. Inspired by The Sandbaggers (see below), this comics series follows British agent Tara Chace and strikes a tricky balance between the excitement of fieldwork and the inevitable frustration of government bureaucracy.
TV: Counterpart
Science-fiction and espionage are the perfect pairing (if I do say so myself) and nowhere is it better on display than in the fantastic and overlooked series Counterpart. Also set in Berlin, though in the present day, the show replaces the tension between the East and West with a conflict between two parallel universes. The twist? Every person has a doppelgänger on the other side, who might be very similar or, in the case of Howard Silk, played twice-over by the incredible J.K. Simmons, very different. The Cold War era vibe is strong with this one, right down to the note-perfect retro production design.
Honorable Mention: The Sandbaggers by Ian Mackintosh. In this seminal British spy series of the late ’70s and early ’80s, chief protagonist Neil Burnside is basically the anti-Bond. Heavy on intrigue and suspense, you’ll never look at paperwork the same way.
Movies: Sneakers
An ensemble that can’t be beat fronts this proto-techno-thriller and cult classic 1992 film: Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Mary McDonnell, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, River Phoenix…the list goes on. Part comedy, part heist movie, it centers on a team of misfit security consultants who are hired to steal what turns out to be a breakthrough piece of technology—one that every spy agency in the world will kill for. Plus you’ll never forget how to crack a door with an electronic keypad lock, trust me.
Honorable Mention: Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. The best of the long-running Tom Cruise-fronted series, in my opinion, not only doles out plenty of jaw-dropping action, but also doesn’t skimp on the humor.
Books: Memory
Another potent mix of sci-fi and spying, this installment of Lois McMaster Bujold’s expansive Vorkosigan Saga brings the espionage plot to the foreground as Imperial Security agent Miles Vorkosigan’s cover identity is compromised during a mission, leading to some serious changes in his life. Meanwhile, spy chief Simon Illyan is suffering from a breakdown of his eidetic memory chip and it’s up to Miles to untangle what’s going on before decades of highly classified secrets spill out. It’s the only spy story I’ve read that might have you tearing up by the end.
Honorable Mention: The Rook by Daniel O’Malley. Myfanwy Thomas is a high-ranking official at the Checquy, a secret agency protecting the world against magical threats. Or at least, that’s what she discovers after she wakes up with no memory, surrounded by dead bodies.
Radio: The Complete George Smiley Radio Dramas
Did you think I could get to the end of the list without mentioning the master of modern espionage stories? John Le Carré’s bespectacled George Smiley is the iconic spymaster: cold, calculating, and disarming. The BBC has dramatized the complete series, including Le Carré’s masterwork, the Karla trilogy (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley’s People). If you’re looking to liven up a long car ride, you can’t do better than these cerebral and suspense-laden tales from the height of the Cold War.
Honorable Mention: The James Bond series by Ian Fleming. Okay, if I’m going to mention Smiley, of course I have to mention the world’s most famous fictional spy. The BBC has also dramatized many of the original Fleming novels, with a wide cast of notable actors.
