If You Don't Know What Time It Is, Then It's Chow Time

Another fun subgenre of military procedural books is Special Forces procedural porn. These books are related to the kind of techno/spy thrillers that you used to find in airport bookstores (last century, when books were physical objects) but they’re not quite the same. Rather than super-spy thrillers, the protagonist is in the US military, usually in some sort of special forces group. And yes, it’s always the US military. I’ve never seen one of these set in, say, an IDF Sayeret unit, or a Norwegian Jegertroppen. Perhaps those books don’t hit the english language market? Or perhaps those populations don’t have as much of a fetish about firearms.

Speaking of firearms, fewer of these books than you would imagine spend all their time detailing weapons specifications. But more of these books than you would imagine spend their time detailing Generic Military Minutia like barracks layouts and how to get a weekend pass to go off base and oh GOD there’s so much about Chow Time and food seriously you have no idea. There’s a strong crossover with The Space Navy especially with regards to weird obsessions with process, outfits, and meal times.

These books generally have titles featuring one (or more!) colons. If you’re in the airport bookshop and you see books titled Siege Point: Combat Zone or Code Black: Strike Area, you’re on the right track.

If I were to write one, I would title it either Special Squad: Chow Time or maybe War Fighters: Gun Havers or just go all in with Dark Ops Squad Cell: Shadow Rain: Combat Breach.