Really odd question…

[elfs]

Can anyone think of the last time they read a really good car chase scene?

This entry was automatically cross-posted from Elf's writing journal, Pendorwright.com. Feel free to comment on either LiveJournal or Pendorwright.

Comments

[solarbird]

The first Bond book, Casino Royale, has one. I read it a couple of years ago.

Also, if you'll take carriages in place of cars, Dracula.

I haven't read it as an adult, but the one towards the end of Escape from Witch Mountain comes to mind. Tho' arguably that whole book is an extended chase scene. ^_^

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Never. Stephenson's "Zodiac" had an excellent boat chase scene at the end, but that's about as close as I can think of -- and that book came out almost 15 years ago now.

[yamazakikun.livejournal.com]

Does manga count? Some good ones in Patlabor.

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

Laurell K Hamilton had one in Narcissus in Chains, involving werehyenas and automatic weapons.

[aelfie.livejournal.com]

Neal Stephenson has the best car chase scene in "Snow Crash".

Can you get any better than "And the rest was just a chase scene."

So I'm weird, I love that.

[aelfie.livejournal.com]

I loved that so much I tried to get BIMBOBX vanity plates for my mini-van...it was already taken. I was so bummed!

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

how about BIMBOBXX? or just ad a 2?

[aelfie.livejournal.com]

Too many characters...I can only use 7 in my state...I tried several variations and they were all taken.

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

bugger :(

[stephaniesmom.livejournal.com]

Not since The Bourne Supremacy. But then, I usually read Fantasy.

[xengar.livejournal.com]

... now that I think of it, I don't believe I've ever read a car chase scene. Wait a minute, Sacred Ground by Mercedes Lackey. Hmm, any others that were slipping my mind? quite some time ago I read Slipt by Alan Dean Foster and I think it has one, but I don't recall it being particularly interesting. Okay, I think I'm back to being unable to remember any more.

Going through my reading list in my mind, I'm surprised by how few chases there are of any sort. there are more horseback, spaceship, or foot chases than car, but still not that many. For the most part, the characters seem to either stand and fight, or successfully escape and come back later.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

[makes note to write one]

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

From the unpublished manuscript of an acquintance which I was beta-reading (Iraq War vet medically discharged and running into good guy Freemasons and what appeared to be a conspiracy of cross-dimensional travellers). Prior to that I'm hard pressed to remember one.

[athelstan.livejournal.com]

"Freeway Games" by Orson Scott Card. It's most commonly found in "Maps in a Mirror". Not only does it involve many car chases but also a very weird sexual twist that Orson says that he is ashamed of but included in the collection for completeness.

[moofinator.livejournal.com]

The closest thing I can think of is in My War by Colby Buzzell, regarding an action scene of driving a Stryker around in an Iraqi Town (Mosul? Kabul?) when Al-Qaeda was attacking and having RPG's and AK-47's fired at him.

Nonfiction. Amazing book, too.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

"Halting State" by Charles Stross sort of counts, if you'll allow a one-car chase scene where the bad guy is the car's computer.

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

Does reading the Blues Brothers script count?

(Yes, I routinely read the scripts for movies instead of watching them. No, I don't aspire to work in feelm.)

[elgatocurioso.livejournal.com]

Arg, now you've done it :).

There is a classic science fiction story about the roadways of the future... every car is armed and most of them fight each other for some reason. A father goes out in search of the car who killed his son.

Very sci-fi, very cliche- but that is because it is one of the early ones. And it's going to bug me until I remember the name and the author!

[elgatocurioso.livejournal.com]

Ah... "Why Johnny Can't Speed" from Alan Dean Foster's collection of short works called "With Friends Like These..." (http://www.amazon.com/Friends-Like-These-Alan-Foster/dp/0345323904). It was the impetus for the early '80 game "Car Wars" which won the Origins Aware for Best Science Fiction Boardgame of 1981 (for whatever that is worth).

"With Friends Like These..." is a great fun read.

[cthulu-for-pm.livejournal.com]

"Car Wars"... there's a game I haven't played in ages. Good times...

"Market Forces" wasn't it

[ideaphile.livejournal.com]

I like Richard (K) Morgan's work a lot, but I have to say, his book "Market Forces" was just awful. It's more about car combat, but it's so preposterous it makes "The Fast and the Furious" look like a Frontline documentary.

. png

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

The Way to Dusty Death by Allisair McLean.

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

Off-topic, but shaterri recommended your journal to me, and it looked interesting, so I added you. Hope that's okay. I'm looking forward to reading more! I too am a bi- and poly- parent with single income, big mortgage payment (though luckily we bought before the boom) issues.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

You're quite welcome to read! I leave it out in the open for a reason.