Clancy, Tom

• Hunt for Red October (8 r)

  • Whether or not you've seen the movie, you oughta read the book. A really good military thriller. Probably his best book. It's about a Russian sub commander trying to defect and has enough unpredictability (if you haven't seen the movie) to drive you nuts.

• Red Storm Rising (6 r)

  • Really long story about the outbreak of WW III over Europe (back when Russia was still the "evil empire"). Lots of different plotlines, but somehow Clancy manages to keep them all together. I really liked this one, too.

• Clear and Present Danger (7)

  • Ok, the Russkies are gone, so now the drug lords are the Enemy du'jour. I know it's trite, but I still liked it. Clancy can write good, exciting plots. This is somewhat different from the movie that has just come out, spending a lot more time from the point of view of Chavez (the sniper in the movie) and Clark (the field officer in charge of the mission) rather than Jack Ryan. There are enough differences to make this worth reading if you liked the movie, especially near the end, which works out completely differently.

• Cardinal of the Kremlin (7)

  • Wins the bad timing award, coming out very near the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Still, a very good spy story, and even had some astronomical implications! I didn't really like the lesbian stereotyping of one of the Russian spies, but I was able to read around it and mostly enjoy this book.

• The Sum of All Fears (7)

  • A story about some terrorists who get their hands on a nuclear device and get it into the states. The realism may leave you a little spooked. Personally, I think Clancy is prophetic in this book. It's bound to happen sooner or later, unfortunately.

• Without Remorse (6)

  • This time, the story centers around John Kelly back in the early 70's during Vietnam. Two different plots are mixed together, both of which are very good...one involves a new mission to Vietnam to save POW's and the other involves Kelly going after a drug ring. Torture scene about 2/3 of the way through involving a pressure chamber was just chilling. If you like Clancy, read it.

• Debt of Honor (7)

  • Similar in many ways to "Red Storm Rising" but on a smaller scale (war with Japan rather than Russia, and this time the war is mostly covert). The first 1/2 of the book may be the best Clancy I've ever read. Tremendous buildup and lots of great plots winding around one another. In the last part, I started to get confused by the many sudden scene changes without adequate frames of reference. There were about 2 too many plots in motion at once, but it was still enjoyable. It could just be that I was trying to finish the book while on a transatlantic flight in the middle of the night. Anyway, throw out the last 20 pages or so (with an ending I felt was VERY unnecessary and tacked on, esp. since it lacked the foreshadowing of the many other plots), and this competes with "Red October" for his best book yet. You'll find many old characters from his other books, which I liked.

• Mirror Image (4)

  • At the airport facing a long flight without a book to read, I was forced to shell out $7+ for this book. I had a bad feeling it was going to be somewhat worse than Clancy's other books, and I was right. Clancy mailed this one in. Amazingly, as this book shows, Clancy is one of those rare authors whose books get better the LONGER they are. The exposition and rising action in Clancy's novels is the real attraction, though the plots are generally fast-paced and interesting as well. In this book, there is almost zero exposition and the plot is fast-paced, muddled and stretches the bounds of credibility far more than usual for Clancy. If this is the future of Tom Clancy novels, I don't want any part of it.

    Since writing this review, I've been told that an author named Jeff Rovin is responsible for this travesty. Since Clancy's name is on the cover, though, I thought it appropriate to keep the review here under his name.

• Executive Orders (6)

  • Ok, now we get back to where Debt of Honor left off. Leaving aside for now my problems with the ending of that book, I felt ready to plunge into a new mammoth Clancy tome. His writing style didn't disappoint, as the plot was interesting and exciting. Yes, yes, I know it's pulp. Clancy borrows shamelessly from every good headline and movie that's out there these days from the Oklahoma City bombing to the Ebola virus scare to the Gulf War. I guessed that going in, and it was a mild distraction, but I still enjoyed it.

    Anyway, as usual with Clancy books, the rising action is much more interesting than the resolution of the plotlines, and the section from about page 800-1200 (of a 1400-page paperback), detailing everything going on just before the big "pop", is just the best. You can't put the book down for a solid three hours. My only big drawback of this book is the politics. Maybe I just haven't noticed it before, or maybe it's just the way it's done here, but it was damned annoying. I understand Clancy's view on military policy and so on, and I can sympathize if not entirely agree with his arguments. Clancy does a good job of addressing both sides of the debate in reasonable terms. But when Clancy starts writing about economics, the books comes to a screeching halt.

    It's not so much the policy he proposes that I find distasteful as the way it is presented. Basically, all the "good guys" in the novel spout Clancy's pet economic/tax policies (like favoring a regressive tax system) while the opposing arguments are placed in the mouths of total slimeballs. It was such a bald attempt at manipulation, I was insulted. Surely Clancy doesn't think so little of his readers. You don't have to be a liberal to hate that kind of garbage. In the end, though, I was able to read around the 10-20 pages of this and focus on the plot. It wasn't Clancy's best, but it was genuine Clancy and it was good.

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