Tom Clancy

Red Storm Rising

Tom Clancy

Berkley

Literature & Fiction

736

Summary: Using the latest advancements in military technology, the world's superpowers battle it out on land, sea, and air for the ultimate global control. A chillingly authentic vision of modern war, "Red Storm Rising" is as powerful as it is ambitious. It's a story you will never forget.
Hard-hitting, suspenseful, and frighteningly real.

My Comments:

Patriot Games

Tom Clancy

Berkley

Literature & Fiction

512

Summary: The bestselling author of "Red Storm Rising" and "The Sum of All Fears" brings Jack Ryan back in his to fight his deadliest battle yet.
From England to Ireland to America, an explosive wave of violence sweeps a CIA analyst and his family into the deadliest game of our time: international terrorism. An ultra-left-wing faction fo the IRA has targeted the CIA man for his act of salvation in an assasination attempt. And now he must pay ... with his life.

My Comments:

The Cardinal of the Kremlin

Tom Clancy

Berkley Books

Literature & Fiction

547

Summary: Two men possess vital data on Russia's Star Wars missile defense system. One of them is CARDINAL--America's highest agent in the Kremlin--and he's about to be terminated by the KGB. The other is the one American who can save CARDINAL and lead the world to the brink of peace--or war.

My Comments:

Clear and Present Danger

Tom Clancy

Berkley

Literature & Fiction

704

Summary: At the end of the prologue to "Clear and Present Danger", Clancy writes, "And so began something that had not quite begun and would not soon end, with many people in many places moving off in directions and on missions which they all mistakenly thought they understood. That was just as well. The future was too fearful for contemplation, and beyond the expected, illusory finish lines were things fated by the decisions made this morning--and, once decided, best unseen." In "Clear and Present Danger" nothing is as clear as it may seem.
The president, unsatisfied with the success of his "war on drugs," decides that he wants some immediate success. But after John Clark's covert strike team is deployed to Colombia for Operation Showboat, the drug lords strike back taking several civilian casualties. The chief executive's polls plummet. He orders Ritter to terminate their unofficial plan and leave no traces. Jack Ryan, who has just been named CIA deputy director of intelligence is enraged when he discovers that has been left out of the loop of Colombian operations. Several of America's most highly trained soldiers are stranded in an unfinished mission that, according to all records, never existed. Ryan decides to get the men out.
Ultimately, "Clear and Present Danger" is about good conscience, law, and politics, with Jack Ryan and CIA agent John Clark as its dual heroes. Ryan relentlessly pursues what he knows is right and legal, even if it means confronting the president of the United States. Clark is the perfect soldier, but a man who finally holds his men higher than the orders of any careless commander.
Along with the usual, stunning array of military hardware and the latest techno-gadgets, "Clear and Present Danger" further develops the relationships and characters that Clancy fans have grown to love. Admiral James Greer passes the CIA torch to his pupil, Ryan. Mr. Clark and Chavez meet for the first time. Other recurring characters like Robert Ritter and "the President" add continuity to Clancy's believable, alternate reality. This is Clancy at his best. "--Patrick O'Kelley"

My Comments:

The Sum of All Fears

Tom Clancy

Berkley

Literature & Fiction

928

Summary: Once again, Tom Clancy manages to add new twists to the alternate U.S. history he initiated in "The Hunt for Red October". In "The Sum of All Fears", the center of conflict is the perpetual hot spot the Mideast, where a nuclear weapon falls into the hands of terrorists just as peace seems possible. Clancy realistically paints an almost unthinkable scenario--the bomb is planted on American soil in the midst of an escalation in tension with the Soviet Union; the terrorists hope to rekindle cold war animosity and prevent reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.
Despite such a dramatic story line, Clancy doesn't neglect the individuals who drive his tale. Jack Ryan's problems are as much domestic as they are part of the international crisis that is the ostensible narrative: National Security Director Elizabeth Elliot has the president's ear, and she has convinced him that Ryan's ethics are questionable. She hints at marital infidelity and an insider-trading scandal. Of course, both accusations are false, but her arguments have enough evidence behind them (e.g. some photographs of an innocent embrace with a friend) to cause a strain in the Ryans' marriage and a flurry of media attention. While "Mr. Clark" tracks the terrorists, he also provides some needed intelligence to heal the Ryan family.
"The Sum of All Fears" is the stuff of nightmares but contains enough verisimilitude to terrify sober minds. Ryan has matured into a complex protagonist as Clancy's writing, too, has matured. Ryan is plagued by stress and self-doubts that test even his dauntless moral compass and make him a more interesting subject for readers' attention. Those fascinated by military hardware, from nuclear submarines to atomic weapons, will find almost enough here to start their own army. And Clancy's understanding of international politics seems chillingly correct. "--Patrick O'Kelley"

My Comments:

Without Remorse

Tom Clancy

Berkley

Mystery & Thrillers

768

Summary: This harrowing #1 bestseller is an unforgettable journey into the heart of darkness. Without mercy. Without guilt. Without remorse.

My Comments:

Debt of Honor

Tom Clancy

Berkley

Literature & Fiction

1008

Summary: Razio Yamata is one of Japan's most influential industrialists, and part of a relatively small group of authority who wield tremendous authority in the Pacific Rim's economic powerhouse. He has devised a plan to cripple the American greatness, humble the U.S. military, and elevate Japan to a position of dominance on the world stage. Yamata's motivation lies in his desire to pay off a "Debt of Honor" to his parents and to the country he feels is responsible for their deaths: America. All he needs is a catalyst to set his plan in motion. When the faulty gas tank on one Tennessee family's car leads to their fiery death, an opportunistic U.S. congressman uses the occasion to rush a new trade law through the system. The law is designed to squeeze Japan economically. Instead, it provides Yamata with the leverage he needs to put his plan into action. As Yamata's plan begins to unfold, it becomes clear to the world that someone is launching a fully integrated operation against the United States. There's only one man to find out who the culprit is: Jack Ryan, the new president's National Security Advisor.

My Comments:

Executive Orders

Tom Clancy

Berkley

Literature & Fiction

1376

Summary: Tom Clancy goes to the White House in this thriller of political terror and global disaster. The American political situation takes a disturbing turn as the President, Congress, and Supreme Court are obliterated when a Japanese terrorist lands a 747 on the Capitol. Meanwhile the Iranians are unleashing an Ebola virus threat on the country. Jack Ryan, CIA agent, is cast in the middle of this maelstrom. Because of a recent sex scandal, Ryan was appointed vice president, a slot he doesn't hold for long when he lands in the Chief Executive's chair. He goes after the Iranians and then tries to piece together the country and his life the only way he knows how--with a fury that we've grown accustomed to in Clancy's intricate, detailed, and accurate stories of warfare and intrigue.

My Comments: This is one thick book!

Rainbow Six

Tom Clancy

Berkley

Literature & Fiction

912

Summary: No one would have blamed David Dukes if he had declined reading for Tom Clancy's "Rainbow Six". Not only is "Rainbow" a melting pot of secret-agent patois, but the 700-page-plus book version runs at a rampant pace--this despite the usual wealth of Clancy detail. But actor and audio pro Dukes (and the editor responsible for condensing the script onto six hours of tape) handles this daunting task admirably, applying a steady--but not urgent--Everyman's tone and imparting a sense that we're hearing the "whole" story. Listeners may want more, but will be satiated with this abridged rendition.
Dukes also bounces seamlessly among dialects, giving distinct but easy-to-understand voices to Rainbow, a colorful cast of international good guys assembled to save the world from terrorism. The group is led by a sometimes violent but justice-minded ex-CIA agent, John Clark, who is proof that Clancy can paint a dark protagonist as vividly as his good knight, Jack Ryan. But "Rainbow Six" is an equally bright showcase for reader Dukes, who, like Clark, is bent on providing justice. Dukes's reading gives justice to the abridged form. (Running time: six hours, four cassettes) "--Rob McDonald"

My Comments: Not as good as Executive orders. Too much action and not enough political intrigue.

Into the Storm: A Study in Command

Tom Clancy, Fred Franks

Putnam Adult

History

531

Summary: Tom Clancy's latest love-letter to the military-industrial complex focuses on the Army--and Fred Franks, a general who helped smash Iraq in the Gulf War. In this first volume of a series on the intricacies of military command, Clancy traces the organizational success story of the U.S. Army's rise from the slough of Vietnam to the heights of victory in the Persian Gulf. In 1972, the Army lacked proper discipline, training, weapons, and doctrine; all these would be overhauled in the next 15 years. For those readers keen on such nuts and bolts, the book will be fascinating. But the book truly sparkles when Franks tells his story. A "tanker" who lost a foot in the invasion of Cambodia, he is a man of great courage, thoughtfulness, and integrity. One cannot help but wince when a civilian tells him, "You and those boys did that for nothing." And for all the acronyms and military history, that is what this book is about: healing the wounds Vietnam inflicted. "But this time [the Gulf War], it was going to end differently. They all would see to that."

My Comments: My first Clancy non-fiction. (Took forever to finish the first half of the book was rather dry. All and all it was a good book, but not my cup of tea. I won't be reading anymore of Clancy's non-fiction books.)

The Bear and the Dragon

Tom Clancy

Berkley

Literature & Fiction

1152

Summary: Power is delightful, and absolute power should be absolutely delightful--but not when you're the most powerful man on earth and the place is ticking like a time bomb. Jack Ryan, CIA warrior turned U.S. president, is the man in the hot seat, and in this vast thriller he's up to his nostrils in crazed Asian warlords, Russian thugs, nukes that won't stay put, and authentic, up-to-the-nanosecond technology as complex as the characters' motives are simple. Quick, do you know how to reprogram the software in an Aegis missile seekerhead? Well, if you're Jack Ryan, you'd better find someone who does, or an incoming ballistic may rain fallout on your parade. Bad for reelection prospects. "You know, I don't really like this job very much," Ryan complains to his aide Arnie van Damm, who replies, "Ain't supposed to be fun, Jack."
But you bet "The Bear and the Dragon" is fun--over 1,000 swift pages' worth. In the opening scene, a hand-launched RPG rocket nearly blows up Russia's intelligence chief in his armored Mercedes, and Ryan's clever spooks report that the guy who got the rocket in his face instead was the hoodlum "Rasputin" Avseyenko, who used to run the KGB's "Sparrow School" of female prostitute spies. Soon after, two apparent assassins are found handcuffed together afloat in St. Petersburg's Neva River, their bloated faces resembling Pokémon toys.
The stakes go higher as the mystery deepens: oil and gold are discovered in huge quantities in Siberia, and the evil Chinese Minister Without Portfolio Zhang Han San gazes northward with lust. The laid-off elite of the Soviet Army figure in the brewing troubles, as do the new generation of Tiananmen Square dissidents, Zhang's wily, Danielle Steel-addicted executive secretary Lian Ming, and Chester Nomuri, a hip, Internet-porn-addicted CIA agent posing in China as a Japanese computer salesman. He e-mails his CIA boss, Mary Pat "the Cowgirl" Foley, that he intends to seduce Ming with Dream Angels perfume and scarlet Victoria's Secret lingerie ordered from the catalog--strictly for God and country, of course. Soon Ming is calling him "Master Sausage" instead of "Comrade," but can anybody master Ming?
The plot is over the top, with devastating subplots erupting all over the globe and lurid characters scaring the wits out of each other every few pages, but Clancy finds time to insert hard-boiled little lessons on the vileness of Communism, the infuriating intrusions of the press on presidential power, the sexual perversions of Mao, the poor quality of Russian pistol silencers ("garbage, cans loaded with steel wool that self-destructed after less than ten shots"), the folly of cutting a man's throat with a knife ("they flop around and make noise when you do that"), and similar topics. Naturally, the book bristles like a battlefield with intriguingly intricate military hardware.
When you've got a Tom Clancy novel in hand, who needs action movies? "--Tim Appelo"

My Comments: O.k. The story was great. The characters were good. The problem with this book... Tom Clancy. He very obviously imbued the characters with highly chauvinistic, and somewhat racist overtones (his values?). Lot's of stereotyping going on. It detracted from the story to such an extent that I found myself groaning audibly, and forcing myself to read past the offensive parts.

Red Rabbit

Tom Clancy

Berkley

Literature & Fiction

656

Summary: Jack Ryan's first days with the CIA may be the Pope's last days alive.

My Comments: Much better than the last novel. This plot to assassinate the pope makes for gripping reading. The female characters are still stereotyped and patronized, but not quite as bad as the previous book. I'm glad I read the book. Maybe I'll read his next one. Jack Ryan and the Foley's together in the same book. Well done!

The Teeth Of The Tiger

Tom Clancy

Berkley

Literature & Fiction

496

Summary: The old rules no longer apply - anybody with a spare AK47 or a knowledge of kitchen chemistry can become a player. In a nondescript office building in suburban Maryland, 'The Campus', set up with the knowledge of President John Patrick Ryan identifies and locates terrorist threats - then deals with them, in whatever manner is necessary. It's an organisation always on the lookout for new recruits - men like Jack Ryan Jr, the President's son. Filled with the exceptional realism and cutting-edge authenticity that are his hallmarks, this is Clancy at his best - and there is none better.

My Comments:

I finally finished reading Tom Clancy's novel - The Teeth of the Tiger. Talk about a disappointing book. I'm going to include it on my books page as an example of really poor writting. I've noticed a general decline in the quality of Clancy's novels, and this one finalizes my opinion. I'm not going to buy any more Clancy novels. His last few novels have contained horrendous examples of misogynistic stereotyping. The female characters (if there are any - none at all in The Teeth of the Tiger (as far as I can remember)) are often marginalized and subservient. In this novel they're only spoken of in disparaging and sexist terms. The treatment of female characters isn't the only reason I'm disappointed. This novel contained a set of less than interesting characters, their activities were poorly fit to the characters they portrayed, and there were several instances of horrid writting. The writting (in my opinion) was bland, poorly constructed, and barely tolerable. Here are a few excerpts I found especially grievous:

From page 306: "Jack Jr. correctly assumed it would be a casual-dress day, and drove his Hummer 2 into work wearing jeans, a pullover shirt, and sneaks. The security people were fully uniformed of course, and as stone-faced as ever. Tony Wills was just lighting up his computer when Jack came in at 8:14"

From page 316: "And Brian had probably done something in the Marines to get noticed. Brian had been the football type in his high school, while his brother had been the family debater. But Dominic wasn't a pussy. At least one bad guy had found that out the hard way. Maybe some people needed to learn that you didn't mess with a big country that had real men in its employ. Every tiger had teeth and claws... ...and America grew large tigers.

From page 431: " "He'd rather sleep with a Ferrari than with Grace Kelly," Brian snorted. His own priorities were rather more conventional, of course. "You can ride a car longer than a girl, people." Which was one version of efficiency. "Damn, I bet that honey moves pretty fast.""

In Tom Clancy's Teeth of the Tiger, Jack Ryan, Jr. is one of the primary characters. Jack Jr. works for some sort of 'Off Campus' contractor that does intel work outside the standard 'accountability' channels. The other primary characters are a pair of super macho patriots. One is a marine, the other an FBI agent. The two are pulled out of standard circulation in order to work for a 'plausibly deniable' assassination team. Jack and his cousins eventually meet up in Europe in order to liquidate a group of Islamic terrorists responsible for a shopping mall massacre in mid-town U.S.A. The primary characters are unsophisticated stereotypes of brain and brawn. Their adversaries are impotent examples of the stereotypical terrorist. The pacing was slow, the action mediocre, the dialogue ridiculous, the editing non-existent, and the plot so simple that it may have started out as a scribble on someone's coctail napkin. The characters - Supposedly trained intelligence operatives - participate in numerous examples of poor tradecraft (I'm no 'Spook', but I was constantly picking out a large number of 'Dhuh - That's Stupid' moments. These blatantly obvious gaffs were completely ignored by the characters). I'm simply amazed that the bad guys (even if they are fictional characters under the author's complete control) didn't spot these clumsy oafs a mile away. The ending was a truly non-climactic plug for yet another novel. The only bright spot in the novel was the action sequence set in an American shopping mall. In that sequence the writting was fairly tight and well paced. All in all, I was sorely disappointed by the piss-poor writting. The good news? Now I can move onto something better, and I doubt that I'll have any problem finding something that fits that description.

Speaking of 'something better', I'm looking forward to many of the books on my bookshelf. I'm really interested in the 'Personal Effects' novel. It represents something novel in books. It's a 'fiction' meets 'reality' concept. The book comes with numerous 'artifacts' and links to web sites, which involve the reader in a more substantial method of storytelling. I'm also looking forward to all those 'Dune' novels that I've been accumulating over the years. The Dune series is something I can't get enough of. Unfortunately, I've been wasting my time on this crappy book. As I said earlier, I'm done with Clancy. His last three books have all been disappointing, and I for one and ready to write him off. He's had his day; maybe he should take a vacation. Maybe this was actually calculated so that he could take a vacation?

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