The Tom Clancy Community

I'm a bit over Tom Clancy. Americans became too good, everyone else too evil - too black & white. I loved, totally, Red Storm Rising, Sum of All Fears, Clear & Present Danger, and Without Remorse (which is totally brilliant IMO) - actually, most of them before Debt of Honour. I think, and this is just my opinion, that Tom's not happy the Cold War is over - there aren't any strong old enemies for him to use - like the PRC in Bear & Dragon? Please.

If you like your Tom Clancy, try and get either
1) A Spy for All Seasons, by Duane "Dewey" Clarridge - the guy who ran the Contras and started the Counter-Terrorism Center @ Langley. Good read, could be one of TC's characters.
2) See No Evil, by Robert Baer - Baer actually worked for Dewey and was one of the two Arabic speaking DO Case Officers Langley had. He's disillusioned with career politicians - think Bob Fowler types, or that National Security Advisor, Elizabeth someone, in Sum - who undercut CIA initatives against terrorists.

I didn't mind R6, but it was a holiday/plane book. The game was ok, but not great - though there was an Aussie character in it!

E_S

 

I can't figure out why Red Rabbit only has a 2-star rating on Amazon, I mean it wasn't Clancy's finest, but it was still pretty good...

 

Clancy is one of my favorite authors. His militarly novels are impeccable. His stories are well-told and suspenseful. My favorite book by him is The Cardinal of the Kremlin. This novel had a great plot, very exciting.

 

I can speak for the low rating. Most people like books that jump right into the action and do not want any of the background info like in all of Clancy's books.

 

Clancy does tend to make background as essential as possible. Which is good, it gives you the feel of authenticity. I don't agree about the Russians, though - I have no trouble telling them apart, but I've been good friends with a Russian family for years - you learn their patronymic names easily after a while.

It will be interesting to see how his Spliner Cell game goes.

E_S

 

Well, I just finished Red Rabbit a few days ago (I should have read it sooner, but I'm broke and my library isn't all that fast at getting new books). I'd read some reviews beforehand and was wondering why people thought it was bad. In my opinion, it was not of Tom's best works, but an enjoyable read nonetheless.

 

Red Rabbit was one of his most comelling books, probably the second biggest page turner, but the problem some people had is it lacked a big surprise and sort of felt tacked on, because he went back and sort of added it into the timeline.

I, however, loved it. Any rumors on his next book?

 

Out of the 5 clancies I have read, my favorite is The Cardinal of the Kremlin. Excellent story.

 

Ive read long storm rising and the sum of all fears

Axl.

 

I've read all of Clancy's Jack Ryan books and then some, and my favorite is The Bear and The Dragon.

 

I haven't yet read The Sum of All Fears, but Red Storm Rising was very good.

 

I just finished Red Rabbit. It was really good...

 

I am re-reading The Cardinal of the Kremlin and The Hunt for Red October because they are some of my favorite Clancy books. I think I'll read Red Rabbit in a few weeks when I get time to read.

 

Cardinal was a great book, though it probably had some essentially useless techno-explanations, even moreso than Clancy usually puts in his books, but once those are aside, the book gets going good.

 

A Clancy fan here (well, sort of. See my rants below ). Hmm...let's see, my fave Clancy books:

3--Clear and Present Danger

2--Cardinal of the Kremlin

1--Executive Orders

Someone pointed put about Ryan's political views...yeah, it's a wee bit annoying. In EO at least, it appears like he's a struggling maverick facing the evil Washington crowd. But after that, in "the Bear and the Dragon", it's suddenly as if John Patrick Ryan walks on water or something! He's always right, the enemy is always wrong! What happened??? In the books prior to that, there were some flaws when it comes to Ryan (his stubborness in "Sum of All fears" caused him to have a very bad relationship with the President, to name but one example). But once he becomes Prez, it's suddenly as if he has the solution to everything! His reforms are all for the good of America, never wrong! They all work flawlessly!

As for the Clark books..."Without Remorse" just didn't interest me, but "Rainbow 6" was damn fun! But as someone pointed, the ending was hobrrible! So we deal with terrorists by just leaving them to rot in the jungle, instead of facing the full force of the law that they broke. Huh??? A total opposite of the approach in "Patriot Games".

I've read a few chapters of "Red Rabbit". I dislike it as much as I hate the SW prequels

As for Netforce, I like the first book,. The others suck, they're like the Clancy version of Ally McBeal or something Everyone is sleeping with everyone else, urghhh! Have not touched the others like "Powerplays", and have no intention of doing so.

Just my two cents

 

My two favorites are Cardinal of the Kremlin and The Sum of All Fears. I was a bit frustrated with Debt of Honor, but found the idea of rebuilding the goverment as handled in Executive Orders to be rather interesting. Rainbow Six started off good, but I thought it fell apart at the end. Haven't read Bear and the Dragon nor Red Rabbit yet.

I was planning on going through them all and reading them in chronological order a few months ago, but couldn't get through Without Remorse. Though I'd enjoyed it in the past, it just bored me this time. So my re-reading plans were put on hold.

 

Some of his books are pretty slow sometimes. Clear and Present Danger has stopped three attempts to read it, Rainbow Six was awesome and Red Storm Rising was really good.

 

I got Without Remorse for Christmas, and I'm finally starting it tonight, I've looked forward to reading this for a while, as I like the CLark character and always wondered about the vague parts of his past. I've never made it past the first hundred pages in Rainbow Six. Not sure why, but eventually I'll do it.

 

Does anyone else notice that Clancy seems to just slap his name on just about anything these days? He must have one of those videos that says "I heartly endorse this product and/or organization"

 

Patronymic names is the sort of 'middle name' Russians and Ukrainians etc have, yes? Say my name is Ivan, my father was Eduard, I'd be Ivan Eduardovich, right?

Cardinal of the Kremlin and Red Storm Rising were good. Patriot Games too.

 

Well, I finished Without Remorse. Best Clancy book I've ever read.

Short on techno-babble, a very personal story. While I like the big world-shaking political happenings in all of his books, this was just a different one. This book would make an excellent movie.

 

Has anyone here read Executive Orders? I'm thinking about reading it but don't want to waste my time if it's boring. Here is a rather entertaining quote from The Simpsons talking about the Clancster:

Side-Show Bob: and the prison book club was just the others clubbing me with books. *holds up shirt, his stomach is covered in bruises* These are from the new Tom Clancy, but, it's not as much pain as reading them

 

I've read Executive Orders. I thought it was good, but there one or two sub-plots that could've been eliminated. But definately worth a read.

 

Okay, I'll try to read it sometime.

 

Executive Orders is my third favorite Clancy book ever. It's great to see how the former-VP outsmarts himself, and how even with our nation under attack, we're still able to dish out some hurt to the UIR.