Tom Clancy

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Is anyone on here a fan of tom clancy?
anyone read some of his books?
nice to know if anyone else has
Red Storm Rising is my favorite

I read two of his books. one was "the hunt for red October." the guy really knows his technology.

Tom Clancy is really one of those 'fallen creators' if you ask me.

Hunt for Red October? Great. Red Storm Rising? Interesting read. He has a few other books, but his talent died with the Cold War. He just couldn't adapt to the idea of the Russians not being bad guys anymore.

All that said? I think Cardinal of the Kremlin was his best work.

I used to be a huge Clancy fan (of his own books, not those ghost-written Op-Center things) - but I think the the "Ryanverse" novels started to loose their way at some point - I've lost track of what order the books were released in but it seems to me that Exectutive Orders was the last one that was really good. I never finished Red Rabbit, thought Teeth of The Tiger was awful (besides, I refuse to accept the premise that a figure as prominent as the son of a former U.S. president could work as a covert operative), and then I think after Teeth of The Tiger all the books started having "co-authors" (which I suspect means someone else wrote them and Clancy put his name on them) so I haven't bothered with them.

But I was a big fan back in the day - besides the books I mentioned above, I own and have read Red October, Red Storm Rising, Patriot Games, Kardinal of the Kremlin, Clear and Present Danger, Debt of Honor, Executive Orders, Without Remorse, Rainbow Six, The Bear and The Dragon. Also have SSN which, IIRC, was part a fiction story and the rest non-fiction - it was ok. I won't try to rank them, but I'd say Red October, Red Storm Rising, Patriot Games, Kardinal, Clear And Present Danger, Debt of Honor, and Executive Orders were all top notch. Ranbow Six was meh. The Bear And The Dragon fell flat to me. Teeth of the Tiger was awful, as I mentioned.

^

IIRC, Rainbow Six was a video game first, they went to Clancy for the license, and he liked the story so much that he adapted it into his novel, not the other way around.

I remember reading Without Remorse in high school, that was probably the darkest thing I'd ever read up to that point, though now I think of it as an OK revenge tale. Torturing someone with a decompression chamber seemed a bit over complicated, but was appealingly awful considering the deserving torturee. I always did like Mr Clark as a character, the bland man you never see coming, so I appreciated having an origin story for him.

Yeah, I think Tom Clancey peaked with Red Storm Rising. I read that book in a single sitting. It was extremely good--BEST COLD WAR NOVEL EVER!

As far as the Russians are concerned, have you seen the news lately?

I do believe Putin has read the evil overlord list. He might even be Bond villain grade, especially with Kim Jong Il no longer around.

I agree, RsR is pretty much the best Cold War novel ever, though Kardinal of the Kremlin is a close 2nd, IMHO.

The thing about RsR that sets it apart, I think (besides the obvious fact that its not in the Ryanverse) was so much of the book being dedicated to outright battle scenes - the battle scenes are often the best part of Clancy novels, so if that's what you like then RsR has plenty of candy. But its not free candy - its at the expensive of a more detailed plot, buildup, and yes, character development. So I think, for me, overall its not his best novel, but for people who really like the warfare aspect, I can certainly see why it would be their favorite Clancy book.