New list - Best of Tom Clancy

[CaptainCrunch]

I admit it, I'm a junky for Tom Clancy, not as much the books that were published after his desk or even some of his later books, but there are very few authors with the depth of detail and ability to build tension like he did. So I hadn't done a list for a while, and thought I would put together a list of my favorite Tom Clancy books and why. So without the further ado, here goes


1) Sum of all fears - The movie was terrible and they changed everything which made it worth. But the book centered around a nuclear bomb exploded in DC by Middle Eastern terrorists has it all. A plot centered around a middle east peace plan, the terrorist plan to start WW3 with a found nuclear weapon was a great story. We see a gradual build up of optimism in this book followed by a rapid and incredibly tense escalation to the pushing of the button. Tom Clancy shows his expertise in naval and submarine operations which leads to a secondary cat and mouse chase between an American missile sub with a bad commander and a Russian Hunter Killer. The book flows well, and the Jack Ryan character is incredibly flawed in this book. We also get a lethal dose of John Clark who is a great secondary character.


2) The Hunt for Red October - A great book that for the most part takes place in submarines. Its always been rumored that this is loosely based around a true story of a Russian Golf submarine that tried to defect I think in the 70's. The characters are great, the details around submarine technology and operations at the time are amazing. As well there is a subplot based around a high level American spy in Russia that is explored in later books.


3) Red Storm Rising - A book written with Larry Bond that is based on the video game Harpoon. Its a theoretical WW3 that mainly focuses on armor battles in Europe, naval battles in the Atlantic and the political intrigue in Russia. Really well written and very deep, the ending feels somewhat rushed though.


4) Cardinel of the Kremilin - Based around the cold war and the race for a effective anti-nuclear missile defense between the Soviets and the Russians. A really well done book that focuses around espionage and counter espionage. Jack Ryan really comes into his own here.



5) Without Remorse - I love this book a lot, its focused on the origin story of John Clark formerly John Kelly. It features him on 2 fronts, one is a personal war against Drug Dealers, and the other is a rescue of POW's in Vietnam. Really well written with a lot of innovated murders.



6) Rainbow 6 - A side shuffle from the Jack Ryan story line as he authorizes Rainbow 6 a international anti-terrorist group run by John Clark and Domingo Chavez. It follows up the Ebola plague of Executive Orders and puts in a radical environmental group that wants to massively depopulate the world through plague. The ending shows Clark at his ruthless finest. There's lots of action in this book as well. For the most part really well done.


7) Carrier a guided tour - Non Fiction, and I loved this book, it was written in 1999 so a lot of the technology and aircraft info is dated. But you get a sense of the day in the life on a carrier, how carriers are used tactically and how a Carrier is built.


8) Submarine - A guided tour - Same as above but it studies submarines. For the most part again it touches mostly on the Ohio and LA class though it touches on the Seawolf and Virginia Class boats. It also looks at the British Naval submarines and their very stringent command training school.


9) Patriot Games - This was an establishment story for Jack Ryan and deals with a radical offshoot of Irish Terrorist Groups. There's a lot of interesting story to unpack, but it goes a bit over the top with Ryan as the hero. There's lots of hidden opinions from Clancy in this book, but his attention to detail is impressive.


That's my list, 9, yeah 9. I did like Executive Order and The Bear and the Dragon, but Jack Ryan as President, was never as good as Jack Ryan CIA.

[CaptainCrunch]

As an addon I can't recommend Larry Bond enough, he's very similar to Clancy in his writing and has written several really strong books as far as I'm concerned.



Red Phoenix (Modern War in Korea) Vortex (War in South Africa) and Cauldron (War in Europe) are all really strong


Also the Jerry Mitchell series which follows Mitchell through his submarine career from start to ending up commanding a Submarine squadron are a very good look at Sub operations and future tech.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

1) Sum of all fears - The movie was terrible and they changed everything which made it worth. But the book centered around a nuclear bomb exploded in DC by Middle Eastern terrorists has it all. A plot centered around a middle east peace plan, the terrorist plan to start WW3 with a found nuclear weapon was a great story. We see a gradual build up of optimism in this book followed by a rapid and incredibly tense escalation to the pushing of the button. Tom Clancy shows his expertise in naval and submarine operations which leads to a secondary cat and mouse chase between an American missile sub with a bad commander and a Russian Hunter Killer. The book flows well, and the Jack Ryan character is incredibly flawed in this book. We also get a lethal dose of John Clark who is a great secondary character.

I think the bomb was at the Super Bowl in Denver.

Good book, the subplots with his relationships was well done.
Both with the Fowler/Eliot and with his wife.

[CaptainCrunch]

OMG you're right about Denver.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Red Phoenix (Modern War in Korea) Vortex (War in South Africa) and Cauldron (War in Europe) are all really strong
.

Thanks for the recommendations.

If the ending of Red Storm Rising was better it would be at #1.

[Arsenal14]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Thanks for the recommendations.

If the ending of Red Storm Rising was better it would be at #1.

Agreed with the Bond recommendation. His stuff is a little harder to find and might be a bit dated but they were as good as Clancy's stuff without the weight of the flawless hero Jack Ryan.

[RW99]

It's been a long while since I read the Jack Ryan stuff, so hard to put it into a list. I'd say that Rainbow Six was my favorite. They've been messing around on getting it into turn around and into a film. I dont know what to think with what they just did with Without Remorse, but I'm eternally hopeful

[DFO]

After the pandemic started I decided to revisit Tom Clancy. I had read a few but decided to take a crack at the whole thing. On book 9 (Executive Orders) in this suggested reading order.

https://www.howtoread.me/jack-ryan-reading-order/

[btimbit]

Hard to argue with that list, but personally I love John Clark so have Without Remorse and Rainbow Six really high

[Strange Brew]

I enjoyed the Clancy books less once I saw him interviewed on television.

But they were good books and I agree that once Ryan became President they weren't quite as good. But the book that ended with him getting sworn in was pretty cool. I can't remember which title was which other than Red October, Patriot Games and Sum of All Fears.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

I enjoyed the Clancy books less once I saw him interviewed on television.

But they were good books and I agree that once Ryan became President they weren't quite as good. But the book that ended with him getting sworn in was pretty cool. I can't remember which title was which other than Red October, Patriot Games and Sum of All Fears.

Debt of honor which was the book about the war against Japan. It was a decently good book just not as strong as the rest, and the stretch of Ryan becoming VP was a real stretch.


Executive Orders with the ebola plague, Clancy did a really good job of describing the virus and its manufacture by Iran.

[dammage79]

Rainbow 6 is my favorite.

[nieuwy-89]

I love all of these books. Very entertaining but also educational in the depth of research that Clancy put into making the institutions, weaponry, and vehicles. It doesn’t hurt that I agree with the general world view and premise.

Without Remorse is my favourite and probably in my top 5 books of all time. Loved it. The Amazon Prime movie did not do it justice.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by nieuwy-89

The Amazon Prime movie did not do it justice.

Yeah I thought the movie was just terrible. Makes me scared that the upcoming Rainbow Six movie will suck too

[Gaskal]

Just too hard to wrap the entire plot of Rainbow Six up into a 2.5 hr movie and do it justice.

Intro and bank
Mansion
Probably skip worldpark? Since Popov wasn't related. That took a pretty big chunk of time.
Hospital attack, reveal, Popov's flight
Thwarted plot
Confrontation in the jungle

You'd need at least 2 missions on record so Popov can recognize Price and his stupid ass pipe (a bloke smoking out of a pipe broke the top tier confidentiality security lol)

Then plan the attack on home turf. Then do all that other stuff. Really tough to do as a movie. Maybe as a single season limited series.

[CaptainCrunch]

Yeah, I would agree, Rainbow would be better as a series then a 2 hour movie. I get taking out World Park, but that was really the most frightening attack, Just for the terrorists executing the little kid in a wheelchair to show they were serious and the Rainbow sniper response.


Without Remorse was complete junk.

[karl262]

I've only read 2 of his books but they were both fun enjoyable reads.

The Bear and the Dragon

SSN

[Bigtime]

Every few years I read Red Storm Rising again, so I think that makes it #1 on my list. I honestly haven't re-read any of his other novels.

[CaptainCrunch]

Red Phoenix by Bond is very similar to Red Storm rising. It takes the Korean War and basically refights it using modern (for the time) weapons and tactics.