# Tom Clancy - Grant Blackwood? Clive Cussler? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 7, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280 "2010-12-07T16:00:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![shelbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@shelbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shelbo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/1 "2010-12-07T16:00:21Z")
So the new Tom Clancy book is coming out, and this time he’s gone ahead and admitted right on the cover that he’s phoning it in - “Dead or Alive” by Tom Clancy (with Grant Blackwood). I was curious about Grant Blackwood, and a quick Google revealed that he’s also been writing books for Clive Cussler. So, I figure if Clancy has had to go so far as to put Blackwoods name on the cover, Blackwood pretty much must have written the whole book. Maybe Clancy sketched an outline, and gave some tips, but I bet that if Clancy did much more than that, Blackwood’s name wouldn’t have made the cover. Cussler’s books have been credited to “Clive Cussler _and_ Grant Blackwood”. I’m guessing that must mean ol’ Clive may have read the galleys before they went to print. Can anyone with a little acutal insight to the world of publishing tell me what they think the story is? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/2 "2010-12-07T16:16:40Z")
Tom Clancy has been writing books with co-authors for years. This is just the first Jack Ryan book to include a co-author. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/3 "2010-12-07T16:29:07Z")
I think every example of this should come with a detailed book report by the top billing author, and include a sworn affidavit that said author wrote said book report. Any errors or signs of cheating should result in a failing grade, mister! ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/4 "2010-12-14T12:07:08Z")
I have no insight into the publishing but having just read the book (and having repeatedly read all the other Clancy books) I can tell you that Grant Blackwood did a lot of the heavy lifting in this one. It doesn’t read like a Clancy book much at all. If anything, there a hint of Frederick Forsythe in there. > [@](#): > > This is just the first Jack Ryan book to include a co-author. Actually, Larry Bond had a big part of Hunt for Red October and check out the credits page for Red Storm Rising. Clancy admits in writing that Larry Bond’s name should be on the cover. Mind you RSR wasn’t a Ryan book. I also loved how TOM CLANCY is in like 128 point print while Grant Blackwood is in this nice discreet 8 point gray font that just kind of melts into the black background. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/5 "2010-12-16T20:39:21Z")
My God, are they still torturing poor Jack Ryan? I haven’t read one of those since _Executive Orders_, which sealed my determination not to read any more. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/6 "2010-12-16T23:19:58Z")
I used to be the bigget Tom Clancy fan in the world. But no more. I doubt I’ll even bother reading this new one. I made it through Executive Orders, but two things absolutely killed it for me. 1. White Rabbit - or whatever the Ryan ‘prequel’ was called 2. I got suckered in to the very first Op Centre book - I saw a ‘new’ Tom Clancy book on the shelf and brought it straight off, only upon starting to read and finding the quality somewhat lacking looked more closely to discover it was a ‘concept’ of Tom Clancy. The whole design of the cover etc, went to great lengths to minimise that. Very poor treatment of his fans I thought. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/7 "2010-12-16T23:26:11Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > My God, are they still torturing poor Jack Ryan? I haven’t read one of those since _Executive Orders_, which sealed my determination not to read any more. Jack’s not even in the last two books. Now Clancy is torturing Jack’s kid. Total and complete crap, and I read _Cussler_. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/8 "2010-12-16T23:33:57Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > Actually, Larry Bond had a big part of Hunt for Red October and check out the credits page for Red Storm Rising. Clancy admits in writing that Larry Bond’s name should be on the cover. Mind you RSR wasn’t a Ryan book. Ironically, after being an uncredited co-author with Clancy, Bond has gone on to write books under his own name - several of which have Patrick Larkin as an uncredited co-author. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/9 "2010-12-16T23:39:20Z")
> [@GreedySmurf](#): > > I got suckered in to the very first Op Centre book - I saw a ‘new’ Tom Clancy book on the shelf and brought it straight off, only upon starting to read and finding the quality somewhat lacking looked more closely to discover it was a ‘concept’ of Tom Clancy. The whole design of the cover etc, went to great lengths to minimise that. Very poor treatment of his fans I thought. There’s even a question of how much of a contribution Clancy made to the “concept” of this series. Steve Pieczenik is credited as the co-creator. Jeff Rovin is the uncredited author who actually did the writing. So it might have been a deal where Pieczenik thought of the ideas, Rovin did the writing, and Clancy put his name on the cover. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/10 "2010-12-16T23:46:43Z")
I stopped after Rainbow Six. I thought it was lame that he wrote two books in a row that involved the Ebola virus. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/11 "2010-12-17T02:52:57Z")
> [@GreedySmurf](#): > > 1. White Rabbit - or whatever the Ryan ‘prequel’ was called Red Rabbit. That one broke me too. Complete dreck. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/12 "2010-12-17T04:09:44Z")
I think Clive Cussler could use all the co-authoring help he can get. I think his novel-length books are awful. His short stories are pretty good though. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/13 "2010-12-18T01:37:09Z")
Holy shit! There are some people really buying Clancy’s books! Always thought they were placed on airport libraries’ book racks to hold them down. And I always believed this was Tom Clancy’s greatest contribution to litterature. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/14 "2010-12-18T01:42:19Z")
> [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > Holy shit! There are some people really buying Clancy’s books! Always thought they were placed on airport libraries’ book racks to hold them down. And I always believed this was Tom Clancy’s greatest contribution to litterature. Read the first Op Center and get back to me. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/15 "2010-12-18T03:06:25Z")
> [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > Holy shit! There are some people really buying Clancy’s books! Always thought they were placed on airport libraries’ book racks to hold them down. And I always believed this was Tom Clancy’s greatest contribution to litterature. Clancy really was an excellent writer back in his day. His early books like _Hunt for Red October_ and _The Cardinal in the Kremlin_ were well-written spy thrillers regardless of whether or not you agreed with his political beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/16 "2010-12-18T11:27:19Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Clancy really was an excellent writer back in his day. His early books like _Hunt for Red October_ and _The Cardinal in the Kremlin_ were well-written spy thrillers regardless of whether or not you agreed with his political beliefs. A guy that feels the need to put acronyms every two words, combined with hi tech fetishism, and an imagination for plots all disproven by real life while selling himself as a geopolitical clairvoyant, can not be called an “excellent writer”. Not by a long shot (and if I was Clancy, I’d now start on a 5 pages long expose on what kind of caliber that would be , and all its interesting and wonderful properties). There are worse things than a computer geek, it’s the techno thriller geek. At least the computer geek has some form of relevant knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/17 "2010-12-18T22:43:35Z")
> [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > A guy that feels the need to put acronyms every two words, combined with hi tech fetishism, and an imagination for plots all disproven by real life while selling himself as a geopolitical clairvoyant, can not be called an “excellent writer”. > Not by a long shot (and if I was Clancy, I’d now start on a 5 pages long expose on what kind of caliber that would be , and all its interesting and wonderful properties). > There are worse things than a computer geek, it’s the techno thriller geek. At least the computer geek has some form of relevant knowledge. Yeah like fans of the genre have never heard those trite, and if I may say very overexaggerated, attacks before. Clancy’s first 4-5 books were excellent if you have even a modicum of interest in the genre, which you obviously don’t. Personally it’s just a shame that he went off the rails completely, because he was one of my favourite author’s back in his heyday. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/18 "2010-12-19T07:28:05Z")
> [@](#): > > a geopolitical clairvoyant He did call the 9/11 attacks in 1994. In fact, Debt of Honor may have even helped the 9/11 hijackers as it gives fairly explicit and clear instructions on how to crash a jet into the Capitol Building. If the passengers of United 93 hadn’t decided “Let’s roll” it would be known today as the Capitol Crater. He was also fairly prescient in predicting how the United States is totally unprepared to defend against a biological warfare threat, as shown in the response to the very small scale anthrax attacks. His latest books have the US being hit with small strikes that only kill a few to dozens of people but spreading terror in the sense that any community can be hit at any time. Let’s hope he’s off the mark on that one. ---
**Author:** ![peoriashows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ea5d25/32.png) [@peoriashows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peoriashows)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/19 "2011-01-11T23:27:29Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > I stopped after Rainbow Six. I thought it was lame that he wrote two books in a row that involved the Ebola virus. Why? He wrote 2 books in a row about Soviets defecting. Debt of Honor was the one that got me shaking my head in shame. It was good story telling, but the idea of warring with Japan again was so hard to take seriously, but I kept on trudging through until Bear and the Dragon. That bloated mess cured my insmonia many a night. He’s gone down that slippery slope of untouchable ego, unfortunately. he can do no wrong…in his own mind ---
**Author:** ![peoriashows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ea5d25/32.png) [@peoriashows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peoriashows)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280/20 "2011-01-11T23:40:50Z")
> [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > A guy that feels the need to put acronyms every two words, combined with hi tech fetishism, and an imagination for plots all disproven by real life while selling himself as a geopolitical clairvoyant, can not be called an “excellent writer”. > Not by a long shot (and if I was Clancy, I’d now start on a 5 pages long expose on what kind of caliber that would be , and all its interesting and wonderful properties). > There are worse things than a computer geek, it’s the techno thriller geek. At least the computer geek has some form of relevant knowledge. As a kid, Red October was the 1st novel I ever read. I liked it so much, I continued to reads others which made me interested in engineering. Now when I go back and read those books, some of the engineering stuff is too funny! Specifically, I remember characters mentioning that a Joule is 1 Newton-meter, without explaining what a Newton-meter is. It was so awesome reading that as a kid because I just assumed every adult knew what a Newton-meter was. It’s only now, as an adult, that I came to realize that engineers don’t sit around all the time discussing physical laws. HA! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-clancy-grant-blackwood-clive-cussler/563280.md?page=2)