This book sounds so awesomely bad that now I kind of want to read it, just to see. But I also want to re-read Cardinal of the Kremlin and Hunt for Red October, so it will have to get in line.
It can profitably be approached from that angle, yes.
[spoiler]
As Molesworth 2 mentions, there is the rather jarring parts where, earlier, one of the protagonists goes thru a bit of soul-searching about the things he might have to do as part of this elite, super-secret “black” operation. They would be against the law, but, since it is done for a higher purpose, it is morally justified. And there is lots and lots about how tough and business-like and hardnosed the team is.
Then there is a hostage situation where the Bad Guys shoot a dying child in a wheelchair. (At which point even I was thinking “laying it on a little thick, aren’t you, Clancy?”) But then one of the Good Guy Snipers [ul]
[li]shoots the gun out of the Bad Guy’s hands :rolleyes: , and [*]then shoots him in the belly so he will die slowly. He doesn’t gain any tactical advantage, or take the Bad Guy prisoner to get information - he just wants the guy to suffer. [/ul]And everyone just sort of shrugs and says, “well, don’t do that again” and glosses over the fact that the sniper has violated every rule in their book and gained nothing by it.[/spoiler]The fun part about Clancy is that it isn’t until after I finish the book that I ask “did I really just read about some crazed Japanese businessman re-enacting WWII kamikaze runs on the White House?” Or Chinese cyber-hackers, Islamic germ-warfare, Earth First billionaires losing at involuntary games of Naked and Afraid, etc. [/li]
It’s escapist literature. And the world to which you escape is well-crafted enough to keep me pulled in for 700 pages or so. YMMV.
Regards,
Shodan
I see that there isn’t much love for The Bear and the Dragon. That book was just plain tedious.
I loved most of his books prior to that one despite his Stephen King like need to ramble on. But the The Bear and the Dragon was the last straw.
I don’t remember the first 700 pages or so (did anything even happen)? Seriously I couldn’t tell you anything about it up to that point but I remember thinking that the last 250 pages or so were fairly enjoyable when Russia and China finally got around to the war part.
But that wasn’t enough for me to continue reading his books. Oh well, I think his first seven novels were very entertaining for the most part.
Thanks for the memories Tom.
Well, assuming their pardons worked, which obviously they wouldn’t. I don’t see how that would prevent them being extradited to Italy to face charges there. After all people not facing charges in one country are extradited to ones where they are all the time. That’s the whole point of extradition treaties, and wiki says America/Italy have had one since 1984.
About 400 pages into Bear and Dragon is where I stopped reading Clancy. But I enjoyed everything up to that point. I still think Red October is my favorite but Red Storm Rising is right up there. Ah, takes me back to the Cold War…
“After a brief illness”?! I ain’t buyin’ it! :mad: Check his fridge for anything laced with polonium!
Even though I thought Teeth of the Tiger was a bad book it did contain a description of what I had already thought the next type of mass terrorist attack would look like. I can say selfishly that I’m glad that it has not happened in the U.S. Unfortunately it looked way too similar to what happened in Mumbai and Nairobi.
ISTR that he got divorced from his first wife at around the time his books started to suck. Wasn’t there a rumor going around that she (the ex-wife) was entitled to royalties from his books in her divorce settlement, and he was determined to rip her off? Was this the sort of petty thing he was capable of?
It would have been much easier to not write them.
Easier…but perhaps less viscerally satisfying.
Sure. But I doubt anyone would have kept publishing him if the books were losing money. And with his track record he would make money on advances. And I don’t see how any divorce settlement would give her money for things he had not done yet. But stranger things have happened I guess.
I’m have not been able to find out how much profit was made per book but I did find this tidbit. Clancy owns a good chuck of the Baltimore Orioles. His ex-wife owns half of his stake. His investment made a profit of $230 million. I don’t think tanking on his books would matter to her. She’s quite wealthy.
(I was pretty much joking, but you make good points anyway.)
I think the kind of mad lone gunmen that go around shooting people in the US every now and then are far too similar to the Mumbai attacks in too many important respects for you to be able to claim this.
I too have heard the ex-wife shared any money from his Ryan novels and that’s why he started just licensing his name to any book/game that would give him money for it. The version i heard is that his wife was somehow involved with the creation of the Ryan character so she got a percentage on any story involving him.
I have no idea if this is true, or even legally plausible, but i can confirm this story has been circulating for years.I’m not sure what you think I am claiming. I am not saying anyone read his book and used it as a template to plan an attack.
But I think you are wrong. There is a big difference between a crazy lone gunman and squad of trained terrorists carrying out a planned attack.
Well, I have no inside information about what went on between Clancy and his wife, but I do know he was trying to buy the Minnesota Vikings, and the divorce made that impossible.
So, things did get ugly, and there was a lot of mutual resentment.
I found the quality and writing of his books to be so variable that I have no idea how much of anything was written by “Tom Clancy”.
Has the cause of death been released yet?
Waiting for someone to come into the thread to claim that TC is better than Shakespeare.
Why?
Well?! Did Shakespeare ever get on the NYT Bestsellers list?!