I just saw a re-issued edition of Tom Clancy’s novel Red Storm Rising. They prominently subtitled it “A Jack Ryan Novel” in an apparent attempt to tie it in with the release of the new movie, The Sum of All Fears.
The problem is that Red Storm Rising is a military novel about a Soviet attack on NATO and is Clancy’s only novel which doesn’t feature Jack Ryan even in an “off camera” role. Now Clancy is a best selling author and this re-issue must have received some attention from the publisher. So how does a screw-up like this slip through every level and make it all the way to the bookstands?
Screw-up? They don’t care. Disney would call its storybooks “Jack Ryan novels” if they felt it’d pump up sales. Steven King would print “The Stand: A Jack Ryan novel” if he felt it’d pump up sales.
Actually I think Clancy’ll will care. He and his ex-wife had quite a legal battle in which she won some of the royalty rights to the “Jack Ryan” novels (this is why in one of his books, Clancy never refered to Ryan’s character by name). I don’t know the details to their settlement but I don’t think Clancy’ll be happy if he ends up losing money from one of his books because of an over-enthusiastic graphic department.
Adam looked at his Rolex watch/chromatograph. 6:30 precisely, he smiled inwardly at his punctuality.
He booted up the big Kray, and was warmed at its humming power. Naming all of these animals was certainly difficult, and made even more so by the roadblocks being thrown up by someone. Today he was determined to discover who that was, and bring this nonsense to a stop.