Ok, so I've never read a Tom Clancy novel before. I've always been mostly a non-fiction dude. What should I read first? Is Red October the place to start?
Hunt for Red October is great. Taut thriller. Put yourself in the position of reading it in 1984/5, when the Sovs were still scary, intel was hard to come by, how the fuck did this guy know all this shit? Insurance salesman? Bring him in, find out what he knows. Favorite bit is when the A-10s light up the Kirov.
Skip Red Storm Rising, it's a write-up of a wargame. Fine if you're into that, but outside the Jack Ryan world.
I'd read Cardinal of the Kremlin next, even though Patriot Games came out before. Either/or here. Then Clear and Present Danger. You can probably stop there. The rest got increasingly bloated and preachy. I was in DC working three blocks from the WH when I read Debt of Honor, and I recall throwing the book across the room when I finished it, the ending pissed me off so much (the only other book I've thrown across the room upon completion was Clan of the Cave Bear).
What did you think of Without Remorse?
I had to go online to read a synopsis to remember what it was about. Not a memorable book. I prefer his earlier tight stories to his later bloated moralizing, and this book with the revenge fantasy thing kinda bridges the two.
It got to the poont where I read his later books out of duty more than anything else, naively hoping that he'd find his way back to the formula that made him popular and famous in the first place. Unfortunately, that never happened.
Ok, so I've never read a Tom Clancy novel before. I've always been mostly a non-fiction dude. What should I read first? Is Red October the place to start?
Hunt for Red October is great. Taut thriller. Put yourself in the position of reading it in 1984/5, when the Sovs were still scary, intel was hard to come by, how the fuck did this guy know all this shit? Insurance salesman? Bring him in, find out what he knows. Favorite bit is when the A-10s light up the Kirov.
Skip Red Storm Rising, it's a write-up of a wargame. Fine if you're into that, but outside the Jack Ryan world.
I'd read Cardinal of the Kremlin next, even though Patriot Games came out before. Either/or here. Then Clear and Present Danger. You can probably stop there. The rest got increasingly bloated and preachy. I was in DC working three blocks from the WH when I read Debt of Honor, and I recall throwing the book across the room when I finished it, the ending pissed me off so much (the only other book I've thrown across the room upon completion was Clan of the Cave Bear).
What did you think of Without Remorse?
I had to go online to read a synopsis to remember what it was about. Not a memorable book. I prefer his earlier tight stories to his later bloated moralizing, and this book with the revenge fantasy thing kinda bridges the two.
It got to the poont where I read his later books out of duty more than anything else, naively hoping that he'd find his way back to the formula that made him popular and famous in the first place. Unfortunately, that never happened.
Ok, so I've never read a Tom Clancy novel before. I've always been mostly a non-fiction dude. What should I read first? Is Red October the place to start?
Hunt for Red October is great. Taut thriller. Put yourself in the position of reading it in 1984/5, when the Sovs were still scary, intel was hard to come by, how the fuck did this guy know all this shit? Insurance salesman? Bring him in, find out what he knows. Favorite bit is when the A-10s light up the Kirov.
Skip Red Storm Rising, it's a write-up of a wargame. Fine if you're into that, but outside the Jack Ryan world.
I'd read Cardinal of the Kremlin next, even though Patriot Games came out before. Either/or here. Then Clear and Present Danger. You can probably stop there. The rest got increasingly bloated and preachy. I was in DC working three blocks from the WH when I read Debt of Honor, and I recall throwing the book across the room when I finished it, the ending pissed me off so much (the only other book I've thrown across the room upon completion was Clan of the Cave Bear).
What did you think of Without Remorse?
I had to go online to read a synopsis to remember what it was about. Not a memorable book. I prefer his earlier tight stories to his later bloated moralizing, and this book with the revenge fantasy thing kinda bridges the two.
It got to the poont where I read his later books out of duty more than anything else, naively hoping that he'd find his way back to the formula that made him popular and famous in the first place. Unfortunately, that never happened.
None of the movies were nearly as good as their respective books, which makes them all minor disappoontments, even H4RO. When Patriot Games came out Clancy was asked in an interview how he felt about the changes they made for the screenplay, and he said that when he first read it he cried. Paramount had a talk with him that evening about how he needed to pimp their films of his work so he'd keep getting paid, and the next day he went out and pimped like they told him to. SAD!
Red October is obviously the best, but even setting aside the changes they made to the story, it still was kinda meh when it came out, because by that time the USSR was well on its way to imploding and it just didn't have the oomph that the book did when it came out in 1984 when we? were less than a year past maximum tension/danger. Plus the special effects looked horrible, as if they were too cheap to pay ILM to do it right.
I'm probably one of the few westerners who read Hunt For Red October behind the Iron Curtain (Budapest, 1985). I felt so subversive
We are damn lucky to have the former Cal oarsman as our resident Cold War expurt.
Do I count as a former UW oarsman because I went to UW and erg once in awhile?
None of the movies were nearly as good as their respective books, which makes them all minor disappoontments, even H4RO. When Patriot Games came out Clancy was asked in an interview how he felt about the changes they made for the screenplay, and he said that when he first read it he cried. Paramount had a talk with him that evening about how he needed to pimp their films of his work so he'd keep getting paid, and the next day he went out and pimped like they told him to. SAD!
Red October is obviously the best, but even setting aside the changes they made to the story, it still was kinda meh when it came out, because by that time the USSR was well on its way to imploding and it just didn't have the oomph that the book did when it came out in 1984 when we? were less than a year past maximum tension/danger. Plus the special effects looked horrible, as if they were too cheap to pay ILM to do it right.
I'm probably one of the few westerners who read Hunt For Red October behind the Iron Curtain (Budapest, 1985). I felt so subversive
We are damn lucky to have the former Cal oarsman as our resident Cold War expurt.
Do I count as a former UW oarsman because I went to UW and erg once in awhile?
Were you on the team even if only for a day? If no, you are just 7:12 2K old guy erg star.
Ok, so I've never read a Tom Clancy novel before. I've always been mostly a non-fiction dude. What should I read first? Is Red October the place to start?
Hunt for Red October is great. Taut thriller. Put yourself in the position of reading it in 1984/5, when the Sovs were still scary, intel was hard to come by, how the fuck did this guy know all this shit? Insurance salesman? Bring him in, find out what he knows. Favorite bit is when the A-10s light up the Kirov.
Skip Red Storm Rising, it's a write-up of a wargame. Fine if you're into that, but outside the Jack Ryan world.
I'd read Cardinal of the Kremlin next, even though Patriot Games came out before. Either/or here. Then Clear and Present Danger. You can probably stop there. The rest got increasingly bloated and preachy. I was in DC working three blocks from the WH when I read Debt of Honor, and I recall throwing the book across the room when I finished it, the ending pissed me off so much (the only other book I've thrown across the room upon completion was Clan of the Cave Bear).
What did you think of Without Remorse?
IMO best book. Still can’t figure out why the movie never happened.
Comments
It got to the poont where I read his later books out of duty more than anything else, naively hoping that he'd find his way back to the formula that made him popular and famous in the first place. Unfortunately, that never happened.