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Fiction. Literature. Mystery. Thriller. In the suburbs of Maryland, the firm of Hendley and Associates meanders its way through financial transactions�??but its true purpose is to identify and locate terrorist threats, and then deal with them in whatever manner necessary. "The Campus" is always on the lookout for new talent, and its eye happens to light on President John Patrick Ryan's son: Jack Ryan, Jr. While his father moved through the ranks of the CIA and into the Presidency, Jack Jr. received the benefit of years of life experience in special ops, intelligence analysis, and the way the world really works. Now, the Arab terrorist world and the Colombian drug cartels are about to unite forces, and Jack Jr. must put all he has been taught to good use�??or… (more)
User reviews
Clancy is washed up. It's going to take some pretty good reviews for me to read a new book from Tom.
I read that Clancy normally punches out his novel on two year cycles, but after the disappointing sales of Red Rabbit last year, he wrote this one in quick time and released it this year. It is about half the length of a normal Clancy novel and definitely less than half the quality. It needs a lot more work, riddled with trite phrases, implausible leaps and shallow characters. What really irked me was the overly simple solutions to terrorism problems. By tracking email, they were able to somehow located physically and kill four terrorist operatives, ranging for their high profile money mover back to the super secret operation planner who never stays in one place for more than a couple days. Yet, they manage to take them all out in the last twenty pages. Even Jack Ryan Jr. gets into the act, killing the last one himself. I suspect we will see much more of these three in future novels. I just hope he takes the time to make it interesting. I only read this one because of the investment I have in the Clancy novels, but I almost wish I hadn't spent the time.
And
So, now that I'm satisfied that I didn't miss anything, on with the review.
The Teeth of the Tiger is about an ultra-clandestine government agency set up by then-president Jack Ryan. It's such a new agency that so far, all it's done is make money (it's self-funding, mostly by quasi-legal insider trading) and collect intelligence hacked from the alphabet-soup agencies. And now they're training their first operatives: twin brothers Dominic and Brian Caruso, respectively an FBI agent and a Marine officer.... and Jack Ryan's nephews.
They get a slightly accelerated course when a routine training exercise crosses paths with an actual terrorist operation in a suburban mall.
Meanwhile, Jack Ryan, Jr., a few years younger than his cousins, has used his brains and figured out the existence of the agency, and basically applies for a job.
Interspersed with the training thread and the Jack Jr. thread is the terrorists' plot.
Maybe it's because I've just been in an action mood lately, but while I did notice a few drawbacks: the twins call each other Aldo and Enzo for no good reason, except perhaps as something to trip up readers; Brian dithers for far too long about whether or not he can kill terrorists in cold blood; and there's quite a bit of repetition; they didn't bug me all that much because I loved the story otherwise.
I found the idea of a combination of stock market traders and assassin/spies irresistible. And I loved watching the development of the agency, even--or perhaps especially--the doubts and missteps. It was new, they weren't sure how it would work, but they were willing and eager to try, and that excitement was passed on to this reader, at least.
I also found the three cousins to be fairly reasonably characterized. Even Brian's crisis of conscience made sense with his character, and my irritation with him was mitigated by the fact that his brother was also irritated with him. The twins were youngish and excitement-seeking, which explains some of their less logical decisions, like renting a Porsche instead of taking an anonymous train on their mission in Europe. Jack, Jr. had grown up privileged in the shadow of his larger-than-life father, who he admires, so it's understandable that he has that sense of duty, and yet he wants to make his own mark, and to prove himself.
And, oh, yes, I did have to ignore a bit of political b.s. with which I'd have taken exception if I hadn't expected it. I find Clancy a little naive, politically (no shades of gray), but that works pretty well in an action novel. I think I'll have to see which of his books I've missed in the interim and check them out.
Please. Give us a break here Tom. We'll willingly suspend disbelief for the sake of some good fiction, but that doesn't give you license to abuse that privilege.
In a nondescript office building in suburban Maryland, the firm Hendley Associates does a profitable business in stocks, bonds, and international currencies, but its true mission is quite different: to identify and locate terrorist threats, and then deal with them, in whatever manner necessary. Established with the knowledge of President John Patrick Ryan, 'the Campus' is always on the lookout for promising new talent, its recruiters scattered throughout the armed forces and government agencies--and three men are about to cross its radar.
The first is Dominic Caruso, a rookie FBI agent, barely a year out of Quantico, whose decisive actions resolve a particularly brutal kidnap/murder case. The second is Caruso's brother, Brian, a Marine captain just back from his first combat action in Afghanistan, and already a man to watch. And the third is their cousin . . . a young man named Jack Ryan, Jr.
Jack was raised on intrigue. As his father moved through the ranks of the CIA and then into the White House, Jack received a life course in the world and the way it operates from agents, statesmen, analysts, Secret Service men, and black ops specialists such as John Clark and Ding Chavez. He wants to put it all to work now, but when he knocks on the front door of 'the Campus,' he finds that nothing has prepared him for what he is about to encounter. For it is indeed a different world out there, and in here . . . and it is about to become far more dangerous.
Plot summary: FBI agent and marine (twins) get picked to join a
The hits are slightly interesting.
Clancy painted himself into a corner when he made Jack Ryan president. Once that happened, there was nowhere for his character to go other than out to pasture. So Jack Ryan Jr. became a young clone of Jack Ryan allowing Clancy to start over. Unfortunately, lightning really doesn’t strike twice.
What we are left with isn’t a bad book or bad characters. The Teeth of the Tiger is actually a pretty good story. But the characters are less interesting because we already know their entire back story, so there is nothing to reveal. It would have been better if Clancy had just started fresh. Instead, this feels like a print of a great painting – it is pretty to look at, but it doesn’t have the depth and texture of the original.
I fully appreciate that Clancy had to move into the more modern world of terrorism and also that old Jack, or Big Jack, was getting old, and it may have been time to replace him with the new generation
It may have been because for most of the way through the book I didn't realise that the story would be picked up in another, and this was just the beginning for Junior, Brian and Dom. I knew there were other books, I even own one (its in my to-read pile) but I didn't know it would be a 'carry-on' unlike the other Clancy I've read, which use the same characters but each storyline is wrapped up at the end. That could have been why I didn't feel like this book was getting places very quickly.
However, I see the potential and I have always enjoyed Clancy's writing. It's time for me to let go of my old favourite characters and embrace the new! I will persevere with Dead or Alive and see how it goes.
...but with that said, I think there may be a time when characters/world need to be left alone. Jack Ryan-esque novels may be at that place.
This book tried to
In fact, Jack never even entered the book. Instead, his son, Jack Ryan Jr., is entering the 'spook' world. (To which Jr. surmises his father and mother would not be happy about...)
I felt the characters were very forced and unnatural. Rather than revealing a character's nature through his actions, Clancy was very repetitive in his dialogue between his characters. Often times his characters would say the SAME, EXACT words he said only pages before.
This probably goes down as my biggest let down by Clancy, whether or not he feels the Ryan world should fade away or not, I doubt I'll read anymore....
...but with that said, I think there may be a time when characters/world need to be left alone. Jack Ryan-esque novels may be at that place.
This book tried to
In fact, Jack never even entered the book. Instead, his son, Jack Ryan Jr., is entering the 'spook' world. (To which Jr. surmises his father and mother would not be happy about...)
I felt the characters were very forced and unnatural. Rather than revealing a character's nature through his actions, Clancy was very repetitive in his dialogue between his characters. Often times his characters would say the SAME, EXACT words he said only pages before.
This probably goes down as my biggest let down by Clancy, whether or not he feels the Ryan world should fade away or not, I doubt I'll read anymore....
I was one of those teenagers: relatively privileged, well-educated and oh my, opinionated. I knew how it should all work; all you had to do was ask me. Then at some point between high school and university, I picked up Patriot Games and it quite frankly changed the way I viewed the world. Clancy was able to let me into the heads of terrorists (Irish, in this case) and the government officials that chased them. He was able to show me through the power of prose, in a way I don't think any teacher or professor would have ever been able to do, that nothing is black and white. The motivations of people both good and bad are layered and complicated.
Suffice it to say that I became a fan; I devoured everything in the Jack Ryan series and a couple of his non-fiction books. Yes, I did – and for the most part still do – share his political leanings (to a point) but most of all for me? These books were my version of genre fantasy. The kind of fantasy where the genuinely good guys always triumph, the bad guys always receive swift and deadly justice and the politicians are left looking like the narcissistic asshats most of them are.
The realisation that these books are my version of fantasy came to me just recently, as I suddenly felt like re-reading The Teeth of the Tiger and found myself comparing it to Anne Bishop's Written in Red and Murder of Crows. Unorthodox comparison, yes, but both appealed to me for similar reasons.
Teeth of the Tiger is the ultimate fantasy; turning the tables on the terrorists and using their own tactics against them. What could you accomplish if incorruptible men had a license to hunt terrorists, unlimited funds and no government oversight? Fantasy, indeed.
I've read Teeth of the Tiger several times and truthfully, it's a 4 star rating from me because of my love of the characters and the series as a whole. This book feels like it's more about being a mouthpiece for Clancy's personal views than a good story. Yes, all of his books are mouthpieces, more or less, but this one is more soap box-y than most. Still a ripping good story, but I found myself skimming a lot of the internal dialogue and not a few sections of actual conversation between characters. If I'd been reading this for the first time, I'd probably give it more of a 3 star rating.
I forgot it ends not on a cliffhanger, exactly, but the reader is definitely left hanging to a degree, so now I'm re-reading Dead or Alive.