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Fiction. Mystery. Thriller. HTML:Don't Miss the Original Series Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Starring John Krasinski! In this #1 New York Times bestselling thriller from Tom Clancy, Jack Ryan gets caught in a war between the United States and a Colombian drug cartel and uncovers a shocking conspiracy. When Colombian drug lords assassinate both the U.S. ambassador and the visiting head of the FBI, their actions trigger a covert response from the American government�??a response that goes horribly wrong... As the newly named Deputy Director of Intelligence for the CIA, Jack Ryan should be privy to operations like the one in Colombia, but he�??s been left completely in the dark. With the help of field officer John Clark, Ryan intends to find out what�??s really going on. But while they expect danger from without, the greatest threat of all may come fro… (more)
User reviews
I like Clancy’s books. They explore the world providing pictures and perspectives of agents with a unique inside understanding that he creates. I like Clancy’s characterization. His description is vivid, and I feel like I was there with the characters in this book, in the jungle, feeling what they felt right along with them. I enjoy Clancy’s style of writing and how he takes realistic events and intertwines them into several different stories telling both sides of the tale.
I liked that in Clear and Present Danger there is plenty of action. Most of the activity occurs in some Columbian forest, as a specially trained unit of soldiers proceeds with a black operation. Their job is to take out the drug lords and stop their shipments before they can be moved out of Columbia. They also are to cause a struggle for power between the cartels. The operation is going fine. Fewer drugs make it into the US and the price to buy them has risen. When information is leaked and one of the US leaders in charge of the operation is eliminated on a trip to Columbia, the entire operation starts to fall apart. The soldiers then reveal their presence to the cartels, which start to fight back. When this happens, the President orders that the operation be shutdown. He stops all support going to the troops including evacuation, and then to make it harder a high ranking official makes a deal with one of the cartels to have the men eliminated. I would hope that this would never really happen to any of the men and women that keep us safe day in and day out.
Tom Clancy uses many of the same characters in each of his books. I felt that I could understand many of the major players in this book and where they were coming from. My favorite character was Ding, a Mexican-American who grew up in the Los Angeles area. He lived in an area that had rival gangs on both sides of him. This combined with his natural instincts is what helped keep him alive during this operation. Tom Clancy has a way of writing novels so that he implies something about a character but often reverses that implication in another character. Sometimes the main character is a gentle honest man, but his friend will lie and kill for a living.
When I read a Tom Clancy book I like to learn more about the characters and about the different problems that are found in the world. In Clear and Present Danger a realistic problem is portrayed. Answers and consequences to the daily issues that drugs bring are explored. This makes this particular book more fun to read. Not all of Clancy’s books end with a happily ever after, as in this story when only half of the soldiers come home. Clancy writes to always keep you on the edge of your seat as you work your way to the end of his story. I like to try to figure out how the book will end and then be surprised both when I am right and when I misjudge an ending.
The story moves on at an unrelenting clip, which is
I understood when I picked up this book that I should be prepared for some dated technology, and aside from the obvious improvements in the militarization of digital and computer-based technologies (and perhaps also the use of drones), the story read very realistically and didn't suffer an ounce in its' excitement and intensity.
I had no real background of Clancy's Jack Ryan, nor the enigmatic John Clark. I found both to be a little two dimensional, but honestly didn't care very much either. The story was seeped in political intrigue and military tactics - and these elements provided enough jet fuel to propel the story.
Which is a shame, because I like a good techno-thriller and I'm very fond of Clark and Chavez.
US special
I've given three stars as a compromise between my reactions when reading my first Clancy (brilliant) and last Clancy (doorstop).
The movie's not without its faults of course. It has some of my favourite "How Hollywood Thinks Tech Works" moments. Their attempts to dazzle the audience with high-tech computer mumbo-jumbo are especially laughable in retrospect (look for some woefully unconvincing "computer code" about 90 minutes in, not to mention hacking passwords by guessing birthdate transposition. 133t! ;-)
The movie's not without its faults of course. It has some of my favourite "How Hollywood Thinks Tech Works" moments. Their attempts to dazzle the audience with high-tech computer mumbo-jumbo are especially laughable in retrospect (look for some woefully unconvincing "computer code" about 90 minutes in, not to mention hacking passwords by guessing birthdate transposition. 133t! ;-)
This is the first Tom Clancy book I have read, and I absolutely loved it. It's a fantastic book. It does demand all your attention to follow all the characters introduced at different times of the book, but in the end you see how it all intertwines. Clancy is a stickler for detail,
On second reading:
Just as good as I remember. I really enjoyed this reread of a great book by a masterful storyteller.