Kevin's Watch

This is what this thread used to be about:

The final incarnation of a joke gone awry, this is the place to talk about fiction and non-fiction books within a literary rather than a general framework. Book reviews and critiques are welcome and encouraged. Hooray for bibliophiles!


This is what this thread is about now:

Tom Clancy

I just finished with Tom Clancy's Without Remorse
*Boo-Hiss! Not The Runes! Outcast! Unclean!*
A story about an ex-SEAL whom seeks revenge
against the drug dealers who killed his girlfriend,
while planning and executing a military rescue mission
to get P.O.W.s during the Viet Nam war.
The ending has a nicely done suspenseful twist.

I didn't think that it was as good as some of his other books,
but I still liked the story anyway.

Anybody else's comment or reviews?

Clancy is ok. Some better than others. W/O Remorse was pretty good. Rainbow Six was better for me.

Ever read Stephen Hunter? He uses an Arkansas State Trooper and a Viet Nam sniper as story lines. Point of Impact & Dirty White Boys were the best.

WITHOUT REMORSE is one of my favorite Clancys. I like the personal approach, in comparison with his others, which tend to focus on the action thrills. Our hero stalking the slum jungle, letting nothing stand between him and vengeance against the entire drug community...

But then there is THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, so much more suspenseful even than the suspenseful movie; RED STORM RISING, with its hero conducting gorilla warfare over the bare rocks of Iceland; CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, with Jack Ryan conquering at the highest levels by conquering himself; and THE SUM OF ALL FEARS, which is about summed up by its name. In SUM, I think Clancy does an especially good job of showing how out of touch with reality his villains are, and extending it to others with the same mindset.

I can't talk about DEBT OF HONOR or beyond, because I haven't read those later books yet.

Alynna, I recommend shunting these posts over to a Tom Clancy thread.

I see this has become the Tom Clancy thread! I really liked Patriot Games (and Tam whapped me over the head for bitching about the movie at the theater)! But "Hunt" rocks too!

I love The Hunt for Red October. I must say, though, that I saw the movie several times before I read the book, and I actually like the movie better in several ways. It has been a long time since I read any of Clancy's other books, and I never really got into Ryan as a character. Marko Ramius from HfRO has always intrigued me more.

I've read everthing by Clancy up to and including Debt of Honor. My favorites are Sum and Red Storm Rising. I love Without Remorse as well. I couldn't get through Rainbow Six, though.

Here a funny story for you: Way back in 1992 (Holy Cow!) I had to have emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix. I had started Sum about a week before, but this was my senior year in college and I hadn't read very much of it by the time of my illness. However, being in a hospital for 5 days gives one plenty of time to kill. The last night I was there, I was so deeply engrossed in Sum that I stayed up late to read. The nurses offered me a sleeping pill, which I refused. About 4am in the morning, when I was at the most critical point in the book, the nurse came in to take my vitals. About 5 minutes after she left, the nursing supervisor rushed in and said "Donald, your blood pressure is up and your heart rate is through the roof! What's the matter?" I told her I was just into the book, and she told me that either I put the book away and calm down, or else! Not knowing what "or else" meant and too afraid to ask, I promised to be a good patient, put the book on the night stand and settled in for sleep.....then picked the book back up when she left the room.

Great story, dlb!!

I've only read Clear and Present Danger and Without Remorse, but I absolutely loved them both!!

I haven't read any of the books, but I've seen (most of) the movies.

I seem to say that a lot around here.

Obviously, I have no comment on Clancy's novels, but for what it's worth, I thought the movie Patriot Games was superb and the best of the "Jack Ryan" franchise (again, judging the movies solely as movies).

I didn't see The Sum Of All Fears because Ben Affleck...annoys me.

Thank you, I'll exit this thread now.

Ben Affleck...annoys me.

He annoys me too, MM.

Just started on Op-Center.
I've also read Without Remorse and Patriot Games.
The Sum Of All Fears was a book that I just couldn't put down,
even as thick as a novel as it is. (The movie was dreadful, IMO)
Seen the movie The Hunt For Red October... like it very much.

I know that the character Jack Ryan is in a few of Clancy's stories,
but I only own a couple of his books.
What books is Jack Ryan in?

I was flipping TV channels this Sunday evening and decided to watch The Sum of All Fears. Aside from the obligatory romance angle between Ben Affleck and what's-her-name, I thought the movie was quite compelling. In spite of Affleck's goofball presence, I think this is the darkest and grittiest Jack Ryan film yet. Perhaps it is so by default, due to its premise of nuclear terrorism. Pretty scary stuff.

No, I still haven't read any of the books, but Clancy was the executive producer of this film.

Excellent book, MM. Give it a try.