How Did Clancy Know?

[Sardaukar]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

IIRC, "Jack Ryan" character was property of his ex-wife and he lost rights to use the character after divorce.

Not true. The character came up in the divorce, as it should have, but he continued using it. I assume she was compensated in the setlement.

Ah, I stand corrected for that part. Just remembered that the character was property of ex-wife. But then, I stopped reading his books after Rainbow 6.

[bush]

Like most everyone else here I enjoyed the first 2. Personally, I hate recurring characters in books - you know they will be surviving whatever impossible situation they seem to be in. For those of you that did enjoy Red Storm Rising, pick up the other books by Larry Bond. The technology is a little dated now, but they were fun books to read,

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: bushpsu

Like most everyone else here I enjoyed the first 2. Personally, I hate recurring characters in books - you know they will be surviving whatever impossible situation they seem to be in. For those of you that did enjoy Red Storm Rising, pick up the other books by Larry Bond. The technology is a little dated now, but they were fun books to read,

Larry Bond

Any particular one you would recommend? They are still somewhat expensive!

[Sardaukar]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

ORIGINAL: bushpsu

Like most everyone else here I enjoyed the first 2. Personally, I hate recurring characters in books - you know they will be surviving whatever impossible situation they seem to be in. For those of you that did enjoy Red Storm Rising, pick up the other books by Larry Bond. The technology is a little dated now, but they were fun books to read,

Larry Bond

Any particular one you would recommend? They are still somewhat expensive!

Red Phoenix was good. If one liked Red Storm Rising, one will like Red Phoenix too, it's situated to Korea.

[Mundy]

I liked Cauldron, which was sort of a EU centric WWIII situation. Vortex, I think was the name, was about a South African war.

Ed-

[Lcp Purcell]

An interesting note, back when I was in the Marine Corps, the Commander of Charlie Company came back from leave, then let it slip that he had spent the entire two weeks in a bar drinking with Tom Clancy. I believe this is his M.O. for getting secret info.
[:-]

[Biggus63]

ORIGINAL: Lcp Purcell

An interesting note, back when I was in the Marine Corps, the Commander of Charlie Company came back from leave, then let it slip that he had spent the entire two weeks in a bar drinking with Tom Clancy. I believe this is his M.O. for getting secret info.
[:-]

I heard a story, possibly apocryphal, that after one of his early books came out he was invited to have a chat (the word I originally heard was 'debriefed') by one of the security agencies and asked to divulge where he'd come across much of the more esoteric information in the book. Maybe just a BS urban myth, who knows? I'd also heard about him picking that sort of info up hanging around in bars frequented by defence personnel.

[praetor1944]

After Cardinal in the Kremlim, I think Clancy went downhill quickly. Overall, I liked Red Storm Rising best.
However, the best NATO war novel was The Third World War by Hackett. It had nuclear strikes which is probably what would have happened in real life if the USSR attacked.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Mundy

I liked Cauldron, which was sort of a EU centric WWIII situation. Vortex, I think was the name, was about a South African war.

Ed-

I have the Larry Bond books; haven't looked at them in more than a decade. The South African war is going to very dated to current readers. Cuban troops there in force and the apartheid government.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: bushpsu

Like most everyone else here I enjoyed the first 2. Personally, I hate recurring characters in books - you know they will be surviving whatever impossible situation they seem to be in. For those of you that did enjoy Red Storm Rising, pick up the other books by Larry Bond. The technology is a little dated now, but they were fun books to read,

I just about lived in the Tom Clancy newsgroup on Usenet for much of the 1990s and early 2000s. I was writing my own technothriller and read pretty much the whole genre. The ng was a world-wide collection of mostly men, of many different backgrounds. We only infrequently talked about the books (after awhile they were beat to death), and, given it was unmoderated Usenet, most of the threads were about domestic politics, economics, geopolitics, and women.

Clancy lurked and sometimes came in to chat. I had a few exchanges with him from what I recall, especially in the Rainbow Six timeframe. The issue of his sources and methods came up a few times. I believe he said there, and has elsewhere, that he uses only open source material, but applies normal intel methods of piecing together stories from disparate scraps. He has said he was visited officially after HFRO to show his sources for some of the sonar detail. The visitors were satisfied with his retained notes on his sources and left him alone. I do know that some USN nuclear-trained officers were surprised at how much he was able to learn about the inner working of a cold-water accident in a submarine reactor, a sequence which appears in the climax of HFRO.

He had a very successful 1980s-1990s, and took a lot of pride at his sales records, at that time world records. JK Rowling has since far surpassed them, but for a time he was on top. His personal life took some twists and turns, and he had a major heart attack some time ago which derailed his production. He had a major launch in the past two years ( a "real" Clancy, not co-written), but it was a short-term blip. I think the novel scene has moved past what he has to offer. There were calls in the old days for him to try his hand at science fiction, but nothing ever came of it. Part of the problem these days with technothrillers is the lack of heavy-duty bad guys. The USSR was a credible opponent for the USA and NATO. When they went away you have your drug cartels and your terrorists, but it's hardly a fair fight if you're a technology whore and not a spycraft novelist. The plots IMO got both increasingly outlandish on the villain side and exposed, as others have said, the cardboard nature of his major characters on the softer side. If he had been hungrier I think he would have started new characters instead of taking Ryan and Clark to several times too many proms. But he hasn't been financially hungry since the 80s, writing is very hard work, and he has a new family and a new lease on life post-heart attack. I'll be interested to see if there is ever another novel from him.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Lcp Purcell

An interesting note, back when I was in the Marine Corps, the Commander of Charlie Company came back from leave, then let it slip that he had spent the entire two weeks in a bar drinking with Tom Clancy. I believe this is his M.O. for getting secret info.
[:-]

I call sea story![8D]

(Where is the TINS?)

[hkbhsi]

Like most here I think the Ryan saga went downhill pretty quickly after the first few books, as the plots become too stereotypized.
The worst offender of the lot is probably "The teeth of the tiger", with Ryan's sons, where the dialogues are bordeline racist.

[Bullwinkle58]

If anyone is really into "hard" technothrillers I would also recomend Eric L. Harry, especially "Arc Light." Eric was a short-term e-mail friend and we shared an agent for a time, but I don't think he writes anymore. He has a full time job as an international legal counsel in the petroleum industry. But he was very well-versed in military affairs when he was writing and his plots were very tight. He writes some of the best depictions of first-person close combat I've read from modern authors.

"Arc Light" is a WWIII novel with a scope to match RSR. "Invasion" is about a continental invasion of the USA. The premise is not as well done, but the setpiece scenes are excellent. Either of those I would recco.

http://www.amazon.com/Arc-Light-Eric-Ha ... eric+harry

is the "Arc Light" lisitng on Amazon. I don't know what's up with the price; mine is a regular pocketbook-sized version I paid $5 for back in the day. But you can read the customer reviews.

[House Stark]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I've read many Tom Clancy novels over the years. His early works were outstanding. His later works left much to be desired. His major character - Ryan - becomes Vice President of the United States. Is this just a coincidence? [:)]

Well, Ryan isn't that unusual of a last name. Still, the coincidence is an interesting find.

[jeffk3510]

I love his work.

[LST Express]

Enjoyed his first few books but haven't bought books of that type in years.

[Encircled]

Liked up to Rainbow Six

"Red Storm Rising" though is probably in my top ten book list

[Canoerebel]

Yeah, Red Storm Rising is on my top ten list too (and I do actually have such a list, and have had it for about 25 years, with Red Storm Rising being the "newest" listing).

[John 3rd]

I love the first 2/3 of his work. As said earlier I think Executive Orders is his finest work. Red October is great but EO is a HUGE book that covers so many timely topics to this day. The insights into the Secret Service and life in the White House were pretty interesting. AFTER EO I think it started going downhill. My Favorites would be:

1. EO
2. Red October
3. Without Remorse
4. Rainbow Six

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: jeffk3510

I love his work.

+1

Have them all. Read them periodically. Pure fantasy fiction, but easy and relaxing while I'm on a stationary bike.