Author: Tom Clancy

First, if you've seen the movies Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, or The Sum of All Fears you really must read the books, because the movies are not very true to the books in some significant ways.

Clancy has written a number of books featuring Jack Ryan as the central character, but his novels tend to have large casts of characters, and the more recent ones are quite long as well. Tons of details related to the military, from what's it like at the lower echelons, to operations, weapons, to the highest levels of command and the thought processes that occur in any military endeavor. He also opens the door for us into the world of intelligence agencies, and whether or not he is completely accurate in this portrayal, it is highly entertaining.

The downside for some people reading Clancy is that you also get quite a bit of what I assume is his political viewpoint. Some I agree with and some I don't, but I grew to like the Jack Ryan character in most respects, an everyman who is thrown into some unbelievable situations and has to cope as best he can. Clancy is quite capable of coming up with wild scenarios that play out across a world stage. Since 9-11 of course his scenarios don't seem quite so wild, since he actually wrote (years before 9-11) about an incident in Debt of Honor where an airplane crashes into the Capitol building. The resulting chaos and re-building of government that occurs after that, in Executive Orders was my favorite of all these books. Perhaps because, as always, in Clancy's world just like in the real world, such a catastrophic event is not the only thing the new President has to deal with--in that book we get biological warfare, more terrorism, war with Iran, and more.

I think I am fond of these books because they are quite detailed, and even if I don't always understand all the military stuff, most of it makes sense to me. Of course they are heavily weighted to show the U.S. as right and lots of other places wrong, but he doesn't go so far over the top to make me stop reading.

Clancy has another one coming out soon Red Rabbit which is supposed to go way back to the beginning with Jack Ryan's career. You can read these books individually without having read previous ones, but I highly recommend that you follow the list below to really get an understanding of the Jack Ryan character's development as he moves from CIA consultant to eventually the office of President of U.S.

Series:

Patriot Games
Red Rabbit
The Hunt for Red October
The Cardinal of the Kremlin
Clear and Present Danger
The Sum of All Fears
Debt of Honor
Executive Orders
The Bear and the Dragon