Any Tom Clancy Fans That Can Make Some Suggestions?

[Fangz]

Lately I've been searching for something new to read and I really never got into the "military espionage" thing with authors such as Tom Clancy and John Grisham (if Grisham writes those books I'm not sure) anyhow I was just wondering if any TMFers are fans of Mr. Clancy and can recommend some of his work that they found particularly enjoyable. Preferably ones that weren't made into movies already.

 

[Morpheus72]

For the stuff that hasn't been made into movies, The Cardinal of the Kremlin is probably the best "military espionage" book done by Clancy. I'd also recommend Debt of Honor, and, especially, Red Storm Rising. I put RSR at the end because it's not really focused on espionage stuff; it's more like a war simulation written in book form. That said, it's my favorite Clancy book that hasn't been made into a film.

I wholeheartedly recommend Patriot Games and Hunt for Red October, but those have been put to film. The books are better than the films, though. Clear and Present Danger was a good one, but a notch below the two above. The Sum of All Fears -- why did they have to do such a horrible job on the movie? -- is good, but paints a much different picture of the main character (Jack Ryan) than the other books do, and it has a feel to it that keeps you a bit more creeped out and on edge than the other works I've cited do.

The others in the "Ryan Series" -- Executive Orders, The Bear and the Dragon, and Red Rabbit -- are decent reads, but you should start with the others first. IMO, avoid anything written after the Ryan Series, i.e. the Op-Center series and others. Those are primarily written by other authors are not of the caliber of the other works.

Dave

 

[Fangz]

So basically Clancy's forte is the Jack Ryan character and that storyline of books are the ones to look for it sounds like?

 

[Morpheus72]

Absolutely.

Though I disagree with Audiac's opinion on Without Remorse being the best "non-film" book, I did forget to mention it and it is a VERY good work. Basically, anything up thru and including Debt of Honor in the Ryan series timeline is very, very, "I can't put it down" good.

Dave

Edited to add: This books are also very easy to get, and inexpensive, if you have a used book store around you.

 

[Ticklish9's]

Lately I've been searching for something new to read and I really never got into the "military espionage" thing with authors such as Tom Clancy and John Grisham (if Grisham writes those books I'm not sure) anyhow I was just wondering if any TMFers are fans of Mr. Clancy and can recommend some of his work that they found particularly enjoyable. Preferably ones that weren't made into movies already.

Red Storm Rising was my favourite Clancy novel, but it's a doozy of a read - a thousand pages or something ridiculous like that.

If you like Tom Clancy, you'll probably like all of Larry Bond's books. I've read Cauldron about 15 times. He's also written Red Phoenix (about a second Korean war), Vortex, and probably several more by now.