📚🛬 Dead or Alive by Tom Clancy and Grant Blackwood
Not a Book Report
I enjoy reflecting on the movies, TV, books and other media that I consume. I’m notoriously sentimental. This series documents the books that I read. These aren’t reviews or recommendations. Just a list. For me. Mostly so that I can page through what I read, where I was, and when.
Why did I read it?
I picked up a Tom Clancy book in the Stockholm Central train station a couple months ago and it made me remember how fun these can be. So I rewound in the series by about a decade and picked up at Book 10 in the run. I have been spending a lot of time wading through some complex, but interesting, challenges at the office - all good problems, but the kinds of things that leave me beat at the end of the day and ready to jump into a novel about spies and special forces for 30 minutes before I fall asleep.
What is it?
Category
Value
Title
Dead or Alive
Author
Tom Clancy and Grant Blackwood
Year Published
2011
Format
Kindle
Pages
701
ISBN
0425263533
How did I read it?
Category
Value
Date Started
July 10, 2023
Date Finished
August 11, 2023
Places Read
Sintra
Notes - No Spoilers
This thing is a real product of the Obama era - and not in the best way. The thinly veiled criticisms of the in-universe President who replaced Jack Ryan Sr, specifically the complaints from the intelligence community, feel forced in an otherwise fun read.
By extension, the Sam Driscoll plot line feels ham-fisted.
Also, somewhat prescient (sadly) point in the book where the former Chief of Staff has to remind the elder Ryan that the press is not the enemy…
Texas gets a shout out! Specifically MD Anderson in Houston as having the best cancer treatment on earth.
Even though the book was only written 12 years ago, the impact of technology makes it feel outdaded already - which speaks more to the advances in encrypted communication, smart phones, and satellites/drones than the book itself.
Those complaints aside, and I’m spending more time on gripes than usual today, reading Tom Clancy books continues to be silly fun and wildly entertaining.
The technical descriptions of encryption were very, very good in a “ELI5” kind of way.
This was the first book I read on my new Kindle and the rumors are true - this is a pretty great reading experience. Bonus points that it allows me to leave my phone outside of the bedroom so that I don’t wind up scrolling Reddit for 2 hours instead of falling asleep.