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
Full Force and Effect
Author
Mark Greaney
Year Published
2014
Format
Kindle
Pages
722
ASIN
B00M8C76LO
How did I read it?
Category
Value
Date Started
October 8, 2023
Date Finished
November 5, 2023
Places Read
Lisbon, San Francisco, Sintra
Notes - No Spoilers
Adam Yao! I called out how happy I was to see him in Threat Vector and it’s fun to have him here in a more prominent role.
Adam Yao drinks Shiner Bock!
This one feels more like an espionage thriller than some of the action movies more recently in the series.
The world hopping is also fun; more of a James Bond kind of transition between exotic locales than other recent entries into the Jack Ryan universe.
More of John Clark’s slow transition to grizzled source of wisdom and less of the action.
I’m fairly convinced that Jack Ryan Jr has no character development ever in the series. He exists as a pure audience cut-out.
This is also the point at which the divergence of Jack Ryan novels and Jack Ryan Jr. novels begins in earnest. This is Jack Ryan Book 14, but the next novel in the chronology is Jack Ryan Jr. Book 2, and at that point we begin a kind of tik-tok that alternates.
Also the first Tom Clancy Jack Ryan novel without Tom Clancy as a coauthor. He had passed away at this point and Mark Greaney, who previously co-wrote many of the Jack Ryan novels with him, took over.
I skipped Book 13, Command Authority, because I had read it in the last couple of years.
RIP Sam Driscoll. They had slowly washed away most of his unique personality after his first appearance when he joined the Campus a few books ago. I’ll miss him though.