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.
The first appearance, in this series, of coauthor Mark Greaney who would take over full-time from Tom Clancy just a couple books later.
The politics, and the political story lines as a whole, are much less overt than Dear or Alive which I appreciate. I approach Jack Ryan novels in much the same way I watch Fast and Furious films - I’m here for the action.
That said, the hamfisted George Soros stand-in, Paul Laska, makes for a book-long eyeroll.
I do appreciate the cliffhanger at the end, something less common in this series with its self-contained episodes.
Also like Fast and Furious, characters (looking at you, Domingo Chavez) start to get closer and closer to superhero-level abilities with some of their escapades. Not complaining.
Still makes me giggle that Jack Ryan Jr. drives a yellow H3.
Like other Clancy novels, they do lots of crimes, but one crime is unforgivable - after borrowing a guy’s apartment in Dubai for a stake out mission Jack Ryan Jr. “dropped onto the couch, still wet from his swim.” The man borrows a nice guy’s apartment and collapses, soaking wet, on his nice couch. If anyone did this, even in the process of saving the world, to my couch I would insist on a war crimes tribunal.