Tom Clancy

In case you haven’t heard, Tom Clancy died this past Tuesday at the age of 66. Though I haven’t read anything by him in about a dozen years, his work completely and unequivocally blew me away. Can’t be said any more direct than that. You can read all the obits at the various sites out there, and every one is true: he revolutionized the military techno-thriller novel. No one who writes in the genre can honestly admit not being influenced by the beglassed, smoking, ex-insurance agent and creator of Jack Ryan. All military techno-thrillers published before 1984’s Hunt for Red October should be labeled as B.C. – Before Clancy.

On a whim, not knowing anything about him or his writing style (though I saw and somewhat enjoyed the movie versions of his books), I picked up Clancy’s The Sum of All Fears from the library one day in the fall of 1994. Now, how to best describe this literary / mental metaphysical 2 x 4 head slap?

Like this: That first day reading Clancy made me look at the world differently. Or, more precisely, it made me realize that there were different ways of looking at the world. I love it when a book creates this kind of realization in me. The definitive world-changer for me was reading through the Bible in 1992. Reading Tolkien ten years earlier, and paperback SF (Bradbury, Asimov, Heinlein) earlier than that, did the same on a much smaller level. Even smaller, though no less powerful (if that can be understood in the way I’m trying to do), was my introduction to Tom Clancy, writer.

I entered a world of honor and duty, of physical and mental excellence, of strong and rigid-yet-flexible systems designed not only to protect and serve the weak but to ensure the survival of the very best country the world has ever seen. Yeah, this was a pro-military and pro-United States book.

Two things pretty much struck me immediately about The Sum of All Fears. First, the complexity of the work. Forget about the introduction into a new world – the US military (and other nations’ militaries) in all its acronymed glory. The sheer intricacies and details found in a simple chapter taking place on a sub was overwhelming. But not in a defeating sort of way. I wanted to understand this world. In hindsight I should’ve been taking notes (I remember having to thumb back and forth on a consistent basis to find out who was who and what was what and waht meant what) but in time I learned to navigate my way around Clancy’s armed forces.

(Indeed: all the militarized technology in my two novels are deeply indebted to what I’ve learned reading Clancy.)

Second was the global stage: action takes place all across the world and under the seas. The bad guys were multi-national and gray-shaded, despite their evil actions. The detail found in the painstaking construction of a dirty bomb – and the results of its detonation at the Super Bowl, kept me flipping pages. The corridors of power in Washington DC, seen through the eyes of a young Jack Ryan negotiating this Theban labyrinth, well … there was a definite realism there I’ve never read before. Or since, I suppose.

I jumped over to The Hunt for Red October next. Shorter, meaner, leaner, his breakout novel. A quick read, making me hunger for more. So I opted for the thicker Red Storm Rising. The literary version of a near-future World War III erupting over Europe intrigued me. But … no Jack Ryan. Huh? Still, I read through it quickly, rarely putting it down (I remember reading huge portions of it up in Lake George, NY). If I was to re-read Mr. Clancy, it’d probably be this one, the closest he’s come to a stand-alone novel, to the best of my knowledge.

A break from his techno-thrillers, then a return – a few novels in quick succession: Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Cardinal of the Kremlin. All good reads. The sensory deprivation torture device and the James Bondian destroy-the-space-laser-gun-on-the-top-of-the-mountain commando climax of Cardinal are still memorable to me to this day.

Moved on to other things for a while, then returned to Clancy around 1997 with what I feel is the best of all his books: Without Remorse. Taking place a generation before the books of his Jack Ryan “universe,” it’s really the story of how an ex-Navy man named John Kelly becomes CIA operative extraordinaire and Ryan’s right-hand John Clark. Along the way he manages to not only rescue downed fliers at a Vietnamese POW camp and come to the attention of Admiral Greer but figuratively decapitate and disembowel a nasty Baltimore heroin ring that just so happens to be responsible for his girlfriend’s death. No, it’s not the family feel-good book of the year, but it is gripping and, oddly, satisfying.

Then I made my way through Debt of Honor and Executive Orders. Debt has the dubious distinction of predicting the September 11 attacks seven years early, though in the novel it is a disgruntled Japanese man who flies a plane into the Capital Building. Executive Orders has our hero Jack Ryan in the presidency and focuses on an extremely vile biological attack on the US – and it was a painful read. Two years later I got married and the wife bought me Rainbow Six, similar in plot to its predecessor but a much more enjoyable read for me.

In seven years I read ten of the master’s books, a little over half his output, and most of these books were cinderblock-sized. Never read anyone like him before or since. If you are even moderately interested in (a) the military, (b) technology, or (c) thrillers, and if you have seen one of the movie versions of Tom Clancy’s books (ones starring Harrison Ford or Sean Connery – the big screen adaptation of Fears with Ben Affleck is atrocious), then go to Barnes and Noble and buy and read ’em.