Favorite book in Tom Clancy's Ryanverse.

[Dark Jezter]

The thread I recently posted regarding John Woo directing a film adaptation of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six showed me that there are many ENWorlders who are also fans of Tom Clancy's novels. So, I decided to see which Tom Clancy novel is the most popular around here.

This poll only contains books from the "Ryanverse", which are the books that deal with Jack Ryan and other related characters (John Clark, Ding Chavez, Robby Jackson, Ed and Mary Pat Foley, etc). So, Red Storm Rising will not be listed on this poll.

I picked Without Remorse as my favorite Ryanverse novel. It's the novel that turned me into a John Clark fan, after all.

 

[DanMcS]

Patriot Games. That's the one I've read the most, at any rate.

I've read the series up through TBatD, but really, from about Executive Orders on his books began to grate on me. They've grown increasingly racist and jingoistic, and Bear and the Dragon was really the last straw. Didn't bother to read Red Rabbit, and I actually hadn't even heard of the last one until I saw this poll.

 

[Dark Jezter]

I've read the series up through TBatD, but really, from about Executive Orders on his books began to grate on me. They've grown increasingly racist and jingoistic, and Bear and the Dragon was really the last straw.

Because nowadays, the only acceptable villains are rich, white males. And God forbid that the United States and her allies be portrayed as the good guys every now and then.

Seriously, I don't see what's so rascist about the Bear and the Dragon. I just finished reading it for the second time, and while it does spend a lot of time pointing out just how cruel the People's Republic of China is, calling it rascist just seems like knee-jerk PCness.

 

[Rackhir]

I'd have to agree that Clancy's books aren't racist, they're just increasingly fantastic wish fulfilment for Right Wing Angry White Men. In fact I'm expecting that eventually Clancy is going to reveal that Ryan is the second coming of christ.

After all he has single handedly...

Masterminded the defection of a Russian SSBN.
Defeated two hit team of IRA terrorists.
Prevented a nuclear war.
Brought Peace to the middle east.
Managed to perfect the US Economy by implementing "Reganomics".
Made Russia a stable democracy.
Brought democracy to China.
Risen from a CIA analyst, to the President of the USA, all while never being wrong, never commiting any acts of dubious legality, maintained perfect integrity and commitment to DOING THE RIGHT THING.

The one that really got me was in Bear and the Dragon, when he chewed out some guy for not living up to the example of the founding fathers. Saying something to the effect of "The founding fathers assumed that everyone who came after them in the government would be as moral and self sacrificing as they were".

Which only shows that Mr. Clancy flunked US History 101, because they designed our form of government presuming that everyone who came after them would be greedy, corrupt and powerhungry.

 

[Morpheus]

I voted for Without Remorse, but I could have easily gone with Debt of Honor. I like all of his books.

 

[KenM]

I have not read Bear and Dragon, Red Rabbit, or Teeth of the Tiger, I need to. I'd have to say its a 2 way tie for me, Without Remorse, because it showed where Clark came from. The other one is Clear and Present Danger, showed Clark in his element and how he worked.
I thought the way Clancy had Ryan get into the office of predisentacy was a little far fetched. I don't want to say any more to tell spoilers.

 

[DM_Matt]

I have not read Bear and Dragon, Red Rabbit, or Teeth of the Tiger, I need to. I'd have to say its a 2 way tie for me, Without Remorse, because it showed where Clark came from. The other one is Clear and Present Danger, showed Clark in his element and how he worked.
I thought the way Clancy had Ryan get into the office of predisentacy was a little far fetched. I don't want to say any more to tell spoilers.

Right, because nothing similar has ever happened.

 

[Wolf72]

god such a hard choice, I loved the novel Sum of All Fears ...

haven't kept up much past that.

I still think my favorite TC book was Red Storm Rising

 

[Dark Jezter]

I'd have to agree that Clancy's books aren't racist, they're just increasingly fantastic wish fulfilment for Right Wing Angry White Men. In fact I'm expecting that eventually Clancy is going to reveal that Ryan is the second coming of christ.

Oh, how I miss the rolleyes smiley.

After all he has single handedly...

Masterminded the defection of a Russian SSBN.
Defeated two hit team of IRA terrorists.
Prevented a nuclear war.

Yep, he did these things.

Brought Peace to the middle east.

If you're referring to his plan in The Sum of All Fears to stabalize Israel and Palastine, that didn't stop the United Islamic Republic from launching a war against Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, did it? So you can hardly say that Jack Ryan brought peace to the middle east.

Managed to perfect the US Economy by implementing "Reganomics".

No, he didn't.

Made Russia a stable democracy.

No, he didn't.

Brought democracy to China.

No, he didn't.

Risen from a CIA analyst, to the President of the USA, all while never being wrong, never commiting any acts of dubious legality, maintained perfect integrity and commitment to DOING THE RIGHT THING.

Jack Ryan's most prominent traits are his honesty and integrety (as well as his intelligence), he obeys the law and always tries to do the right thing. This is not an uncommon character archaetype in literature.

The one that really got me was in Bear and the Dragon, when he chewed out some guy for not living up to the example of the founding fathers. Saying something to the effect of "The founding fathers assumed that everyone who came after them in the government would be as moral and self sacrificing as they were."

I must not have been paying very close attention to the book on my last reading of it, because I don't recall any such scene.

 

[KenM]

Right, because nothing similar has ever happened.

Major Spoiler:














































I thought with all those important US goverment people in one place, once the plane got picked up on radar and they new where it was headed and what it was going to do, they would have tryed something. But they did'nt.