RIP Tom Clancy

[Crossbow]

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...icle-1.1473782

Farewell to a fantasic author.

[eltf177]

I'm sorry, but I consider Tom Clancy a mediocre writer at best.

His first two novels (THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER and RED STORM RISING) were quite good but that's because Larry Bond gave him a lot of help with them.

His later work was not nearly as good, I finally decided to try THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON (free copy) and I'm about ready to dump it in the trash unfinished.

My personal feeling is his later work only sold on the strength of his earlier work and name recognition and quite frankly I don't think it deserved it.

And how in the world he managed to get lunch at the White House and get personalized tours of carriers and subs was something I will _never_ understand, especially as I was denied access to a carrier for government work as I didn't have a security clearance...

[wolfie]

If you line up his books, you'll see that Red Storm Rising and The Hunt for Red October are MUCH thinner than his later works. I agree that his early books are significantly better. Some of his later books have stuff that's just plain wrong (Debt of Honor - clearance lights on a truck don't HAVE a "bright flash" mode, Sum of All Fears - a driver doing that run with that deadline would NOT make a meal stop just after leaving, since the timing is touch-and-go even for a team). In SoaF, he even contradicts himself - saying that container ships don't really have to worry about weight distribution since containers are all loaded to the maximum legal weight for a truck, then having a key container holding cargo that can be carried by an ordinary van.

[Racket_Man]

I for one will miss Jack Ryan.

Too bad TC killed off Robbie Jackson 10 years ago

[AccountingDrone]

I can remember running into him on the sub base in New London purportedly doing research in the library and interviewing people on base. Seemed to be a reasonably normal guy, got to discussing being a military dependent with him.

I liked the early books - but once Jack Ryan became a Marty Sue it killed it for me.
Hm, I liked The Hunt for the Red October [we jokingly refer to it as Goldener Oktobre at home] Patriot Games [they screwed up the movie by changing the assassination targets at his house] The Cardinal of the Kremlin and Clear and Present danger [I love the scene in the movie where he asks the guy with the helicopter if he will take a company check]

I think that Clark is actually one of my favorite characters, to be honest. I thought that Without Remorse might make an interesting miniseries.

[shopgirl15]

My mentor once met Clancy. But he said Clancy was kind of a douche.