Opinion of Tom Clancy

[Cassius]

I have soft spot for him because he was my father’s favourite author and I avidly consumed his canon as a teenager, but as Nathan says the books aren’t really ‘great literature’ (I reread Debt of Honor, probably one of my favourites as a teenager and the dialogue was pretty… clunky). I’d divide the Clancy canon in partes tres, it would be something like:

Hunt for the Red October and Red Storm Rising: Both very good books which probably come the closest to being ‘classics’ that I’d recommend anybody read if they get the chance.

Cardinal of the Kremlin through to Bear and the Dragon: Less good, but still entertaining, although the expression of Clancy’s right wing politics becomes much more evident, particularly in and post Sum of All Fears, which will be off putting to many. The scenarios are always interesting.

Then you get to everything post Bear and the Dragon and here I think Clancy really starts to run out of ideas, begins regurgitating material and the quality of the writing (never his strongest suit) drops off further. This period was also when he began pimping out his name to other writers and I don’t think these books are worth reading at all - I think in the “Tom Clancy” novels written post his death there are the idea of Russia invading Eastern Europe (prescient I suppose in hindsight) is regurgitated about five or six times in various unrealistic scenarios, all while the good Dr Ryan (hooray) faces off against TEd Kennedy Kealty (boo hiss) in about their 27th rematch in a Presidential election (because nobody else runs for President in the Ryanverse except for these two).

There’s a lot that’s annoying about the books - in addition to the often crappy dialogue Clancy has this annoying reverse-Sorkin habit of making all of the ‘good’ characters impossibly good, not just morally but also intellectually - we’re pretty regularly treated to characters who seem to have found the time to earn a JD, an MD, a PHD in political science and 7,084 other degrees with a distinguished career in the Marines, service in the CIA and the presidency of the Yale University Gilbert and Sullivan society. But, you know, for the most part I find them a comforting read.