Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11180 in Books
• Published on: 1995-08-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 912 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Razio Yamata is one of Japan's most influential industrialists, and part of a relatively small cabal who exert tremendous authority in the Pacific Rim's economic powerhouse. He has devised a plan to cripple America's pre-eminent standing, humble the U.S. military and elevate Japan to a position of dominance on the world stage. Yamata's motivation lies in his desire to pay off a Debt of Honour to his parents and to the country he feels is responsible for their deaths: America. All he needs is a catalyst to set his plan in motion. When the faulty gas tank on one Tennessee family's car leads to their fiery death, an opportunistic U.S. congressman uses the occasion to rush a new trade law through the system. The law is designed to squeeze Japan economically. Instead, it provides Yamata with the leverage he needs to put his plan into action. As Yamata's plan begins to unfold, it becomes clear to the world that someone is launching a fully integrated operation against the United States. There's only one man to find out who the culprit is: Jack Ryan, the new president's National Security Advisor.

Synopsis
Clancy's hero Jack Ryan fights to defend the USA against economic sabotage from the East. Called out of retirement to serve as the new National Security Advisor, Ryan soon realizes that the problems of peace are as complex as those of war.

Customer Reviews

Japan building nukes? C'mon.
Well, fiction is just that, obviously, so anything goes. However, given that Clancy does not stop cramming his political views down his readers' throats, I would expect that he'd cut us some slack on other issues.
Japanese abhor nukes. Period. The idea that they'd manufacture them to put pressure on the US is, frankly, ludicrous.
Amusing is how Tom Clancy's characters rant and rave about "treehuggers". Hell, who needs a functioning ecosystem, anyway?
Those gripes aside, the plot is OK, though the end battle is predictable (and thus, boring): the enemy gets pounded, the American forces just roll over them.

Standard Clancy
I've read quite a lot of his books and DoH didn't fail to disappoint, the whole setting up of the Japanese as the bad guys was quite convoluted but I suppose that Clancy just fancied writing them as bad guys. There was quite a lot of economics in the book which didn't trouble me but for those who like more military and political action then perhaps this isn't the Clancy book for you.

The last Clancy I should have read
But unfortunately for me, it wasn't. No, no, I kept plodding on, half expecting that perhaps this novel was just a rubbish one-off, and that he woulod hit his stride again. To be honest though, I think I was as deluded as Woody Allen fans who expect he will make a good film, despite his dreadful run of recent flops.

I'll be honest here - I like Clancy books, but for specific reasons. In books like Hunt for Red October, Red Storm Risins, Clear and Present Danger, etc, he hits a winning formula each time. Plus points: Detailed use of military equipment. Realistic and exciting battle scenes. Gripping plot. Good understanding of politics and international relations. Bad points: Characters are OK and style is passable, but we don't read Clancy for these. The benefits for me always outweighed the shortcomings. But in this book, he really fails pretty badly.

Firstly, the plot is ridiculous. Japan declares war on America. No matter how Clancy tries to create the right conditions for this scenario, it just doesn't fit. Japan then forms a coalition with China and India. It would be more realistic if Britain, Egypt and Venezuala wanted to overthrow America. Up until now, Clancy's plots made sense. This is just stupid.

Second - mindlessly boring. The military action takes up a microscopic part of the book. And you don't beleive for a second that America will have problems with Japan. There is hundreds of pages of mind-numbing economics, resulting is some utterly unbelievable economic war. What tosh.

And though characters have never been Clancys strong point, in this book they are ridiculous. Characters from previous books have almost 'cameo' roles in the book - each absurd appearance feels utterly contrived. It's just lazy. And the ending is complete rubbish. However, it's not as bad as his later books. They really do stink.