Product Description

Tom Clancy returns to Jack Ryan's early days, in an extraordinary novel of global political drama. Long before becoming President, Jack Ryan is a novice CIA Analyst. One of his first assignments is to debrief a high-level Soviet defector who tells an amazing tale of officials planning to assassinate Pope John Paul II. In the end, however, it will not just be the Pope's life, but the stability of the Western world that is at stake.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #102573 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 944 pages

About the Author
Tom Clancy lives in Maryland. His books include THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, RAINBOW SIX and THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON, all of which have been international bestsellers.

Customer Reviews

What a disappointment
I am a big Clancy fan, but this is very disappointing. For starters, it is all a bit anticlimatic. You pretty much know how things are going to turn out for all the main protagonists with 20 pages of 'meeting' them. There is little action, and most of the book is portrayed in Jack's office or his home - film rights unlikely I think. And the end seems rushed, as though he had to get it to the publishers on time.
In addition, annoyingly Jack is portrayed as some sort of prophet. The collapse of communism, the collapse of the Japanese economy, the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan, how his wife would be a laser surgery pioneer, are all predicted by Jack in the space of a few days. Indeed it is apparently thanks to a letter from Jack that London is littered with Starbucks.
In addition this book is written in a patronising tone. It also seems far less balanced than previous books. There is a huge amount of America is great - nothing compares in this book. Perhaps this is what was required when Clancy wrote it?
Overall though I would not recommend this.

rubbish - save your money
This book isn't worth even one star, but it seems zero is not permitted!

I used to enjoy Clancy's stuff (and still like the earliest books) but having read a few of his recent tomes I come to the conclusion his stuff is now crap - no other word for it! It's patronising rubbish, implausible characters (women who are obviously sex goddesses and good in the kitchen to boot - and men who'd do anything for America and apple pie!) and not very good prose either.

1000 words isn't enough space to contain all the criticism of this book so just save your time and money and go and read something else.

So What?
As a Tom Clancy fan, on the strength of his previous books I bought this one straight 'off the shelf'.

But this book was disappointing. It was strongly nationalistic, sickeningly pro-american (to be expected but this was too much - possibly done in response to recent american developments?), anti-communist, patronising, and in parts racist, whilst not providing much in the way of redeeming features such as excitement or suspense.

On the upside, it was interesting to read a theoretical "how this could have happened" story, but this was constructed more like a biased documentary than a spy thriller; the lack of real action or plot twists ensured that my most common thought was "So what?"

If you're not a Jack Ryan fan, don't bother. If you are a fan, you'll probably want to read it simply so you don't miss anything, but don't expect too much.

Personally, I'm going to use this book to prop up my broken sofa.