buffoonery's Full Review: Tom Clancy - The Sum of All Fears
"The Sum of All Fears" is what I like to call, for want of a better expression, "Phase II" of the Jack Ryan series. After four novels in which Ryan was playing an increasingly larger role in intelligence and governmental affairs-completing his apprentice and journeyman work, so to speak-Clancy now places Ryan at the heart of a worldwide crisis. Not incidentally, this one weighs in as the biggest Ryan book to date. It is not, however, the best. Chronologically, it follows "Clear and Present Danger" and predates "Debt of Honor."
Things start promisingly when an Israeli fighter-bomber is shot down while carrying a nuclear bomb-made from fissionable materials stolen from the U.S. Some years later, the bad guys stumble upon the remains of the bomb, and before you can say "The Ayatollah of Rock and Rollah", they're on their way to making a nuke of their own. At least one must admire their enterprising nature.
On the home front, Ryan has advanced to a senior position in CIA but given Clancy's-I mean Ryan's-conservative politics, the administration is unhappy with him, especially the National Security Advisor, a left-wing radical woman who is a combination of Bernadine Dohrn, Katha Pollit and Patricia Ireland. Naturally, she's sleeping with the President, although Clancy has the taste to spare us the details of that liaison. The NSA, unhappy with Ryan, is leaking some information to the press to embarrass Ryan and set up his discharge.
Meanwhile, the bad guys have built a machine shop in the middle of nowhere and are busily assembling their bomb. U.S. agents have gotten wind of this and are trying to track them down. Ryan gets in serious hot water but his pals (Mr. Clark and Gilligan) bail him out and there's a wonderful scene in which Ryan's wife lets the NSA (who taught Ryan's wife at Bennington-Bennington!) have it. Before Ryan is thrown out of town, though, the terrorists strike. There follows some pretty cool action, at sea, on the ground, and in the air. It's all quite tense, even if it's based on a very close reading of "Fail-Safe". Ryan ultimately saves the day and the bad guys get it in the neck-literally.
Airport readers, beware: you're going to learn more about nuclear weapons construction, tactical armored warfare, and counterintelligence operations than you ever dreamed about. This ain't Jackie Collins. The politics are a bit right wing as well, a rather typical characteristic of technophile novels. But any book that has my alma mater, Northwestern, experience a resurgence in football can't be all bad.
Fans will like this a lot. Frankly, I find it overlong and some of the dialogue, especially between Ryan and his wife, is just wretched. I don't find it nearly as entertaining as the four books preceding it, and this one starts a gradual slide in which the Ryan books become more and more incredible, to the point where (in Debt of Honor) he lost me entirely.
But the action is good and you can dance to it. For fans, four stars. For non-fans, a reluctant three-stars-I just can't give a Clancy novel two stars.
At least not until I get around to reviewing "Rainbow Six".
Here is a complete listing of my Jack Ryan reviews:
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