Reading Tom Clancy

 

Proof of purchase.

After decades of collecting books, I need to free up more shelf space for some future purchases. So, I turned to the modest Tom Clancy section of my library, which takes up a good seven inches of shelf space. I figured three of his lengthy hardbacks were a good fit for the local library book sale. Clancy never intended Debt of Honor (1994, 768 pages), Executive Orders (1996, 874 pages), and The Bear and the Dragon (2000, 1028 pages) as a trilogy but they were written to be read consecutively. They form a part of Clancy's much larger Jack Ryan series of novels, which I have not read beyond these three. They were entertaining reads and all fit together as a coherent whole. It was a pleasure reading them one last time before giving them away.

Like many of his readers, I first learned of Clancy through The Hunt for Red October, which I read right after seeing the film version starring Sean Connery. It was a cool movie and I wanted to read the source material. That film/novel introduced me to Clancy's mastery of the techno-thriller genre. Years later, I purchased these three hardbacks and read them with some enthusiasm as they nicely complimented my general interest military matters. What's more, these novels provided a glimpse at how advanced (at that time) technology might be deployed in combat situations.

Debt of Honor kicks things off by thrusting us into an escalating confrontation between the United States and Japan that rapidly spirals from a contentious trade dispute into open military hostilities. Clancy's meticulous research shines through in the vividly portrayed rescue ops and blow-by-blow combat sequences. But the real game-changer, the stakes-raising moment that leaves you clutching the pages, is the incredible assassination of most of the government leadership. In one fell swoop, Jack Ryan is spectacularly thrust into the presidency. I have to say that this is one of very few novels I have read whose conclusion literally shocked me the first time I read it. Clancy may be popular (and even kitsch) but I've never read a novel with a cliffhanger surpassing this one. It is riveting and propelled me to the immediate follow-up work.

The chaos continues in Executive Orders as Ryan, now the sworn-in President, is left to navigate the catastrophic aftermath of a devastating terrorist attack on American soil. While he's reconstructing the nation's uppermost institutions, Clancy takes us on a globe-trotting mission to hunt down the extremists responsible. The tension mounts until the climactic, no-holds-barred showdown between Ryan's forces and the terrorists. This novel has to be read to complete the story begun in Debt of Honor.

In The Bear and the Dragon, the author's longest work, the focus shifts to the escalating conflict between the U.S. and China over oil reserves in Siberia. Clancy interweaves the complexities of geopolitical tensions, military technological marvels, and intense backroom diplomacy. The novel builds towards a finale of staggering intensity when a Chinese ICBM is launched at Washington D.C., leaving the fate of the city hanging by a thread until a nerve-shredding, last-second interception by a U.S. missile cruiser (using what was then an innovative guidance technology that is now commonplace). It's an edge-of-your-seat moment showcasing Clancy's masterful ability to thrill.

One of the greatest strengths Clancy flexes in this unofficial trilogy is his ability to craft compelling, simultaneous narratives. He is a master of sustained tension - he'll spend hundreds of pages methodically ratcheting up the stakes until you get a provocative climactic payoff. Clancy's attention to detail, especially when it comes to intricately weaving military operations, advanced tech, and the seismic political machinations happening behind closed doors, creates a meticulous realism injected with authenticity that immerses you in the chaos unfolding.

But it's Clancy's ability to nimbly balance that clinical accuracy with raw thrills that really distinguishes him. Whether you're in the Situation Room or buckled into the gunner's seat of an aerial dogfight, his knack for transporting you right into the thick of the action is a rewarding experience. You emerge from one of his novels with your mind stimulated and wanting more.

At the core of this trilogy is Jack Ryan, the stalwart, unflinching protagonist who serves as our rock amid the geopolitical crap-shoot exploding all around him. While the world is being redrawn in blood and fire, Ryan himself remains largely unchanged - a consummate professional responding to each fresh crisis with the same steady hand and unwavering moral compass. To me, this lack of deeper personal growth or transformation is a flaw, depriving readers of a more introspective, emotionally resonant character arc.

On the other hand, Ryan's consistency as very much by design. He's the stable anchor point allowing us to navigate Clancy's intricately chaotic narratives without getting hopelessly lost in the weeds. Ryan adapts to every eruption of violence and treachery by simply doubling down on his core principles and competence. In that sense, his steadfast nature makes him utterly compelling as a hero you can rely on when the plates are shifting with seismic force.

Of course, the same can't be said for the rogues' gallery of adversaries Ryan faces, who run the gamut from Japanese industrialists waging economic warfare to Middle Eastern terrorists to the combined might of Russia and China. This generous sampling of deliciously devious antagonists keeps the stories fresh and the rising conflicts multi-faceted. The villains serve as indispensable foils, highlighting Ryan's moral substance through the house-of-mirrors distortion of their own convoluted ambitions.

No question, Clancy's prose style is a direct bullseye - blunt, unembellished, hitting you right between the eyes without flinching. There's no room for ambiguity or handwringing in his hardboiled, just-the-facts-ma'am approach. His protagonists' worldview is similarly unvarnished, fueled by a straightforward patriotism and black-and-white sense of right and wrong that can feel almost quaint in today's relativistic era.

Today, I see this old-school sensibility, stripped of nuance and complexity, as a limitation in Clancy's storytelling ability to grapple with the shades-of-grey realities of the contemporary world. Geopolitics, military ethics, the fragmented identities of nation-states - these murky areas could often benefit from a more unsparing, multidimensional examination.

Then again, that's simply not Clancy's game. He's not trying to ruminate on the human condition. He's aiming to transport you smack into the kinetic chaos of techno-thrilled military spectacle with minimal existential explorations. Clancy's straightforward moral clarity and obsessive technical authenticity fuels the thrills he provides the reader. This is strictly reading as entertainment in the way most television shows might be.

I noticed several weaknesses in Clancy's work this time around, which made it easier to let them go. First, there is a dearth of fully fleshed out, multi-dimensional characters. Jack Ryan and the rest of the protagonists are certainly competent and capable, but they often feel more like generically heroic archetypes than complex, introspective human beings. There's precious little in the way of deep personal growth or emotional interiority, which can make it tough to truly connect with them on a deeper level beyond "wow, what badasses!"

Additionally, Clancy's obsession with technical minutiae can veer into overkill territory at times with impressively accurate specs and descriptions. While undeniably sensational from an authenticity standpoint, these dense data dumps can stall momentum for readers more interested in maintaining a headlong narrative pace. On the other hand, I like that sort of thing and I imagine Clancy's wider audience does as well.

I can well remember the buzz back when these novels came out, even starting years before with The Hunt for Red October (1984), the general discussion of how Clancy's mastery of military technology bordered on giving away secrets. In his defense, Clancy said at the time that he was merely fictionalizing his interpretation of various possibilities being tested.

For all his strengths in portraying global conflicts with frightening realism, Clancy does have a tendency to over-simplify or exaggerate complex geopolitical situations for maximum dramatic impact. International relations and the motivations of nation-states get boiled down to black-and-white, good-vs-evil scenarios that don't always track with the nuanced realities of the real world.

Also, Clancy's world, like a lot of fictional worlds, has few women in it. Clancy's novels primarily focus on male protagonists and their interactions within the realms of military and politics, the presence of female characters is sparse but adds some depth to the narrative and offers glimpses of the personal lives of the main characters. Women are an attempt to humanize the predominantly male cast of military and political figures without necessarily refining the emotional aspects of those male characters. Instead, they can serve as breaks in the action or moments of respite from the intense military and political plotlines.

In this way, female characters fulfill traditional roles within the narrative, offering support, stability, and domesticity to the male protagonists without actively contributing to their emotional development or growth. This reflects Clancy's 1990's pragmatic conservative worldview. It is (mostly) a white man's world. It is a world full of threats and challenges where a man has got to do what he's got to do. Women play no significant role in all of this. This is one example, among several, of how Clancy's fiction is a product of its time. I doubt that there is anything "timeless" in these novels. But that doesn't make them any less entertaining right now.

Clancy's clearly conservative and republican worldview has a definite structure to it and the people involved are actors without real agency beyond the rather predictable circumstances of the world. It is a classic example of duty and honor above existential angst or introspective individualism. The world is the way it is and everybody is too busy fulfilling their assigned roles to question “why” about any of it.

Basically, you could put any of these characters, as written, into a classic cowboy setting and get the same person. They simply wouldn't change much. But the technology is the real thrill of the ride anyway. This played out well enough 30 years ago but Clancy's handling of his characters seems comic-bookish and rather shallow in today's far more complex world. In this way, the works considered here have not aged well and it was easy for me to part with them.

Nevertheless, when your novels get adapted into blockbuster films almost as quickly as you cranked them out, you must be doing something right. Clancy's enduring popularity, his ability to consistently top bestseller lists, and his work's near-seamless translation into other media like movies and video games all speaks to his mastery of a certain type of propulsive yet intricate storytelling that captivated a wide audience.

This trilogy epitomizes Clancy's brand of techno-thriller - meticulously researched, intricately plotted page-turners designed for thrills rather than literary depth. While these books demonstrate his skill at crafting gripping narratives centered on military operations and global conflicts, they ultimately amount to mainstream entertainment lacking the substance and nuance of classic literature.

But, these shortcomings are inherent to the kind of popular fiction Clancy was creating. You can't accuse him of aiming for the literary stratosphere or aspiring to high-minded artistic statements. His ambitions were far more straightforward - to entertain mainstream readers with intricate yet thrilling stories centered on the militaristic world he painstakingly researched. On those terms, this Debt of Honor “trilogy” largely succeeds in delivering a compelling escape into a realm of tradecraft and doomsday scenarios.

Clancy died in 2013.  His true legacy is in helping advance and legitimize the techno-thriller genre through his compulsive authenticity, creating a new niche blending hyper-realism with pulse-pounding drama. While these books may not reach the lofty heights of great literature, they remain immensely readable and consistently gripping examples of commercial fiction's ability to keep audiences furiously consuming pages. For those seeking depth of character or nuanced social commentary, look elsewhere. But if your craving is for well-researched techno details and globetrotting military/political adventures packed with cinematic action, Clancy's Debt of Honor “trilogy” handily scratches that itch. 

(Written with assistance from ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini)