The Hunt for Red October

Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: I read this book when I was a freshman in high school. It turned me on to submarine warfare forever and made Tom Clancy my favorite modern writer. Extremely well written with no real slow portions to speak of. The whole story just flows until you reach the inventive climax. The movie was good, but they changed a lot (namely, the whole ending sequence). So if you saw the movie and haven't read the book yet, don't feel like you already know the story, because the movie only begun to give the book justice.

Rating:
Summary: The best of the lot.
Review: I've always thought Harper Lee was one of the smartest -- or was it luckiest? -- American writers, because she quit while she was ahead. Having produced a masterpiece in "To Kill a Mockingbird", she never wrote another book. She went out on top.
Clancy is, first, not her equal as a writer; and second, not quite as smart. "Red October" was one of the most concise, gripping thrillers imaginable. It's the book all the other military-techno-thriller authors have been trying (without success) to duplicate ever since. Like Lee, Clancy's first book was his masterpiece. Unlike her, he kept writing, and was never again able to catch the magic of his magnum opus. Oh, I don't blame him: by continuing to churn out the stories, he became famous and wealthy. No harm in that. And many of his subsequent stories, though not the equal of "Red October", were nonetheless superior to most of Clancy's peers' efforts.
My main complaint about the later books is that Ryan (who in the first book was one, not the only, hero) was turned into a superman in later installments. As one reviewer noted among the reviews way below, not only Jack, but all his cronies, had to be the Best of the Best. Jack? So great he became president -- and a great one. Cathy? Not just a doctor, but the top eye surgeon (and a babe to boot). Robby? Not just a fighter pilot, but the best one and eventually an admiral. Robby's wife? Not just a pilot's wife, but a respected concert pianist (and, like Cathy, a babe). Jack is such a demigod, apparently, that all who surround him become larger-than-life.
As the new Clancy novel is due out any day now, it might be a good idea to re-read the one that started it all: the classic "Hunt for Red October".

Rating:
Summary: A techno thriller of grand porportions!
Review: It's at the height of the Cold War. The Soviets have build the submarine, the Red October. Deadly and almost silent with a new propulsion system, commandeered by Captain Marko Ramius, the Red October is heading West. The reason? It's up to the Americans to find out. At first, the American government immediately jump to the conclusion that the Russians are planning to attack the United States. But then strangely enough, they find out that the entire Russian naval and air commands are trying to find the "Red October": there orders, to sink the submarine! Lone CIA analyst, Jack Ryan has a different idea that is almost too impossible to believe! The hunt is on!!

Now this is a book worth the reading! Not only is the book a suspensful and thrilling read, the plot is so well constructed that it's almost impossible to believe that this never really took place. Down to the last detail, Tom Clancy gives us a story which will have your eyes glued to every single page and make the time fly past.

Clancy's characters are fully developed and I'm most thankful for that. There are times when I read a very detailed book with so many characters, and even while reading, I forget the characters and have to turn back to find out 'who in the world is that?' But not so in this case, From the main characters, Jack Ryan, Marko Ramius, the President, and etc., I still can probably start reading the book again and remember most of the characters.

When you finish this book, I can most definitely guarantee it won't leave you feeling disappointed. But don't stop there! Tom Clancy is the author of many more novels which will give you the same feeling of delving into some sort of hidden story waiting to be opened up. Also, be sure to check out the 1990 movie based on this book:

"The Hunt for Red October" (1990) - Basically the same as the book. Understandably though, not all the characters, incidents, and details aren't included in the movie. Still a great movie, I can highly recommend it. Starring Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn. PG-13

Rating:
Summary: a great beginning for Clancy's Jack Ryan series
Review: With The Hunt for Red October, Tom Clancy begins a wonderful series of military/political/technothrillers mostly revolving around Jack Ryan and his colleagues. There is enough military detail on submarines here for the technical fans but enough story and suspense to keep the general reader interested too. This is a balance that Clancy usually but not always maintains. He creates another worthy character with his depiction of the Red October's Soviet commander; Sean Connery's portrayal of him in the movie version comes a lot closer than does Alec Baldwin's performance of Ryan. A great story and a great place to start if new to Tom Clancy.

Rating:
Summary: This should be the first Ryan book.
Review: Seems that there is debate as to which is the first Jack ryan Book. If Jack is single here and he is married in patriot games, so PG can't be first.

Rating:
Summary: Best Book!
Review: Great book! Lots of action, suspense, and everything else that makes a book great. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Classic Cold War Tension!
Review: I read this book before I saw the film, and I think that was advantageous. The film displays much of the ideas, but the same tension is not there as with the book. Clancy jumps around from one location and set of characters to the next, driving the reader on to get to the rest of the previous portion's story. This helps solidify tense aspects and speed up slower sections. This work is very entertaining as well as demonstrates how a lone ship had the potential during the cold war to stir up a plethora of panic. Great military fiction.

Rating:
Summary: The Hunt is On
Review: The Hunt for Red October

Although it was the first of the series to be published, Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October is actually the third novel in the Jack Ryan series. It propelled Clancy, who had been an insurance salesman with only a few letters to the editor under his writing belt, to best-selling superstar. His success with military and espionage-related fiction earned him a title he does not readily accept: father of the techno-thriller.

This novel, if I remember correctly, was the first work of fiction published by the Naval Institute Press, the publishing arm of the United States Naval Institute, a civilian entity which promotes all things naval, including the study of naval history, strategy, technology, and tactics. Some of the Naval Institute Press' other books include A.D. Baker's Fleets of the World, Clay Blair, Jr.'s Silent Victory, and Norman Friedman's Desert Victory: The War for Kuwait. But considering that although Clancy's novel deals with the workings of other federal agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency, the FBI, the National Security Agency, and both the Executive and Legislative branches, the heart of the story is a sea chase.

Based loosely on a 1975 incident in which a Soviet frigate attempted to defect to the West, The Hunt for Red October tells the by-now familiar tale of how Captain First Rank Marko Ramius and a group of selected officers aboard the Soviet Navy's newest Typhoon-class SSBN (the Navy designator for a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, or "boomer") band together to defect to the United States and hand over the Red Navy's most advanced "stealth" submarine.

Ramius, you see, is motivated by one of the strongest emotions of all: the desire for revenge against the callous Soviet state. Not only for the death of his wife as a result of negligence by a well-connected surgeon, but for all the injustices he has witnessed from even his early childhood. His father, a Lithuanian communist and devoted Party apparatchik, was responsible for many deaths and unjust acts, and Marko, raised by a decent grandmother, sees both his father and the State as monsters who care for nothing but power and expansion.

In this novel, set sometime in the mid-1980s, Clancy introduces us to Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst being groomed by his mentor, Admiral James Greer, for better and more crucial postings within the Agency. Now currently assigned as CIA liaison in London (which puts this novel's setting to be after the current Clancy novel Red Rabbit), it is Ryan who first hands the U.S. its first intelligence data on Red October, courtesy of the British Secret Service.

The novel's focus is on Ramius' defection attempt aboard the Red October, which has been modified to use a "caterpillar" drive (described in the movie version as a "jet engine for the water") which enables a sub to glide through the ocean almost undetectably. It also deals with the Red Navy's desperate attempts to seek and destroy the defectors' submarine, and the almost equally desperate moves of an Anglo-American fleet to acquire Red October.
The novel, as if often the case, is far better than its film adaptation. Not that John McTiernan did a bad job with Paramount's 1990 feature film, but in slimming down the characters and situations to fit within a 2-hour movie, far too many exciting scenes were ignored and the scope of the sea chase is narrowed down from "seeing" almost the whole spectrum of the Soviet Navy in the novel to actually seeing one Bear-Foxtrot anti-submarine bomber and one Alfa-class attack sub. I am not saying the movie is not worth watching, but the book, with its various characters and storylines (some of them which would be woven back and forth in all the other Ryan novels), is far better.

Rating:
Summary: Red October Review
Review: The Hunt for Red October is a great way for Clancy to express his knowledge of military intelligence. This book has great descriptions, character development, and is amazingly action-packed. I thought it would be a slow read, but I got so into it I read 100 pages a night. It was amazing how this man knew so much about the way the military and the government works. Don't watch the movie before reading the book though, because it was nothing like the book. The book was probably the best I ever read. Jack Ryan is an amazing character and I hope to read all of the Jack Ryan novels. Marko Ramius is a genius who is out to get the RODINA, or his mother country. The plot is so amazing, and I don't want to say anything because it will ruin the fun of reading it. I enjoyed the book truly, and hope to finish up The Cardinal Of The Kremlin soon. Also, the Redwall series by Brian Jacques and the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order series are well written. I give all of these books 2 thumbs up and 5 stars. READ THEM!! Bye.

Rating:
Summary: Hunt For Red October
Review: If you like action thrillers abou spying, the military, and submarines this book is definetly for you. This book is about a hunt for a Soviet sub with a drive system that is silent. The book encompasses submarine tactics and technology into action thriller. You think you would be bored reading about the inworkings of a submarine but your not. This book entertains you until the end.