Rating: 
Summary: Riveting
Review: This book, and most Tom Clancy books, though generally thought of as just action novels, does have a lot of description, and more than just of the submarines. Clancy really makes you care for the characters and when you think one is going to die, you get genuinly scared and worried for the character. Though this is generally required of novels, many authors today try to emulate Clancy by just doing war dramas, but forget to make us care for the characters. This is what seperates Clancy for the rest, and I hight recommend this book for that, oh, and it's just so cool!
Rating:
Summary: GREAT THRILLER, KEEPS YOU GUESSING
Review: Wonderful read that you will enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: I bought this book and Clancy's other books Rainbow Six and Red Storm Rising all at the same time. I read Red Storm Rising and I came to the conclusion that Clancy writes long books with long chapters, which is a fatal combination with an attention span as short as mine. So I put off reading the other two for some months. Finally, I got back interested in submarines and decided it was a peak time for me to begin reading The Hunt for Red October. And this book did NOT disappoint. Yes, Clancy stays true to his style in explaining things in detail (I think I might be able to do sonar operations on a Los Angeles class submarine now) but I don't think that's a good thing. Since a lot of techno nerds (like myself) are interested in how Russian designed sonar works, it's explained thoroughly. Yes the chapters are long, the book is over 400 pages long and there's less than twenty chapters! But I don't begrudge that either. I thought
Red Storm Rising was a great read, but there wasn't really anyone to root for so it was a bit uninteresting after a while. In this book, we have Clancy's franchise player, Jack Ryan here. And he IS someone to root for. This would be my first Jack Ryan book and about halfway through reading it I went out and ordered the rest of the Jack Ryan series, hopefully, they'll be arriving any time now so I can get started on Patriot Games *wink wink*.
As for the story itself, well, if you haven't read any of the other reviews, the story would have you guessing and pondering weather this giant Soviet missile boat is coming to bomb the US or defect, for the first bit of the story. But, as it's been made clear, the story follows Captain Marko Ramius and his merry band of 'Starpoms'(Soviet officers) as they engage in collusion to drive the Russian sub it's self into an American harbor and request asylum. The soviet life, it would appear, wore thin on these men. I can understand, ever read 1984? The former Soviet Union was like 1984-Lite. So, Ramius is so confident in his abilities as a sub captain that he decides to send a little letter to the commander of the Soviet navy. This sends them into a frenzy. Since the Red October has a new ultra-silent drive system that the Commies don't want to have fall into our dirty imperialist hands. So the Soviet navy is mobilized and claim to be searching for a lost sub just off our coast. The US is quite worried about this so the US and allied navies all mobilize and there's a large naval standoff 400 miles off the American east coast. Yikes! As if that wasn't enough, the US is antagonizing the Soviet fleet and they eventually retaliate. But, of course, we retaliate and they run home with their tale tucked (And they say us Americans have a superiority complex).
I would have given this book five stars, but a lot of people (myself included) don't like books that are incessantly long. I wouldn't say this one is incessant but it is a bit long of a read. A person less interested in technology and more interested in story might want to go look elsewhere for a good submarine yarn.
All in all I would have to say this is a great book, and maybe the USSR might still be around if they had payed attention to Tom Clancy, yes, that's the level of detail he's written this with. :)
Rating:
Summary: Gripping And Heart Pounding To The End
Review: This the First of Clancy's books i've read and it defenitely a good one. When i first picked it up i didn't know what to expect but as soon as i started reading i couldn't put it down. I've read many novele but none as intense as this. I read this book with butterflies in my stomach not knowing what was going to happen next. Every time i thought on thing was going to happen another thing happened. i would defenitly recomend this book for any one who enjoys non stop excitment and action in books. This book will ahve you glued to the pages until you finish the sentence. This book has everything in it that i would look for in it and i would for sure with out a doubt recommend it to anyone out there.
Rating:
Summary: Tom Clancy's First, and Arguably Best.
Review: This is an excellent submarine thriller, and if you can get through all the detail that Mr. Clancy is noted for, you will enjoy the book. It made an excellent movie as well. I love submarine thrillers, and this is certainly not the worst in the genre.
Rating:
Summary: I'm glad I read this the second time
Review: I recently re-read this gem of a book, and I'm very happy I did. This was the first Tom Clancy novel I ever read, and although it inspired me to read the rest of his library, my memory kept nagging at me that this was an "average" book at best. Well, my memory is apparently malfunctioning. "The Hunt for Red October" is an exciting, fascinating book which sets the stage for the slew of outstanding work by Tom Clancy released since. All the elements of the "technothriller" appear in this novel for the first time, with strong hints of Clancy's understanding of human nature which he would develop beginning with "Patriot Games". This book is much more than an encyclopedia of naval and submarine lore, which explains its lasting popularity. The pacing of your average Clancy is akin to Forsyth, however I find Tom Clancy's work to be superior. Even though the technical language is very prevalent, I never had the impression that I was being preached to; I actually enjoyed learning new things as I went along (as I do with every Clancy novel). This novel was made into an excellent film, but the book delivers so much more than the film could. "Hunt" is a great read by itself, but anyone interested in getting "into" Clancy would be better off reading both "The Hunt for Red October" and "Patriot Games" before making a final judgment about whether or not they enjoy Clancy's style. These two works tend to balance each other out between his "technical" side and his stronger "true" storytelling skills.
Rating: 
Summary: A Must Skip...
Review: This is quite possibly the most boring book I've ever read. If you want a several hundred page analysis of the inner workings of a nuclear submarine, this is the book for you. If you want a gripping, fast-paced, satisfying spy novel with well fleshed out characters, stick with Follett or Ludlum. I know Clancy sells billions and billions of books, so there must be something to them that I'm not really digging. However, if this is his best book I don't want to waste my time reading any others. I'm a person who believes in sampling the best from all genres, a la Lonesome Dove for westerns, Dune for sci-fi, etc. I figured Clancy was the pinnacle for the spy novel, but he is simply not my bag, baby.
Rating:
Summary: The Hunt for Red October
Review: The Hunt for Red October written by Tom Clancey is by far one of the best submarine action-adventure techno-thrillers to come along in quite awhile. The action is so convincingly gripping you feel like you're there watching the story play out in front of you. The plot is some espionage coup and this is a Jack Ryan novel, Claney's main hero in the book. Red October is a new class of Soviet submarine and it's captain, Captain First Rank Marko Ramius and his command crew have a plan to hijack the submarine and defect to the United States. This book is at the height of the cold war in time frame and Clancy does an excellent job setting the ground work and stage of the book. Red October is the latest in technology th Soviets can muster an the United States wants to find out more about it. There are action-packed submarine chases chock-full of high suspense as Clancy works the plot and sub-plots to a masterfull stroke making this book a real page turned. I finished this book in one evening as I was riveted to the story as the character development was solid to the storyline. As we read on in the book, you feel the emotions and adrenalin rush, making this one of Clancy's best written books. Buy this book and you'll have a story that you can read and reread as the adventure will remain fresh and electrifying.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy at his best!
Review: It is the height of the cold war. A soviet missile sub commander has, along with several other officers, decided to defect with the Soviet Union's latest nuclear submarine. Captain Marko Ramius has been planning this since the unfortunate death of his beloved wife. She was, in effect, left to die due to the mistakes made by a drunk doctor and poor medical system. He is so confident that he and his officers will succeed that he even sends a letter to the overall commander of the soviet navy telling them pretty much what he's going to do. So begins the best military/political action thriller novel this reader has ever read. Tom Clancy wove together so many events, plots and sub plots into this novel that it was destined to be a best seller. If you've not read "The Hunt for Red October," I highly suggest you get a copy as soon as you can get your hands on one. Thank you very much to Tom Clancy for this masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER
Review: I read this book in 2 weeks, and I don't read much. I loved the book more than the movie. Tom Clancy did an exelent job with the character decriptions, but twords the middle, he does get a little wordy, but don't let that stop you from reading this book. Once you start reading, you won't be able to put it down again until you have read it at least twice. It's that good!!!
|
