Rating: 
Summary: Great story that holds up well
Review: I've never been a great Clancy fan--I had to read Clear and Present Danger for a Poli Sci class and found it to be interesting but fatally long. I was intrigued enough to try Patriot Games but never made it through. I pretty much then took a pass at Clancy--his novels are overly long; the characters never develop, taking second place to the technical details; and the technical details are overwhelming. I'm actually quite interested in military hardware, but instead of making it interesting, Clancy just seems to recite a laundry list of things he found out about a particular piece of equipment.That said, THfRO shines through all of these drawbacks. It is very engaging. You see little of the characters--only Captain Ramius seems to have any personality at all. Even Jack Ryan seems cut-and-pasted. But the action sequences are better than the movies. When the first nuclear sub explodes, Clancy somehow makes all the information we were supposed to learn in Sophomore Chem class jump alive. The final confrontation takes a good thirty pages or so, and you're riveted to every page. It's a hard subject to tackle, and Clancy's freshman writing abilities is surprisingly fresh. You'll find yourself dragging through some parts, yes, but there's a reward for sticking with it.
Rating: 
Summary: Clancy's freshman effort withstands the test of time
Review: If you're new to the Jack Ryan books but you want to start reading the series, a good place to start is the book that launched Tom Clancy's career--The Hunt For Red October. By now you probably know what it's about, thanks to the magic of the movies. A Russian submarine captain tries to defect, and only Jack Ryan can guide him to safety. Tom Clancy keeps the readers on the edges of their seats for the entire length of his shortest novel. He creates gripping suspense, yet he can still tell a good story by depicting all sides in the book. We see things from the perspective of Jack Ryan, Capt. Marko Ramius, and even Tupolev, the captain of the Russian submarine in pursuit of Ramius. Although this book is 17 years old by now, it's still a great novel. If you're looking for an exciting military thriller, look no further.
Rating:
Summary: red october review
Review: I do not usually give lengthy speaches. I have read all of Tom Clancy's books, and the only one I did not care for a great deal was Patriot Games. Hunt for Red October was one of my favorite ones as I had been in the Navy. I really enjoyed the edge of your seat reading on this one. I could really feel as if I was there and really new and understood each character.
Rating: 
Summary: Watch the movie instead
Review: I've wanted to read a Tom Clancy novel for a long time. Since this is his first, one of his shortest, and since I have seen the enjoyable movie based on it, I thought I'd give this novel a try. At first, the book was pretty exciting. It got off to a quick start, taking us aboard the Red October as it's about to head to sea. Then the boredom slowly began to build up. Page after page, Clancy shows what is happening elsewhere as the crew of Red October defect. We learn what is happening in every U.S. government office, on every U.S. ship and submarine, on and on and on. Every twenty pages or so, the story returns to the Red October for a couple pages. Eventually, it seems like you go for 50 pages without reading about what's happening on the Red October. What's more, his descriptiveness gets to you after a while. It's nice to learn in-depth details about certain relevant things, but when he goes into the history of a Russian official's letter opener (how he first received it and what he was doing in his life at the time), it just gets to be too much and too unimportant. I now realize this is Clancy's style -- to paint a full picture in order to see everyone's point of view and to be completely thorough. But in the process, the plot is lost. The book loses its momentum and becomes completely boring. By page 272, I withdrew my bookmark and closed the book, escorting it to my pile of books to trade. If I was someone with only a few books to read, I might have bore (pun intended) this out to the end, but I have too many books and too little time. Not even John Updike is this detailed and longwinded. Rent the movie instead!
Rating:
Summary: Prepare to Gag on Detail
Review: Red October is choked with too much detail in too many places. Different scenes require the detail that the author provides, but other infusions of tedious facts slow down an already slow story. Clancy crushes us into submission by explaining to us in too much detail that he has obviously read too many books. A few examples of the task of reading Red October. The first two paragraphs are excerpts from the book, while the third, my own creation, rams my point home. (1)"Today the inside valve war closed, along with the corresponding through-hull fitting. The valves were made of titanium because they had to function reliably after prolonged exposure to high temperature, and also because titanium war very corrosion-resistant high-temperature water war murderously corrosive. What had not been fully considered war that the metal war also exposed to intense nuclear radiation, and this particular titanium alloy war not completely stable under extended neutron bombardment. The metal had become brittle over the years. The minute waves of hydraulic pressure were beating against the clapper in the valve. As the pump's frequency of vibration changed it began to approach the frequency at which the clapper vibrated. This caused the clapper to snap harder and harder against its retaining ring. The metal at its edges began to crack.... (2)"In the reactor spaces aft, Lieutenant Butler had his engine men acknowledge the command and gave the necessary orders The reactor coolant pumps went to fast speed. An increased amount of hot, pressurized water entered the exchanger, where its heat war transferred to the steal on the outside loop. When the coolant returned to the reactor it was cooler than it had been and therefore denser. Being denser, it trapped more neutrons in the reactor pile, increasing the ferocity of the fission reaction and giving off yet more power. Farther aft, saturated steam in the "outside" or nonradioactive loop of the heat exchange system emerged through clusters of control valves to strike the blades of the high-pressure turbine. The Dallas' huge bronze screw began to turn more quickly, driving her forward and down... (3, my own)"It had been a long day, and Ryan needed to stay on top of it, which meant more black coffee. The coffee-making unit had a swivel compartment which opened for the insertion of a No 2 paper filter, filled with enough grounds for as many as ten cups of coffee. Once secure, closing the circuit caused heating coils under the decanter to expand and grow hotter, while internally-heated water descended through the grounds contained in the coffee basin, falling into the decanter as hot coffee.... Conclusion: There are several moments of excitement in Red October , and the characters are beautifully portrayed, but unfortunately, hours of tedium have to be survived by the reader If it weren't for the book, we might have been able to enjoy the story. Upon further reflection, the story wasn't that good either. The story in itself is quite interesting and thoroughly researched, and this is the fundamental problem. The book opens with the decision to head west from the Norwegian Sea, and ever reader is easily convinced of its potential success and its absolute provocation. The reader is introduced to the vessel and its confident skipper, and the story gets underway smoothly. Not before long, the reader finds himself consumed in page after page of government arguments and actions in both Washington and Moscow. Certainly this is for "real" historical procedure. However, the reader instantly feels the tedium while these talks continue, falling prey to the boredom which these government officials themselves must have felt at the same instant. Whether this is done for effect, there is no telling, but the result is to stifle the initial action, and therefore, the plot. The reader is introduced to a score of minor characters who play a small one-time role, yet we are forced to know their entire dossiers. The constant jump back to historic facts is difficult to overcome when there is already a huge labyrinth of loose ends in front of us. After all the detail of these proceedings, and the detail of the minor events alone the way (those that have very little weight in the overall drama), we have world-class dyspepsia in our bowels. Finally, the reader is reacquainted with the Russian vessel, and is allowed to follow its actions once again, after mercilessly being diverted from it. After an exciting final chase, covered quite dexterously from ship to ship by the author, the reader is liberated from the remorseless detail of earlier passages, and is free to choose whether or not the outcome was worth the price it required. But then, what of other stories in Red October? Spies are left hanging in Moscow, and there is talk of removing them from the country; a Soviet sailor is left in a hospital bed who we must assume will recover (a fact which is covered at length, except his recovery); certain salvage operations are discussed and explained but neglected; after the October's crew is returned safely, a possible Soviet counter-operation is only "discussed" in Moscow; and two Soviet vessels (the Konovalov‚ and the Shabilikov‚-p.403) stay behind to sink the October‚ yet only one is destroyed (the Konovalov , but still another unidentified ship is left after a total recall of all others from the Atlantic, p.418); what are the fates of these? In sum, the many interruptions were not cleared up satisfactorily, the level of detail was oppressive too often, and the real chase and excitement of the book were much underplayed. I would have to say that there was a good chance here for a great book, yet Tom Clancy did not deliver it on his first try out.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring...
Review: If you want to know everything of submarines, here is your chance. Learn all the technical ins and outs and get a crash course in tactical warfare. However, if you want an action-packed thriller do not open this book. I found that most of it are descriptions of endless underwater trips. However, it is good if you want to go to sleep at night.
Rating:
Summary: The Hunt For a Great Novel Ends Here!
Review: This is the first novel in the Tom Clancy series, and what better way to begin the action than the tale of a high-tech Soviet submarine defecting to the US? The Soviets are in hot persuit, closing in on the American coast. The Americans are setting up defenses against a possible nuclear attack, and Jack Ryan is trying to figure out just what is happening. This book was great, although it did have a few passages that made me yawn. (These few rather lengthy passages were necessary, however, to further the plot. For instance, Clancy goes into detail about how a nuclear reactor works and the history of Captain Ramius. Both were rather slow, but necessary.) I recommend this book to any fan of Clancy, action, adventure, and good fun!
Rating:
Summary: Better but not the best.
Review: This is one of Clancy's best books: action packed, explosive, and suspensful. But did anybody else get a little bogged down in the technical writing? This is a good book for first time Clancy readers but I prefer movie.
Rating:
Summary: Looking for the best techno-thriller around? This isn't it.
Review: Perhaps I'm being somewhat harsh in my two-star rating of Tom Clancy's novel, "The Hunt for Red October." Then again, perhaps not. I've read and thoroughly enjoyed nearly all of Michael Crichton's novels, and, hearing Tom Clancy being called the author of the very first of the "techno-thrillers" (namely, "Red October"), this book seemed a natural choice for me. This was not at all the case. The first fifty pages and the last seventy-five constitute all the plot twists (if one can say that any exist) within Clancy's novel. The other three hundred pages are just "filler"--side stories with little relevance or use to the reader. I don't blame the author: most books published toward a mainstream adult audience today are at least four hundred pages long. What is perhaps worse is the confusion Clancy creates in these superfluous pages. Myriads of unnecessary characters and acronyms are introduced, and the reader can barely keep track of all these. Here are some examples: CINCLANT(FLT), LANTIRN, VVMUPP, CONSUMBLANT, SOSUS--and the list goes on. Furthermore, it is expected that the reader will remember without any reminder an acronym mentioned once two hundred pages ago. Most mortals have trouble doing so. As far as the quality of the writing goes, here's a prime verbatim example of what to expect, keeping in mind that nothing has been omitted from the text below: "Ramius disclosed their orders the day after sailing to give his men the chance to settle into the ship's routine. He gave a pep talk. Ramius always gave a good one. He'd had a lot of practice." If you didn't enjoy that, you may be relieved by reading pages upon pages of "frighteningly genuine" (The Wall Street Journal) radio transmitions: "AT 083145Z NSA MONITOR STATIONS [DELETED] [DELETED] AND [DELETED] RECORDED AN ELF BROAD CAST FROM REDFLEET ELF FACILITY SEMIPOLIPINSK XX MESSAGE DURATION 10 MINUTES XX 6 ELEMENTS XX" Gripping, isn't it? If you're looking for a techno-thriller that both idealizes and glorifies Americans and also slanders an eastern country we were once at war with, read Michael Crichton's "Rising Sun" instead.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Clancy work, and one of the best books ever.
Review: This is a book for techies. There is a lot of technical information that is just amazing. Anyone remotely interested in anything military will not be able to put this book down. In addition, the action is superb. The outcome is unpredictable (The Aliens blowing up Moscow)(Just kidding, I wouldn't ruin this ending...;-)). The action is riveting, in short, an excellent book.
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