Rating: 
Summary: On and on and on...
Review: Tom Clancy writes like he is paid by the word. What could easily be stated quickly is tediously rehashed. Jack is drinking too much. Liz Elliot doesn't like Jack. Jack is drinking too much. Jack is a superman that the country can not possibly do without and the stress is wearing poor Jack out. Jack is drinking too much. There is a pretty good story hidden in the ponderous presentation. For goodness sakes, someone edit the chaff away from the wheat!
Rating: 
Summary: Meticulous, but good GOD it's loooooooong!
Review: Howdy! It takes a lot for me (a fifteen year old) to read a book that is 900+ pages long (though I am quite literary and do enjoy books!), but media hype surrounding a movie always forces me to read the book! Okay, so its a Clancy novel; big whoop. When I read a book, I'm reading what the book is, not who the author is. The book reads like a Bible-length VCR manual. And I swear, I'm pretty sure after reading that I could now build an H-Bomb! But the last 200 pages make up for that with the incredible (and horrifying) events in Denver (I'll stop there for those who haven't read it)! I will add though that the description of the inside of the stadium gave me a nightmare for sure (those who've read it know what I'm talking about!).
Rating: 
Summary: A very intriguing and suspenseful story
Review: Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears is another page turner full of suspense and a very interesting plot. Terrorists undertake to detonate a nuclear bomb within the United States to prevent a peaceful settlement to the conflicts in the Middle East. The title to this novel is very interesting and fitting as characters make decisions that are not rational, but are based on their fears and doubts. Although the story starts off slow, it becomes pretty amazingly suspenseful as the plot progresses, especially near the end. As in other novels, Clancy mixes a shockingly plausible scenario with incredible action. Reading this book, I found very interesting the way in which what started off as the most innocent event quickly escalated into a very tense and frightening situation. The main character, Jack Ryan, must deal with not only tense intelligence problems, but also with problems such as lack of sleep, failing health and marital problems. On top of that, Ryan must overcome a vindictive pesonal attack by National Security Advisor Elizabeth Elliot and the sometimes unfair expectations of President Fowler. Popular Clancy characters such as John Clark and Domingo Chavez also play a role in this story. I think perhaps one of the most interesting aspects to this story is the fact that the frightening plot is not so far fetched. It could very easily become a horrible reality. The way in which Clancy connects events in the story makes one think of how possible this all is and it's hard to imagine a more appropriate title than The Sum of All Fears. Having seen the movie based upon this story I can tell you that significant plot deatails were changed in the movie. Other than the planned nuclear detonation in America and the ensuing panic that takes place, the movie is very different. Perhaps the most noticeable difference is the fact that in the movie Jack Ryan(played by Ben Affleck) is a young man that has just recently joined the CIA. This certainly doesn't follow suit with the presentation of Jack Ryan as a married man in the movies Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games. Although the screen adaptation is considerably different than the book, the movie is still pretty good and probably worth seeing. If you've seen the movie, whether or not you liked it, I'd still recommend reading the book as the plots are different enough that the book will not appear to be just a literary version of the movie. For this reason, I also recommend seeing the movie even if you've already read the book.The book is perhaps one of the most suspenseful I've read by Clancy and is full action. Clancy's vast military knowledge is certainly present and makes the story seem that much more interesting and plausible. I certainly recommend reading this book, especially if you're a big Clancy/Ryan fan.
Rating:
Summary: What About the Logs for the Temple?
Review: In this novel there are several scenes involving a bunch of large trees that have been cut down so supposedly a group of Japanese men can have them sent to Japan to make an altar in a temple. These men are important. Something is afoot concerning those logs. Are they to hide the nuclear weapon? Are the Japanese involved somehow in an Islamic/neo-Nazistic plot to detonate a nuclear bomb in the United States? No! We learn somewhere around page 850 that the logs, mentioned umpteen times in the novel, serve only as the prop for an American submarine to crash into in a scene that has absolutely nothing to do with the plot. In other words, this novel is about 300 pages too long, as was Red Storm Rising. Mr. Clancy is a brilliant man and a good writer but as indicated in his interviews on television, the man is too full of himself and doesn't know when to shut up. This novel is way too long and has a multitude of characters and scenes that have no meaning to the plot or the conclusion. My advice to Tom Clancy is to write a 300 page novel and not have one page that has hi-tech blah... blah.. blah.
Rating:
Summary: Movie is not the same than the book !
Review: Please don't mix the book with the movie. It is not the same. The movie was made in our time, not the book (1996). The movie has incredible information about the fears and history of our times. The central source of terrorist are organized by Nazi thinkers located in Austria (!!!), Vienna. Do you remember? Who is Joerg Haider? Of course his name is not mentioned in the movie, but even how the leader(s) look a like is very similar to the actual leaders of Austria. They are using Egypt and Islamic people to organize the terrorist act, by using their American hate. And creating such an environment, where it looks alike that Russia has targeted the US (although of course not); This group use own US assets (in this case old US nuclear bomb was "reactivated" (found dead in Israel, given to Israel by the US in 1973) and so can be hided) against them. And what Austria does, when the US was hit (US thought it was Russia, but it was an Austrian organized (nazi organized Islamic people, reactivating it in Russia, with Austrian support and delivering/shipping it back to the US to bomb them). Austria was the real „master mind", and the Islamic group was the tool for!
The movie is just incredible. The nuclear effects must have been measured, and probably US military advice was used. Think about the World Trade Center hit. Terrible. US assets were used against the US. We think it was done by Islamic groups. Probably physically yes, but there must be a central creator.
Do you remember what the Austrian "government leader told"? Something like: Hitler was an excellent mind, but he had one disadvantage: in that time the world was too big to rule, but now with globalization, Internet and communication the world is small. He also told his dislike, that the US thinks about Europe as of children, but without the toys.
It was terrible to hear all he was saying. And this is exactly what is happening in today's history. Read the newspapers. Don't you see similarities? The US must protect thoroughly every shipping ports and other logistic infrastructures. As Bush is really doing it.
The film is different from the book. Must see.
Rating: 
Summary: continue the tradition
Review: I personally loved the sum of all fears becouse it is a realistic disasternovel.I only gave it four stars becouse after a little while it became a little bit dull.But than, long before the average reader would lay down this masterpiece, the action kicked in with a gigantic blast!I must say that everyone that finds this book underresearched is a petty-minded man/woman.I myself hope that one day I will be able to become a writer of the Clancy-classe.I don't know how many research he did, but it has got to be a lot.I must remark though that Tom Clancy thrillers are a little bit to suggestive when it comes to terrorism:in this thriller,he explains exactly how to buyild a nuclear weapon, in debt of honor, he explains how to make economical war and he invents the use of commercial-airlinerjets for terrorism...
Rating:
Summary: Thorough, Exciting
Review: This is simply an excellent book. I am one who likes to know a book like I'm living in it, and this book does just that. Definitely exciting at the end. Thought-provacative in the way that he is accurate and there is a level of truth behind the story.
Rating:
Summary: A Year in the Life of Tom Clancy's World
Review: This book is long, whether too long depends a lot on the reader. If you are searching for a concise and precise narrative even remotely following the sort of (I hate to use this word in the way but those reading this might understand what I am trying to get at) precision that can (and must) be found in the movie format, this book is too long. If you are looking for more of a drawn out drama, involving a good handful of twists and turns with a decent amount of back-data and unnattached subplots; then the book will be about right. A lot happens in the book, more than most books that get published, but a lot of it could also be done without. I am not calling for an abridgement. I liked the format as it stood, but it will tax some readers that do not have time to tackle an 800 page book.The book gets high marks for being polyvocal, especially for the first 500 or so pages. Clancy manages to bring out each voice as something a human might say. This means that sometimes you will read contradictory thoughts. A certain act will be highly praised for a few pages and then condemned for a few. This is all part of painting a realistic image. People do not agree, and Clancy does a good job of highlighting this fact. Furthermore, though people in this book do tend to speak in the "perfect" language that many characters in many books speak (it is a narrative tool that does not follow real world facts); they do at least make open mistakes and have moments of confusion (which increases their plausibility). Of course, talking about this book would be impossible without details of Jack Ryan. As usual, Ryan is less the star of the book and more a VIP. He makes mistakes, both of the political, intelligent and physical kind. He is not omnipotent nor omniscient, but he is a well crafted humans that most readers will attach most of their emotional context to before too long. Towards the end, he becomes increasingly a deus ex machina, but he manages to stay mostly plausible. He does not favor (in many respects) the Jack Ryan of the movie, having far more in common with the Harrison Ford-style Ryan of the earlier movies. He is an older gentleman, raised of the older class of American ideals...and tends to be calm up until he gets a little "sweary" and agitated. The book suffers in the end by losing its polyvocal nature. People begin to think more and more alike. Even when the "sum of all fears" comes into play, and people start to panic...they all seem to panic in pretty much the same way. The emotional and personal prejudice that underlined the narrative for the first several hundred pages becomes bleached to a more event-oriented narrative and the inner working become dimmer (perhaps to highlight the "no time to think" attitude). It still manages to be tense and a definite page turner, but it is almost like a new form of writing compared to the early, more calm and sophisticated writing style. One other complaint is the fact that the "more human" Jack Ryan seems mostly boistered by personal defects rather than true well-roundedness. Drinking, smoking, sleeping problems, marital problems, etc all become the marks that "Jack Ryan is 'Real'" but a good deal more humor and positive aspects that do not involve (literally) the utter salvation of the world would have been nice as well. The book has so much that it would have made a good series of books or a good mini-series rather than a singular plot movie. For this reason, I took it more as a "Year in the Life" type story rather than a specific plot.
Rating:
Summary: The Sum of all Fears
Review: The Sum of all Fears by Tom Clancy is a Jack Ryan superhero, techno-terrorism novel. Something Clancy is good at and you won't be disappointed here either. Clancy takes his good old time with this book, so, you might get bored with all of his military setup and jargon, the military can be so boring. Nevertheless, you have the hero Jack Ryan battling Arab-terrorists who plan on detonating an atomic bomb in the United States at the Super Bowl. Not only this, but Ryan is battling elements within the government... sounds all too familiar to real life, but Clancy can bring out the worst in his villainy, along with his penchant for gratuitious sex. If you can get through this, around two-thirds of the way through the book takes off and this is where the most exciting writing is found. The book is well founded in backgrond information and is plausible to a degree which makes for and exciting adventure-thriller. All in all, a very well written novel and it will keep the reader modestly entertained, but with a moire that keeps your interest till the ending. It will be interesting to see how the movie deals with all of the informantion the author gives the reader in the book.
Rating:
Summary: Greatest book I ever read!
Review: When I seen the preview of the movie "Sum of all Fears" and seen it was about a nuclear weapon going off I had never heard of Tom Clancy. I am very into politics and military conflict and decided to buy the book off amazon. As soon as I got past "Broken Arrow" I found my dream book. It starts with the Palestinian's getting an MLK type non-violence leader. He leads the people of Palestine to the Al Aqsa mousque. A Israeli soldier fires at the peaceful protesters. Somehow CNN gets the tape out without IDF forces stopping them. When the story breaks on CNN the Israeli's must move towards peace. Jack Ryan gets a letter to the Holy Father(the Pope) and the road to peace starts. The book goes through how peace is achieved. Ismael Qati is a terrorist and terrorist do not have plans to retire. Peace means that he is out of work. What happens next is the terrorist find an old Israli bomb lost in Broken Arrow(the beggining of the book). They set it up while the presidents National Security Advisor dies and Liz Elliot takes the job. She is a left wing liberal and ends up in a scandel with the president. While Marvin Russel an American Indian puts the bomb in play. I will not go any further than to say this book is great. It is not PC and the bad guys are not the Russians. I look foward to finishing "Debt of Honor" the next book in this Jack Ryan series.
|
