Ssn

Rating:
Summary: If you understand the context, you might like this book...
Review: If you read this book like a novel, you'll probably share many of the negative opinions that others have expressed. I think, however, that the book really is meant to be taken differently. In one sense, it appears to be a companion to the similarly-titled computer game. In this context, the book illustrates for the neophyte gamer how some of the game's scenarios might be successfully played. On a broader basis, the book also provides the non-gamer with a fictionalized sense of the tasks given to modern submarines, and how they might execute those tasks. So, as a novel, it's definitely sub-par for Clancy. As a fictional means of illustrating modern submarine warfare, it's actually a pretty good, interesting read.

Rating:
Summary: patriots only
Review: I never have any trouble finishing a Clancy, which is usually way too soon, but this time I really had to urge myself to keep reading for the good part to come....to no avail. I'm sure the real American patriot will disagree, but this book is surely the most unrealistic I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Great couldn't be better exciting and realistic
Review: Very good excellent work Mr. Clancy besides OP-Center some of your best work yet it was fun and interesting! Very creative and action-packed...

Rating:
Summary: Totally surrealist and without suspense
Review: It was a real pain to finish reading this book. How can just one sub make the whole Chinese navy sink ?! And there is absolutly no suspense.In brief this book is really disappointing and poor.

Rating:
Summary: GI-Joe in a submarine
Review: Well Tom, got a bad day writing this? Nice plot, nice settings but a bit unrealistic. One sub taking on the whole Chinese navy? I got the feeling he wanted to put as much action as possible in only 400 pages and thereby losing his feeling for reality, suspense and character. I am not saying that one shouldn't buy the book, but don't expect too much of it!

Rating:
Summary: The weakest Clancy of them all..
Review: Not only in the sense of YA-fiction lightweight narrative, but the interview section at the end with the British admiral gives him yet another chance to trot out his old chestnut about war; "A war of agression is nothing more than armed robbery writ large--they've got it, we want it, let's go get it". Even when that motive is in there somewhere in modern war, you simply cannot forget what military historian Gwynne Dyer said; "Since just about every modern nation raises its children to believe that killing people is wrong, and you must draw upon those whom you raised in that fashion for a fighting force, it is essential to military training to at least imply that the enemy are not really 'people', as such." We see it in Kosovo. We saw it in Bosnia. We saw it in World War II, when the Reich claimed that all they wanted was "Lebensraum" in Poland and the Ukraine (which ostensibly bears Clancy out), but expended enough manpower and materiel on the Holocaust to lose them the whole ball of wax (and that's a point for Dyer's hypothesis). "We" might want what "they" have, but the only thing that makes it okay for us to "go get it", is for "us" to decide that "they" really aren't people.

Rating:
Summary: Clancy hits the bottom
Review: Tom Clancy's "SSN" is without a doubt the worst drivel I've ever read! One nuclear submarine takes on the entire Chinese navy - including a couple Russian driven subs - an takes them all out... I've enjoyed Clancy's books since I first read "Red Storm Rising". The first time I felt Clancy wrote too many books was when I read "OP-centre". That book, and the sequels, feels like Clancy's trying to get money out of his name. "SSN" just made me shiver with embarrassement for him. The plot is allright, but the story's probably written on a VERY bad day. when Clancy writes books about espionage (and "Red Storm..) he's one of the best writers in the world! But here he's missed big time!

Rating:
Summary: Decent, but needs a little work
Review: This book had a great technical aspect. His descriptions of submarines and how warfare is carried out is tremendous. The plot was somewhat simple with almost no characterization. This does not even come close to a thriller by Patrick Robinson. Try again Mr. Clancy with more character flair.

Rating:
Summary: Good Audio CD for the road.
Review: WE found this audio CD to be very interesting and easy to follow. The CD contains different voices for different characters and sound effects which added to the book itself.

Rating:
Summary: The best military submarine book I have read in years!!
Review: "SSN" takes you right inside a submarine during a high-paced war.