Rating: 
Summary: Elementary school fiction
Review: Remember Clancy's first books? Remember the days when he was dedicated to giving the reader his/her money's worth? Those days and those books are not what you will find inside the cover of "SSN"! US Navy SSN finds Chinese submarine/surface ship, sinks same. Reread that sentence 60 or 70 times and save the money you would have spent on the book. All you'll be missing are a few technical terms. It seems to me that Clancy has shifted his focus from the reader to his bank account. It's a shame, he used to be very good.
Rating: 
Summary: Read SSN Preface and Understand
Review: It seems that that most of the reviewers did not read what the purpose of this book was for. I bought the book because I wanted to learn how to conduct submarine war fare and get ideas how to survive the CD-Rom game SSN. I thought this book did just that. I never thought after reading the preface that this was going to be a classic Clancey novel.
Rating:
Summary: Unspeakably bad
Review: This has to be the worst waste of time I can remember reading. I gave it one star because 0 stars wasn't an option.There's no characterization, no plot development, no suspense. The political developments that set the frame for the submarine warfare are implausible. There's no parity between the Russian/Chinese forces and the American's, so there isn't any conflict. Everything the US sub does works perfectly. Everything the enemy does fails. I gather that this is a novelization of a computer game. If so, it's a walkthrough of a game where the player has done everything right. Like all walkthroughs, it makes the game look boring, by concealing all the opportunities to go wrong. If you see this one in a yard sale for a dime, save your money and your time.
Rating: 
Summary: SSN is more of a laundry list than a book
Review: US Sub vs. Contender #1 -- US wins US Sub vs. Contender #2 -- US wins US Sub vs. Contender #3 -- US wins etc, etc, etc.... this is the first Clancy book i have ever considered not finishing... it is horrible! Not only is the narrative very hurried, it is extremely bland... there is not a bit of suspense in this entire book. Clancy is a very good author, SSN is definately one of his less exciting works... Save your money (or get one of his Jack Ryan books)
Rating:
Summary: An Awful Waste of Time
Review: Eleventy times the skipper gets his orders. Eleventy times the torpedos run hot and true. Eleventy times the enemy gets sunk. Not one personality in this book. Skip it.
Rating:
Summary: SSN Book Should Have Been Sunk At Launch!
Review: Written as if Department of Navy officials were going to critique it, and too technical for reader merely looking for entertainment. Set in WW III, but neglects to cover other events happening in world during this monumental crisis. Author missed the boat on this one. First and last Tom Clancy book for me.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe realistic... but not too entertaining to read
Review: I personally don't know too much about Submarine-Warfare. So I can't really talk about the technical/realistic side of the book, although I think that I have discovered a few inconsistencies in the speeds and ranges that the torpedoes have a different times. However, this book to me is not entertaining to read. It consists of pages filled with descriptions of technical systems and what is happening. In the whole Book there is almost no dialog and you can't say that you'd have interesting characters. At one point in the book I noticed that I was just told more about a guard that doesn't have ANY weight in the action than I get to know about the Captain in the whole book. Also, the captain and some high Generals/politicians are the only characters that have names. The Submarine-Encounters may be realistic but don't create any sense of suspense. What I also noticed was that the enemy commanders are often schizophrenic. Schizophrenic meaning here: They have good ideas, plans, etc. at one point but one or two pages later behave totally incompetent. I gave the book two stars for 2 reasons: - It somehow kept me reading. - The little bit of political story involved seems realitstic to me.
Rating:
Summary: SSN totally lacking in suspense
Review: I had a real problem with the way SSN is written: the narrative style reports every sub battle in a passive, after-the-fact style that leaves no doubt what will happen. Even if you know the good guys (assume Americans) will win every battle with nary a scratch, at least include dialog and elements of tension that suggest other possible outcomes. I would find it implausible that any U.S. sub could outthink, outmanuever, and outgun so many opponents. Beware these ghost writer books with Clancy's name on them.
Rating: 
Summary: Different
Review: The book was certainly different from most of his books (that I have read.) I liked the book and although it was fairly technical I found entertainment in the book. Wonder why so many people have given this book poor reviews -- sure -- not his best but worth while reading. PS I generally prefer the sky to the oceans -- this time I made an exception.
Rating:
Summary: Facts put wrong and too US-biased, but still suspense
Review: Despite of the fact that the book was written in a language allowing the reader to read it with interest and suspense and therefore in two nights, being captured by the events in the South China Sea, I am stunned by the fact that factual statements do not match with reality, in contrast with the backcover description of "perfectly accurate details". One very obvious error is the sentence in the TCN agency article stating that "[...] the Chinese have clearly violated the Manila Declaration of 1992, a treaty signed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which China is a member [...]". Even though the book is based on a fictitious plot, it is a big wrong-doing to make China a member of ASEAN. Or would somebody start writing "The United States of America, a member of the European Union"? Furthermore, the book follows only the mindset of the US policy against China or in Asia itself. Having a more critical presentation of the events in the South China Sea by putting less emphasis on the "U.S. always wins" perspective and bringing in more reactions from the countries in the region, directly affected by the war would make this book less brainless, more comprehensive and eye-opening for the reader to learn more about the possible scenarios happening in this world. This book was simply far too much off reality.
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