Cardinal of the Kremlin

Rating:
Summary: Amazing Plot!
Review: This book is definitely his best. The characters are real, the action is quick, and the style is beautiful. For anyone interested in Clancy or an accurate look into the workings of the CIA this is a must read.

Rating:
Summary: His best...
Review: This book, I found while readding it, is by far the best that Clancy has ever written. The story holds you in tight and refuses to let you go.
This book showed the height of the space race between the USSR and the USA during the cold war, and with Clancy's story-telling and attention to detail, the reader sees why we were so worried at that trivial time.
As with most of his fiction, this is a Jack Ryan/John Clark book (being the first for the latter).
The book takes place a year after the Hunt for Red OCtober as Ryan and Ramius watch the Russian submarine set to sea one last time. It continues with the top-secret developements of the Star Wars programs, spies with high level friends, old lies coming to light, and the ultimate task of rescuing the greatest spy the CIA has had placeds in the Soviet Government -- and that's just revealed in the first half, along with a great deal more.
I enjoyed two things with this book. First, it greatly tied in with previous novel in the series. Throuhgout the rest of the series, you get references to the past books, but The Cardnial of the Kremlin truly stays within the set universe of Ryan/Clark. I dealing with that, it was nice to see how Marko Ramius was doing in American since his defection in Red October.
The next thing I enjoyed was the humanity involved with this nvoel. You get to see what Russians thought about the US, as well as what they thought about Afganistan and the war there. It is truly astounding to see a war between Russians and Afgans (with American support to the latter) from three points of view, and still hold a common heart to all.
This was also the pivitol novel in which Clancy introduced us to John Clark and his brief time abourd the USS Dallas (yes people, Jonesy and Mancusco were in this book as well).
It was just nice to see how these epoeple all became connected or stayed connected, and for that reason with the others I have stated, it made this Clancy's best. A must read, especially if you wish to understand the majority of references and characters in the latter books. It is not as long as other Clancy novels (thankfully). It seemed to be the last book that Clancy wrote for fun, rather to make money, as this book is fun in the aspect you get all of Red October and more. A classic book, and the last one during the cold war (unless you count his prequels). Though it;s not as famous as his others, it is a great and I recommend it highly to anyone who enjoyed Red October.