Rating: 
Summary: An Executive Order
Review: While this book held my attention due to the amount of suspense the last 300 pages held, the only truly exciting thing about this book was the end. The way that Clancy weaves evil religious fanatics and gun brandishing heroes into an finish took my breath away. There was some great action in the book, but as usual, the conservative reader will be offended at the amount of four-letter-words, and the casual reader will often feel bogged-down in the ongoing political muck. Overall, I think that I can only recommend this book to hard-core Clancy fans who are willing to give this fascinating conspiracy yet lengthy book a try.
Rating: 
Summary: What is the matter with you people?
Review: I've read some of the other reviews for "Executive Orders", and truthfully I'm quite shocked. I've read all of Clancy's novels, and though it took my a while to topple this one, I was in a state of shock by the end. The rising suspense and apocalyptic climax made my hands shake! "Executive Orders" is a monster of a book, one that gets better every time you read it. Truthfully, after reading it once I felt a little disappointed. But one day I picked it up and read it again, and the second time around made me pick up certain things I had missed immediately. The book's plot is deeply rooted straight from the beginning and it grabs you by the neck and drags you through all 800+ pages. As for you "fans" who complain about Clancy inputing his political views into his novels, maybe you should pay more attention to the story and the characters than the subliminal messages. No doubt Clancy's best, and still my favorite of all time. A definite pick, along with "The Cardinal of the Kremlin" and "Without Remorse".
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: In my opinion this book was excelent! I loved it, it was the type of put-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat thriller. It couldn't have been better. Go Tom!
Rating: 
Summary: Too Much Flag-Waving, Not Enough Talent
Review: I've never read Tom Clancy before. I've seen the movies, and enjoyed them (THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER in particular). But Clancy as a novelist was a new experience.I suppose I should have seen my overall reaction coming. When Clancy dedicated his book to Ronald Reagan, I had a sneaking suspicion as to where the story would lead. The story has plenty of pulp promise. What appears to be the entire American government is wiped out in one fell swoop, and it's up to Jack Ryan to become the new president. But Clancy doesn't know when to quit. He adds on layers and layers of subplots, most of which would work by themselves, but only serve here to bloat an already large novel. Part of the problem is that there is no sympathy created for any character. Every person in Ryan's entourage is decent, hard-working, and completely uninteresting. Any person who doesn't fit in with Clancy's idea of a hero is treated with suspicion and contempt. It might make a difference if ANY character was remotely memorable, but evidently, characterization is not Clancy's strong suit. I had higher hopes for the action portions of the novel, but alas, I was also disappointed. Pages and pages of technical jargon only prove that Clancy has done his homework. What it doesn't do is advance the plot. Tank warfare may make for entertaining viewing, but they make for deadly dull reading. Particularly if, once again, there is absolutely no empathy created for anyone involved in the actual battles. And as for the actual backstage look at how the presidency is run? I am reminded of a recent newspaper critique of television's THE WEST WING. It stated (quite accurately, to my mind) that when it comes to drama, the democratic viewpoint is the most dramatically satisfying. It leads to shows such as THE WEST WING, I'LL FLY AWAY, PICKET FENCES, and HOMICIDE. When the republican viewpoint is emphasized in a drama, you get THE A-TEAM and TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL.
Rating:
Summary: A book worth to spend time on
Review: Tom Clancy is back again. With vice-president John Patrick Ryan, ex-CIA agent as president of the united states. Tom brings back a world of Suspense, not heard of since Alfread Hitcock. Among the top like Joanne Kathleen Rowling, Robert T. Kiosaki and John Grisham, Executive Orders is destinied to be a master story.
Rating: 
Summary: Mostly Good Read, but He Should Stick with what he Knows
Review: This book is decidedly inferior to "The Hunt for Red October" and "The Cardinal of the Kremlin," but still, for the most part, it is highly enjoyable, with lots of the action and intrigue Clancy is famous for. But Clancy is not an economist, and the book really drags when he spends pages at a stretch arguing in favor of a flat income tax and a reduced capital gains tax. He apparently doesn't notice the inconsistency, that a lower tax rate for capital gains creates, ipso facto, a non-flat tax. The claimed justification for special favorable tax treatment of capital gains, "to promote capital investment," is a totally meretricious argument, the sole purpose of which is to provide a windfall for the rich by shifting the tax burden to the poor and middle classes. Making Jack Ryan promote such sleaze is out of character with the decent, intelligent man Clancy has previously portrayed Jack Ryan to be. Clancy should stick with the themes of espionage, intrigue, and military action that he does so well.
Rating:
Summary: Tom Clancy at his best
Review: Excellent example of Clancy work at it's best, from beginning to end.
Rating:
Summary: Long Winded
Review: I have read all Tom Clancy's books with the exception of his ops book. It took me four years to find the energy to finish reading this book that had a rather convoluted plot at the outset. In uncharacteristic style, this book seemed to ramble and peter out in spots. The battle rhetoric was over the top and unnecessarily long winded. I only finished it in order to read the newest Jack Ryan epic, The Bear and The Dragon, because regardless of the rambling, I still really like Ryan, Clark and Chavez.
Rating: 
Summary: Good ending-Ryan turns into a sleazeball politician
Review: The best part of this book is probably unintentional on Clancy's part. Jack Ryan succumbs to the seduction of power and turns into a sleazy politician. Throughout the seven Jack Ryan books, Jack has developed into a one dimensional superhero. By this book, his character is as thin and flat as a piece of cardboard. Throughout this book, he is the perfect, honest polictical outsider, single handedly cleaning up the American political system. The whole time he insists he doesn't want the job. But, at the end of the book, once Ryan feels the power of kicking the butts of the liberal opposition and of the Iraqis, he changes his mind and says he will stay in office. Ryan turns into the lying, two-faced politician he said he hated. Besides the ending, this is mostly a miserable book. The first 400 pages are boring and repetitive. There some really good parts in the middle where all these intricate subplots get going. But most of these subplots go nowhere or are left dangling. There's an exciting little war at the end, but it not enough to make up for the 1100 other pages that go nowhere. There are some minor problems with most of Clancy's other books, but for the most part they are very good, exciting and entertaining. This book is a complete shock. It will be interesting to see if he can recover with the next book in the series, which was just released.
Rating:
Summary: Reread Red Storm Rising or Hunt for Red October instead
Review: Man, what a stinker! I've been reading Clancy since I was in my teens, starting with Red Storm Rising, and, particularly after Debt of Honor (which I felt had been his best since Patriot Games), this book was a HUGE letdown, and I left it unfinished about 3/4 of the way through the book from boredom. I can usually easily overlook the intrusion of Clancy's politics into his writing, because, so often, not only are his novels are so much fun to read, the political aspects of the storyline serve well in driving the action and/or explaining the motivations of the characters. In this case, however, the plot and subplots are so weak, the characters (good and bad) so thin, and the action so uninteresting, that the only things that stand out in the novel are the political beliefs of the main character, Jack Ryan. I agree with some of those beliefs and reject some of them as well, but they were certainly not enough to keep my interest, and neither was the story itself. I recommend, instead, the earlier Jack Ryan novels, or, more recently, Debt of Honor instead. Rainbox Six was somewhat better than this one, but I would easily recommend the earlier Clark novel, Without Remorse, over Rainbow Six (though, as an aside, the computer game that inspired/was inspired by Rainbow Six is extremely fun to play). I'll pick up the new novel in HC discounted or used, otherwise wait for the PB, and hope that the Jack Ryan saga improves, though I'm thinking it might have been better had Ryan remained in the field.
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