Executive Orders

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Summary: Comments
Review: I had always been a Tom Clancy fan, "Executive Orders" is one of the best Works I had read. The seceranio pointed out by Clancy was very realistic during the time of print. Jack Ryan as the President of The United States made me feel that there would not be any future releases of Ryan as the main character.

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Summary: More and more...
Review: By the end of "debt of honor", I was really amazed by the incredible ascension of Jack Ryan. He was becoming POTUS. Then I asked myself what he would become at the end of the following book. Fortunately he is just POTUS for another time. Will Clancy have enough ideas to interest readers now that Ryan can't go higher ?? I hope so 'cos I really enjoy his books. Thanks a lot Mr Clancy

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Summary: Clancy is leading his central character down into a dead end
Review: Though I had enjoyed Clancy's previous techno-thrillers, this one was a major disappointment. By making Ryan president, he has painted himself into a corner that only reliance on Ryan's flimsy alter-ego, John Clark (a man who will soon be fighting evildoers from a walker if Clancy acknowledges the passage of time) will allow him to escape from. Otherwise, how plausible is it for the President of the United States to be personally getting involved with gun battles with terrorists and drug runners? This may not have weakened the novel itself had it not been for Clancy's interjection of his simplictic politics into his fictional world. His attempt to define how the world should be run through his characters' action sapped what remaining enjoyment this novel contained. Traditional Clancy fans would be best served by stoppping at "Debt Of Honor" to let their imaginations work from there rather than the ideological box Clancy seems bent on constructing.

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Summary: Interesting but tediously long
Review: I am a great Clancy fan and I eagerly attacked Executive Orders when I realized Rainbow Six was published and on the market. You could actually start reading this book the minute you finish Debt of Honor. Personally, I believe Jack Ryan is better on the provider end of information instead of the decision end. Nevertheless, he brings great dignity and humility to the recently tarnished Office of the President of the United States (POTUS). The action is great in the story, even better than DOH. The storyis just too damn long. I read the first 200 pages in about 3 hours, the middle 900 in 4 hours and the last 250 in about 4 hours. The story flows well, but the reader learns about most of the action through Ryan and not with Ryan. The characters were great, escpecially Jackson and Murray (from my favorite of the series, Patriot Games) and newer characters like Agent Price and O'Day and even Raman were great supporting players. The assasination of the "Moustache" was great, but the amaricans too easily figured out the mole planted in Ryan's detail. Overall, I thought the book was just too long. By the last hundred pages, the wasr in the Persioan Gulf, I just wanted to finish the story. I guess we'll have to wait for another to see how Ryan's presidency goes.

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Summary: Boring - I gave up
Review: His first two books were brilliant. However, the quality has steadily decreased and this one was unreadable. I believe the author is too lazy to develop new believable characters or plausible plots. What happended to the author's self respect?

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Summary: not bad
Review: This book was a long book that took a while to read. The good parts of this book were sandwiched between all the other parts. This book could have been a whole lot shorter.

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Summary: ZZZ!
Review: Ryan didn't enjoy being president but felt it was his duty. Well I know how he felt, I felt I had to read the one Clancy novel I hadn't gotten around to but I didn't enjoy it much. Ye Gods! It was as if Ryan was REALLY the president and we had to read every newspaper story of every crisis or roadblock thrown in his way. It isn't going to happen because of all the $$ Clancy makes for his publisher but it would be nice if someone told him he needs an editor with a very big axe. No wonder he's been linked with Stephen King in some articles lately, neither one has an editor who can say "No". I'll still read his next one though; duty calls.

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Summary: boooooooooooooring
Review: The book was full of errors. For instance, the Air Force does not have "corporals." In fact, it hasn't had them since WWII!!! I also found the book to be exceedingly tedious. Clancy reminds me of writers of the late 19th Century, who were paid for the number of words in their text and not for the content. Clancy says in 10 pages, what can be said in one. It is easy to lose the flow of the plot as the reader is lost in the mundaness of the techno-facts. Lastly, as a military veteran, I find it pathetic for Tom Clancy to wear the bomber jackets and military hats on the jackets of his books. He comes across as a wannabe. Well, if he wanted to serve so much, maybe he shouldn't have avoided military service during the Vietnam War.

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Summary: Too long and too political.
Review: Not only did it take forever to read, but it wasn't worth it. Tom Clancy's plots are generally good for fiction, and the movies made from them are excellent, but this one really was not worth the time it took to read. Jack Ryan became a reflection of the political beliefs of Tom Clancy -- and too much space was wasted on Clancy's (hidden through Ryan) views on abortion, gun control, etc. His dream idea of the perfect, responsible government was ever-to-obvious. And his attempts at showing off military and medical terminology, acronyms, etc. just got old after a while. Re-read one of his older books instead.

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Summary: Not his best, but still a great read.
Review: I read this book over a year ago and then re-read it in anticipation of Rainbow Six's release. After reading many of the negative reviews here, I feel the need to defend this book. I agree with very few of the political views expressed by Jack Ryan in this book, but it doesn't stop me from knowing a good story when I see it. As a non-religious, pro-choice moderate, some of the aspects of the story are way to far to the right for me, but this is a work of fiction meant to entertain and it certainly does that. I also found that the book was not too long, rather it was too short. I wanted more. I read this book in three days the first time and it was like saying good bye to a friend when it was over. I had feared that it signaled the end of the Jack Ryan series, but Clancy has now stated that he has started the next one. I can't wait for more, regardless of the political views. A true sign of intelligence is the willingness to listen to views other than your own. It was a ! lesson Ryan taught Dr. Goodley in Sum of All Fears and it's one that will always stick with me.