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Executive Orders

Executive Orders

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $19.77
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: hugely flatulent
Review: I shouldn't complain - I was stupid enough to buy the book. The >1400 pages went fast though because I skipped huge sections of text - any time he got int one of his diatribes. These are worse than anything Ayn Rand ever wrote and much stupider. And while we're at it, someone should make a top ten list of his worst dialogue. I would but I cannot bear to go back through the book.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Size does not matter
Review: What can you about Tom Clancy's 'Jack Ryan' books: They are massive, ponderous volumes filled with seemingly countless sub-characters and side-plots. The every disaster imaginable has been inflicted on the United States. In previous books the US has fought a conventional World War III (Red Storm Rising), had a nuclear device set-off (The Sum of All Fears) and had the Capital destroyed (Debt Of Honor). Now it is a biological attack and like a bad Star Trek episode Clancy spends 95 percent of the book building the plot and sub-plots before wrapping them all up in last 25 pages.

Is this book for you? If you are a Clancy fan you've already ordered it. If you really like 'The West Wing' start with 'The Hunt For Red October', it's shorter, more focused.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not one of his best
Review: There is a story to me buying this book. I had never read clancy before November of 2002 (right now I am reading Bear and the Dragon and I have read them all to this point). When I first saw Executive Orders on a shelf in Albertson's, I figured: long book, a lot of points for a book report. So I bought it. I go home, open it up, and read the description. And it was there that I saw I needed to read Debt of Honor first. Later I realized that this book was part of a series. Okay, now for the review.
The book was long. The beginning is okay, as it concludes Debt of Honor, but most of the rest of the book is boring and extremely long winded. The majority of it is spent with Ryan whining about how he hates being president. Another problem is the Ed Keality story line. In goes hot and heavy for awhile, then it disappears and ends in a simple manner that makes one wonder in Clancy just got bored. The same is true of the sub-plot about the Mountain men - it goes nowhere. You have at leat two-hundred pages devoted tot hem, then they disappear, only to have no effect on the main story (and I mean this in the most literal sense). It truly goes absolutely nowhere, yet he writes the leads for as if it will be the big conclusion, and maybe cause this novel to end like Debt of Honor.
One thing I enjoyed was that Clark and Chavez got a decent amount of time in the book. They have become my favorite characters in the Ryan universe, and so I always looked forward to their coming.
Now, this book has too many subplots to count, most of which are pointless. The disease helps set up Rainbow Six, as does the key climax help show who Clark is again. Aside from that, is is obvious that clancy wrote this to set a personal record for page length.
To end, as this is one of my most poorly written reviews, a lot of this book is a set up for the Bear and the Dragon (where you learn further that despite saying other wise, Ryan does not have respect for others nor does he take into account -- this is noticed in this paper weight as well -- that some of his actions are truly unconstitutional). I'm sorry Clancy, but I was disappointed. Stick to things that are good. You prefer to make us know you have a greater intelligence than us when dealing with governemnt policies and military strategies. We knew this since Red October.
I recomend finding cliffnotes on this novel, or skipping this novel entirely. It is better to go back to the Cardinal of the kremlin and The Sum of All Fears, or skip ahead to Rainbow Six.
What else can I say except that I am looking forward to when Jack Ryan dies. Too much has been written about this man whose luck would get him thrown out of Las Vegas, and after becoming president, he'll never be able to go on any adventures (Red October, Cardinal, Clear and present) again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: one of Clancy's best
Review: Jack Ryan is placed in the ultimate position with enormous obstacles to confront in Executive Orders. This is one of Clancy's best books, so read this one if you're only going to read a few of them. Clancy really has a lot going on in this novel, probably his most expansive from that standpoint. Politics and policy, foreign and domestic, intelligence operations, and warfare - nothing is left out. This one is interesting because it especially shows social/political commentary from Clancy about America today. Simply a triumphant achievement for Tom Clancy and Jack Ryan.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: incredible sequel to Debt of Honor.
Review: Jack Ryan gets a small promotion -to president- and gathers his friends to save the world. DOH is my favorite non-star wars book and EO starts immediately following the events of DOH. I have to Paperback and Abridged Audio CD's of both.

Don't want to give away spoilers, by Ryan and his country and in real bad shape and vulnerable. Clancey does an amazing job creating the threats and an even more imaginative job of defeating the threats.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Clancy Fan
Review: Once again Tom Clancy has taken us into the world of spies and government. Jack Ryan is a great character as well as the others. This story takes us to places never thought of.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Tread with Care
Review: Make sure to step carefully in this swamp of a Clancy novel. He gives you so much that it takes a guide to wade through the hundreds of plot lines. It is a thoroughly intriguing book but the sheer weight of the novel discourages you. I skipped whole pages which is something of a sacrelige when reading Clancy. However, doing this didn't impair the book. It is an excellent book just extremely tiring to read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great book
Review: I thought that this was one of the best books in the Jack Ryan series. The action was good, it had a great plot, and it had one of the best endings I've read. I would strongly recomend this book to anyone

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: What I Would Do If I Was President
Review: The title for this review is the one Clancy should have used for the book itself. His decision to slaughter most of Congress and cabinet, all the Supreme Court and most of the rest of America's legislative system appears to be mainly a device for rebuilding it in his own image. His politics are conservative and that's not a point of contention - each to their own and good on him for his pride in them. But most of this book is a one-sided argument about why they should be adopted by all Americans. The half-baked inclusion of the Mountain Men to try and dissuade the more radical right-wingers smacks of a late inclusion as it goes nowhere and affects nothing else in the plot. Fortunately, the book is rescued by what Clancy is good at - suspense and action writing. The quest to track down the source of the ebola infections is fascinating and the sequences around the terrorist attacks are all first rate. The research is also typically immaculate. So if you fancy a quick course in conservative government thinking then it's great, but otherwise it is too over the top for most middle-of-the-roaders.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Outstanding Read it twice already
Review: It pulled me in, reads fast. Good story twists. Its not Shakespeare but I did read this twice already. If you like Jack Ryan, and therefore Clancy, this is a darn good one. Read Sum of All Fears then this one back to back and you will enjoy it for sure.

Saw the other reviews and I guess they are right about some of the negatives. I just think the story and pacing blow away any trouble. I would give it 6 stars if I could.

IMHO VERY Good Reading...


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