Rating: 
Summary: I think my favorite in the series...
Review: I didn't get into reading Tom Clancy books until my dad told me I should try reading them (he owns a lot of Tom Clancy books!) And since I love to read, I thought why not? Once I started reading, I couldn't stop! I couldn't tear myself from reading his books.lol
Anyways, I think this is one of my favorite in the Jack Ryan series. Jack Ryan is now President of the United States, after an airplane is deliberately crashed into the U.S. Capitol building as he is getting sworn in as Vice President, killing the President and many members of Congress. (When september 11 happened, I couldn't believe it...it sounded like such a Tom Clancy book! It was crazy...too surreal..read this book and you'll know what I'm talking about!!) Jack Ryan doesn't have it easy either of course! He didn't really want the Vice President job but did it anyways, the last duty to his country..and what happens? He ends up as President.lol He has to deal with a press that doesn't think he can get the job done since he's definitely no politician..a "newbie" in the politics business..they can't decide what to think of him...he has to deal with the Ex-vice president that wants the Presidency, he deals with a biological attack on U.S. soil (hmm...scary....), and a whole lots more!:)
SO, what are ya'll waiting for?!? Read this book!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Too many literary speed bumps!
Review: There must be 50 separate references to urination in this book. It really makes you wonder about just how long it took Tom Clancy to get potty-trained, since he seems obsessed with how often, and under what circumstances, his characters visit the rest room.He literally has pilots running to their planes in one chapter, only to stop the action long enough to tell us, with great seriousness and gravity, that every man made sure to urinate before take off. This is a literary speed bump that does nothing to advance the story. And, this is too bad, because the story is quite good. Clancy has an excellent grasp of the way Washington works, and he gives excellent descriptions of what it is like to be President, CIA Director, etc. He also has an excellent grasp of international relations, including how diplomats talk to each other. I am not qualified to comment on the accuracy of his military details, but they read well, accurate or not! His insights into the human digestive system, especially its latter stages, are less valuable! In fact, they're downright annoying.
Rating:
Summary: IN DEFENSE OF THIS GREAT BOOK
Review: If you like Tom Clancy's style and the technothriller genre then you'll love this book. This book is filled with technical details, long dialogues by characters, and many intricate subplots, but if you could stand them in all his other works from the Jack Ryan series, then they shouldn't present too much of a problem in Executive Orders. Obviously Clancy and his fictional books are not for everybody. Clancy's writing style might annoy those who like tightly constructed prose. Also, those who like lots of grey situations (as oposed to black and white good versus evil situations), lots of emotion, or touchy-feely type of books will not like this book. But for Clancy fans this book should be a classic. The minute details on weapons, geopolitical manuverings, and suspense that are present in his other books are here as well. The satisfying triumph of good over evil is here as well. The plot of Executive Orders, like the plots of his other books, is eerily believable and at the same time, seems too far out to ever actually happen. Then again, who would've thought that 2 airplanes would be used to take out the World Trade Center Towers simeltaneously? At the end of the book I was left thinking to myself "There's no reason why these events couldn't actually occur." To me, the realism and plausability are part of Tom Clancy's magic. For all those writers who gave the book one star for the politics, let me just say that Clancy is not the first writer to inject his politics into his novels or scripts, and he won't be the last. Nearly every Hollywood movie and t.v. show that has any social or political message (and many do have such messages) slants leftward. Why let Clancy's conservative politics stress you out? Tom Clancy's political beliefs do take a more prominant role in this book, but they don't crowd out the story. Some of the obviouly left-of-center reviewers let Clancy's right-of-center politics destroy the book for them. If you can't handle political views that differ from your own, then this book might not be for you. But, if you're a mature person who can enjoy good stories and put politics aside, then this is still a great book. Heck, I agree with Clancy most of the time, but I still watch and enjoy the West (or "Left") Wing and Law & Order. If I have one criticism of this book it's the length. Some of the speaches and character thoughts could have been shortened somewhat. The book would have been better if Clancy had eliminated some of the extraneous stuff. But Clancy has never been known has a tight, efficient writer. All in all, this was an excellent book. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR ALL TOM CLANCY FANS
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Read
Review: Executive Orders is a throughly enjoyable novel. Jack Ryan is an awesome president - an ideal we can only hope for. His conservative politics especially appeal to me. The different subplots initially appear random, but they come together quite well and are very interesting (especially the African ebola angle and the scientific CDC part). The events leading up to his presidency seem so contemporary with today's world situation, making Clancy seem somewhat prophetic. Read the previous novel, Debt of Honor, before diving into this one; it sets up the situation and plot well. Great book!
Rating:
Summary: great work
Review: This is the first novel by Clancy that I have read, and I will continue to read his novels to see if he can do better than this.
Rating:
Summary: Takes a while to get moving, but then...
Review: Tom Clancy has been the master of the spy novel for the better part of two decades. Now, in Executive Orders Clancy tackles the headaches of the power found within the Washington beltway. At the end of the last book, Clancy's hero, Jack Ryan, found himself a sort of unwilling vice president who became the most unlikely of presidents. Now, with the president, Congress and the Supreme Court all decimated, Ryan must face rebuilding the government while fending off challenges from international and domestic conspirators. As always, Clancy tends to get caught up in the details and inner-workings of virtually everything -- from the ebola virus to a crack military unit. The result is a novel that is close to 1,400 pages long, and the reader feels the weight of every turning page for the first half of the book. However, once the plot finally begins to thicken -- around page 650 or so -- it becomes very hard to put this book down. President Ryan becomes more of a collateral character in the book as others like John Clark circle around their leader to solve various crises. As the action builds to a crescendo the book begins to steamroll, with new twists and revelations on each page. Executive Orders is a very good book, but it is far from the best that Clancy has turned out. The previous two books -- Sum of All Fears and Debt of Honor -- set up the plot of Executive Orders and are much more tightly written. But if you are a Clancy fan, this is still a must and it won't disappoint.
Rating:
Summary: A Massive Political Epic
Review: At 1300+ pages, the paperback verison of this book is something you'll be reading for quite a while. But, since this book is actually a good one, you don't need to worry about the length. It just takes that much longer to read. The plot of the novel stems from the political fallout resulting from a commercial airliner crashing into the Capitol Building, killing all but 9 of the 538 members of Congress, the President and his wife, and all of the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, and the Joint Chiefs of staff. Jack Ryan steps up to the bat to try to take control of things. However, his troubles do not end there. Massive changes in the Middle East that America has no control over, and a terrorist plot to unleash the Ebola virus on the free world, and a snobby former Vice President with his eyes on President Ryan's job add more stress to an already overwhelmed nation. Clancy's knowledge of the workings of the government and it's intelligence agencies is extensive, and one is left with wonder at how a civilian could get so much sensitive information to write a book that the entire nation will read and that terrorists will undoubtedly exploit to gain insights on how the United States works and thereby better coordinate their attacks on us. Even in the face of all this uneasiness, this works to make the plot seem more realistic. Clancy's characters are beleiveable and three-dimensional, although President Ryan is a bit naive for a man in his position. Executive Orders is political novel, but there is enough action in it to hold the interests of the reader.
Rating:
Summary: President Ryan has as much to learn as Clancy has to teach
Review: Tom Clancy's longtime hero, former CIA analyst Jack Ryan, has managed to assume the Presidency, Gerald Ford-style, without ever having been elected on a presidential ticket. Unlike Ford, however, Ryan had never been elected to any public office at all. Asked by President Durling to serve as Vice President, after the previous Vice President is forced to resign in the wake of a sex scandal, Ryan reluctantly agrees to take on a largely ceremonial office. The catch for the non-politician Ryan, however, is that the Vice-Presidency is only a heartbeat away from the most burdensome job in the world, and one which Ryan shivers at the thought of undertaking. Then the incredible happens, when a grief-striken Japanese pilot who lost family in a brief Japanese-American shooting war, mans a jumbo jet during Ryan's swearing-in ceremony and crash lands into the Capitol, thereby all but obliterating government. The President, First Lady, the entire Supreme Court, nearly all the Cabinet and most Senators and members of Congress are killed in a few calamitous moments. This leaves Ryan, who survived by a sheer fluke, to assume an office which he frankly dreads approaching. A complete political outsider, Ryan has an excellent working knowledge of the government, but close to zero political instincts. A populist and technophile of the sort both idolized and unelected by America, Ryan must bumble through his grief and shock at the horror which has befallen his nation and attempt to lead it. His hostility toward any form of ideology that appears other than starkly pragmatic, however, is ultimately disappointing. In the guise of non-partisan vigor, Clancy has Ryan deliver a series of startlingly conservative speeches praising a flat tax and denouncing abortion rights. If Ryan's syrupy claims to integrity are occassionally enough to set one's teeth on edge, Clancy establishes a magnificent character in "India", the Prime Minister of the world's largest democracy. Referring to her only by the name of the country she represents, Clancy cleverly harkens back to the medieval language of kings, who refer to one another by the name of their countries. India is a nearly Picassoan study in minimalism. Only a few lines here and there richly summon up the mental image of the face of Benazir Bhutto masking the mind of Indira Gandhi. India's supernaturally beautiful English conveys all at once the history of her nation, her class origins and educational background, her exquisite mendacity and diplomatic sophistication. One masterpiece is a conversation between India and Ryan in which he attempt to secure her promise of safe passage of American vessels through the Indian ocean. India effortlessly evades Ryan's direct request a number of ways, each time protesting offense and hurt feelings on behalf of her nation. While India is written as a villain in Clancy's novel, conspiring against America, her delicious sophistication elevates her far above the supposedly well-intentioned lummox that is America. India's protests on behalf of her "sovereign nation", as Ryan attempts to shove her military around, will resonate deeply amongst Clancy's international audience, as he is surely aware. In the meantime, America's vulnerability is a huge source of inspiration to any number of enemies, both foreign and domestic. Ryan's forte, and Clancy's as well, is in the field of international relations, and an array of hostile nations (India, China, Iran and Iraq) plan intricate attacks on the American homeland and its new President. Clancy has a speechwriter inform Jack Ryan that his use of language, while correct and to the point, is far from poetic. Clearly, the same can be said of Tom Clancy. But what Clancy lacks in artful turns of phrase, he makes up for in scholarship. None of the attacks dreamed up by foreign powers against America are, in themselves, totally unbelieveable: it is only their sheer number and simulteneity that gives "Executive Orders" a far-fetched quality. Tom Clancy's immense learning about weapons systems, military manoeuvers, Pentagon and CIA operations, is put to superb use. Even an outbreak of the Ebola virus in Zaire, which is quickly capitalized upon by the new United Islamic Republic (composed of former enemies Iran and Iraq), is described with striking and quite remarkable clinical accuracy. The governmental institutions he describes are entirely real. Clancy's gift is for taking the world of politics as he expertly knows it to be, and rearranging a few pieces on the chessboard to suggest fictional events evolving from familiar institutions. A large amount of the pleasure derived from a Clancy novel comes from simply being able to follow it. The acronyms are endless, yet largely accurate and non-fictional. Clancy is the ultimate man's man, sharing his war stories in warmly confidential tones, allowing the reader the great vicarious pleasure of merely comprehending: testing each piece of data and finding most to be accurate and real. While many readers will note a kind of "jump the shark" quality to Ryan's extraordinary assumption of the Presidency---for where else had he to go in Clancy's imaginary career trajectory?---the book has an indisputably educational quality for students of geopolitics. World leaders use subjective impressions gleaned at diplomatic receptions to decide upon military gambits. Everyone in politics and in the military has an agenda, noble or not, and all leaders use a range of discursive strategies to communicate with the public, the international community, their cabinets, and with other leaders. None of these 'voices' is entirely sincere or truthful, and some are not a bit of either. Clancy will establish in his readers the important instinct toward looking for the ever-present subtext behind every public speech and pronoucement, and for this reason alone, at least one or two of his novels should be attempted by any serious student of politics.
Rating: 
Summary: Politics and Business
Review: Ever since the fall of the USSR Tom Clancy has been searching for enemies. He should also take into consideration the business aspect of this 'enemy-choosing'. Obviously he knows that people will not appreciate his book if he portrays their country as a rogue state. So he carefully selects his rogue-state-enemies, countries that are not heavily into his books, so that he's got no business to lose. Iran, China and now India. While Iran and China are a far cry from democracy he takes the liberty of stating "India is not a democracy in the actual sense... has muscled its neighbors.... has imperialistic ambitions" and some other stuff. True that India has flaws in its democratic system but which country has a flawless governing system. It is a relatively young country... just 50 years old... but made a good start with granting equal rights to all the people, all religions and faiths. Which other country can boast of that? The author should stop making assumptions about the intentions of other countries especially when there is no historical evidence to suggest such intentions. In his previous book "Debt of Honor" even though the "villain" is Japan he takes utmost care in portraying only a section of the Japanese as the "evil". Well, I guess he doesn't want to lose his Japanese business by suggesting the whole of Japan is behind the so-called villains. But in this book he doesn't have that necessity. India is not heavily into English novels so he takes the liberty of using stereotypes to represent India. I admit he is a good writer but I just hope he respects other countries that follow similar democratic policies rather than treat them with suspicion and contempt.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Conclusion to Debt of Honor
Review: Executive Orders is an excellent continuation of Debt of Honor. Although it may not be accurate, it leads to a fictional view of how pressure filled being the President of the United States is. I like the Jack Ryan stories from Clancy a little bit more then the John CLark ones since they seem to be more encompassing with Politics, War and other details for NSA of the US.
All in all, a great book, a great plot and you never feel slow when reading this book. Great pacing.
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