Debt of Honor

Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This book is not Tom Clancy's best, but is a very good read. It has a well developed and realistic conflict, with good characters and a shocking ending. A very good book.

Rating:
Summary: Riveting, suspenseful, action-packed
Review: Clancy's best since "The Hunt for Red October". Of all of the books I've read in the past few years, only "The Triumph and the Glory" had an ending as stunning and emotionally-charged as "Debt of Honor".

Rating:
Summary: Still a good read
Review: We had been living on Guam and the Micronesian islands for several years when this book came out and that made it even more interesting. It was fun to read about locations and sites and events on Guam and Saipan and be able to relate first-hand to them. If you've ever walked the now-eerily silent runways on Tinian where the Enola Gay was armed, or looked out over Suicide Cliff on Saipan, or the invasion sites at Asan Beach on Guam like we have, it all takes on a more intense feeling. And the story was great, too. I usually skip past the techno-jargon and focus on the political action. Along with sequel Executive Orders, one of the best (and I've never read Hunt for Red October).

Rating:
Summary: An impossible scenario, but highly entertaining
Review: I just read this book for 2nd time, having read it 3 years ago and remembering how entertaining it was. Overall, the book is very interesting and fun to read. The only reason I am giving four out of five stars is the way Clancy uses the media in the book. In reality, the media would never play along what Jack Ryan proposes - that would mean no more business in most part of the world not to mention the shattered intergrity of journalism. The whole story about Japan is never likely to happen, but I guess this is a fiction afterall. However, the narrative on the Japanese culture seems highly biased, and the way a young intelligence officer conducts business with much older Japanese men is out of sync with the cultural context. Besides these minor glitches the book is a smash hit.

Rating:
Summary: Exciting, believable
Review: Another one of Tom Clancy's action-packed novels. Could war really break out between the US and Japan? It sounds credible. But the ending will really surprise you.

Rating:
Summary: Technical Overload!
Review: This was truly one of the most horrible books Tom Clancy has ever attempted. Who in the world could get past the technical jargon to enjoy the story? Was there a story? Is Tom Clancy writing for the general population of readers or only for the select few who can understand his technical journeys? I have suffered through three or four Clancy novels, and this is absolutely the last I will put myself through. This one was given to me by a coworker who could not get past the first 50 pages. We threw it in the trash. Don't waste your money and don't even waste your time on a trip to the library. This book is totally BOOOOOORING, even for the military action-minded. If I could have rated it zero stars, I would have!

Rating:
Summary: Slow to start, good last 150 pages, except the ending.
Review: I read "Hunt for Red October" a long time ago, then drifted away from Tom Clancy books. I picked this book up for a cruise I was going on. I feel it was too long, and he spent way too much time explaining the intricacies of Wall Street. I am not much for finance, but like military action. Towards the end of the book, when we start to counter-attack, the action picks up and the book becomes hard to put down. I was a little disappointed at the ending though, especially if it were that easy to do something like that (I will not give away what the ending is in case you have not read it yet).

Rating:
Summary: Good for technical details, otherwise jingoistic?
Review: As with most of Clancy's recent books, this one is a treat for people interested in military technology and tactics. But the characters and parts of the plot seem to be extremely contrived. For one thing, Jack Ryan has been around for too long, playing your typical white, honest, caring, strong, competitive American type. Its a good thing Ryan has finally become President, atleast now there's nowhere higher to go. Archangel Ryan maybe? One other thing that I found disturbing about DOH, Executive Orders and Carrier is TC's new found whipping boy in India. Coming from India myself, I find the notion of invading Sri Lanka ridiculous, and I hope that most of my countrymen do too. Also, this makes me wonder if these books are starting to make Americans and others to actually come around to the point of view that India could invade Sri Lanka/Australia as TC seems to predict. Looks like TC is an author in search of a villian. Time will tell. In conclusion, read TC for the technical stuff but don't get carried away by his "patriotism" etc. There are good non-Americans in the world just as there are good Americans.

Rating:
Summary: Tom Clancy's best since Red Storm Rising!
Review: The Jack Ryan saga continues! You thought he finished his career by averting a nuclear war in "Sum of All Fears" didn't you? But President Durling convinces him to come back, and not a moment too soon. It seems trouble follows Jack wherever he goes. "Debt of Honor" is an action packed thrill ride that will grab you right from the start and keep holding onto you at the end when you expect a resolution to the conflict, but one doesn't come. "Executive Orders" certainly finished up this two-parter nicely, but that's another story.

To me, an avid fan of "Red Storm Rising", I yearned for another bonanza of military technology with things blowing up and cutting edge weapons. DOH delivered the best battle scenes since RSR, featuring the B-2 Spirit, Comanche Attack Chopper, and F-22 Raptor kicking some major butt. The light weapon used by "Klerk" and "Chekov" was also very interesting. I just wish that the Americans could have taken out the Indians and Chinese too, but maybe Clancy's saving that for another day...

I won't say if "Debt of Honor" is the best of the Clancy series because I loved every single one of his books (except perhaps for his Power Plays, Op-Centers, and Netforces). DOH is about five to three hundred pages longer than any of Clancy's other masterpieces, but that just gives him more room to add excitement and plot twists. I only wish that the relative I originally borrowed "Debt of Honor" from hadn't revealed the shocking conclusion to me before I had a chance to read it myself.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but lacking
Review: This book was entertaining and suspensful. It was also extremely long and hard to believe, and it left the reactions of the U.N. It would have been better if Clancy had cut out some of the long, drawn out beginning and given a better description of what really would have happened in this situation. Granted, it does take a long time to tell a story like this well, but 990 pages?