Rating: 
Summary: And Some Say This Is Clancy's Best?!?
Review: This book reminds me of the joke about asking a guy what time it is and by the time he gets finished telling you the history of timekeeping and the intricate evolution of timekeeping devices you've forgetten where it was you were going. Ponderous, disjointed, confusing, and sloooooow during the first half of the book. It seems as if Clancy spent so much time on the first half of the book plotting (or should I say plodding) it all out that he finally got fed up and decided to just hurry up and get it over with in the last half. In order to get through it, you'll just have to suppress the urge to say "Oh come on..." as he helps the good guys win until the very end which was just really unbelievable.
Rating: 
Summary: Imaginative and unlikely--an intriguing premise.
Review: America and Japan are vital allies and trading partners and I am confident that the two countries will never again engage in armed conflict with one another. A limited form of armed conflict between Japan and the United States is the intriguing premise of this novel, one of Clancy's best. Although unlikely, there is nothing that takes place in this novel that is quite impossible. Just not real probable, but hey, that's why we have fiction.The basic storyline is simple (no spoilers here). The trade friction between Japan and the United States comes to a head when the US enacts a trade bill which essentially targets Japanese firms which engage in sharp practices against the US. This gives a clique of power-wielding industrialists an opportunity to put Japan on a course whereby it seeks to establish military control over much of the Western Pacific area, including Saipan, which is a United States territory. Therein lies the story. Far out, but not impossible. Here, Clancy is stretching his imaginative muscles and the result is a quite good novel. As usual, Clancy's skillful speculation about, and knowledge of, military technology gives this one more authenticity than most authors would be able to manage. This one brings back our old friends Jack Ryan, John Clark, and Ding Chavez, who are the central players on the American side. This novel features some of Clancy's best writing, and is not overlong like most of his later works. Further, the Japanese side is presented largely with respect and dignity, excepting the core bad guys who are portrayed as well, bad guys. One of Clancy's best, and if you like his other ones, you will probably thoroughly enjoy this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Imagining the unimaginable
Review: I read this Clancy novel the moment it came out in '96. It has one of the BEST ENDINGS of any book I've read. Unfortunately, September 11th, 2001 shed a completely different light on this book. In fact, the first thought I had when I learned of the horrible attack on that morning was, "someone read DEBT OF HONOR." (If I reveal the ending here, there's not much of a point for you to read it...) So when Condoleeza Rice said to the press that "no one could have imagined" that someone would use airliners to attack buildings I was appalled by the bald-faced lie. Everyone knows that D.C. (the Pentagon, the White House, the CIA) reads Clancy's novels, in galley form before they're published. Not only did the terrorists imagine this, Clancy wrote a remarkably similar and spectacular scenario, allowing the D.C. war-gamers to imagine yet another horrible possibility. After all, Reagan purportedly got all fired up about the Star Wars Missile Defense System after reading Clancy's RED STORM RISING. The WTC attack was not just an attack on a civilian target. Just like the Easter Egg attack depicted in the beginning of DEBT OF HONOR, the WTC attack was on an economic target for its symbolic value. DEBT OF HONOR is long, perhaps too long. But that's what you expect from a good Tom Clancy novel and this is one of his better ones. This book is definitely worth reading. Sadly, post September 11th, this is true for more reasons than just because it's a good 'ole Tom Clancy yarn.
Rating:
Summary: Enemy, Ally, or Something Else?
Review: The book Debt of Honor questions whether the Japanese accepted surrender at the end of WWII, of if it was just a retreat. Honor and Saving Face means much to the Japanese culture, and, if like in many Clancy novels, if they were pushed "one step closer", could they gain an upper hand and threaten war once again? To fully appreciate the situation in Debt of Honor, the full political and military ramificaitons of Clancy's works must have come true - ICBM nuke disarmament, and a general reduction of war forces of both sides of the eastern block and NATO. So if Japan becomes a nuclear power, and takes over Guam, could the US respond - especially if their financial situation is thrown into chaos via computer "virus" - or deliberate trap? I don't agree with several of Clancy's postulates, such as ICBM disarmement (in face of the China threat), or a President putting a member of the opposite political party in the VP slot (as happened to Jack Ryan in the book). While perhaps necessary for future novels (such as Execute Orders), Jack Ryan's accendency to the Presidency is needed, politicians and congress members would reject a VP like Jack, since he would be a heartbeat away from the top job. However, the book is a satifying work of fiction well worth the read.
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