Rating: 
Summary: A Slow Start That Builds
Review: 'The Sum of All Fears' starts off rather slowly. The beginning deals with Jack Ryan's headaches as the number two man in the CIA and waging political battles with the President and members of his cabinet. Meanwhile, around the world, communist-arab-native American terrorists recieve manna from heaven- an atomic bomb. While most of the novel deals with preparing the bomb and Ryan's own personal and proffesional problems, The last two hundred pages are among the most thrilling ever written. The terrorists' atomic bomb is only the begginning of a much larger plan to bring the world, not just the USA, to it's knees. The payoff of this novel makes the whole thing worth while. In addition it acts almost as a manual for creating your own atomic weapons, should the need arise.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: This is a great book. Yes, the first couple hundred pages are a little slow but are interesting, and every page is essential to the climax. Once you get to the start of the climax which is with about 350 pages left it is very hard to put the book down. The plot of the book is basic. A group of terrorists come across a old nuclear weaopon, and over the coarse of the first couple hundred pages they fix it up, and make it more powerful. They then plan to blow up the Super Bowl. And I will tell you that they succeed with well over a hundred thousand people killed, and I tell you this because it is not any where near the end and is by no means the climax. The climax is all a result of the nuclear bomb going off, and the US thinking Russia did it, which all leads to a tense showdown. The only thing wrong with this book is that The Minnesota Vikings are my favorite football team, and when they finally reach the Super Bowl,after all these years they are all killed, and even though it is only a book it really made me sad that they were nuked with the rest of Denver, CO Overal a great book.
Rating:
Summary: A very good read, if you up to it.
Review: Okay, it's time for me to confess. Until I picked up this book at a local store, I had no idea who Tom Clancy was. I had the book in my hand, and a guy standing next to me told me to buy it, so I did. Admittedly, this is not the book in the Jack Ryan series I should have started with, but I did enjoy it. It took me several chapters to fully appreciate Clancy's detail to character development, but once each of the characters began to interact I was impressed with the way he pulled every thread together in a very neatly woven story. The story itself is a good one. Once the action starts to roll you will have a hard time putting this book down. Clancy covers every piece of action with great detail, and gives the reader just enough information to the keep them interested, without giving away the surprises. As I said before this was the first Tom Clancy book I had ever read, so I was a bit lost when it came to the background on many of the central characters. The John Clark character intrigued me, and continues to through all of the Clancy novels in which he appears. I do recommend this book to anyone, but if this will be your first Clancy book, you should really try an earlier work first. Tom Clancy is a very detail oriented writer, and at times it can be tedious to read, but I assure you that it is all-essential to the story he is trying to tell. If you have already read some of his work then pick this one up, if not try something like "The Cardinal of the Kremlin" or "Patriot Games".
Rating: 
Summary: Too Many Plot Lines; Not Enough Direction
Review: This book has too many plot lines going on at once. The only one worth reading is the one about a revolutionary group who uses a nuclear warhead to destroy the football stadium the Super Bowl is played in. The other plot lines are extremely boring and have no relevance to the one about the revoluionary group. You should only read that one plot line and skip everything else.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy is in fine form...
Review: I think Clancy books fall into two tiers, really good and just so-so - but this book certainly falls into the former as Clancy is at the top of his game on this one. This book relates an almost nightmareish scenario in the post-cold war world - terrorists obtain a working nuclear weapon and are quite willing to use it. Somehow, Ryan must not only weather this crisis for himself, but also must be the force that ensures that the President and his National Security Advisor, who turn out to be quite incapable of handling it on their own, do the right thing. Interestingly, in some sense this book does not have a lot of suspense - the main event is pretty much obvious from the get-go, but at the same time the journey is the reward here, as Clancy delicately puts all the pieces in place and fills in all the details. And, the aftermath of the main event is very well executed right up to what is really the true climax of the book, Ryan's confrontation with the President. The subtleties in the plot are very well done. For example, towards the begining of the book, a seemingly insignificant event occurs - that of a log falling off a cargo ship in the Pacific ocean. As the book progresses, Clancy returns to the log a few times to chart its progress as it floats through the sea. Its not until near the end of the book that the true significance of this event becomes clear, and this apparently insignificant log which fell off the ship nearly leads to an all out nuclear exchange between the US and the Russians. Also noteworthy is the fact that for the first time in a Clancy book, Jack Ryan is portrayed as someone who is neither perfect nor infalible. Faced with much stress, Ryan's appetite for alchohol increases while his fuse shortens quite a bit. In the end, its Mr. Clark and Cathy Ryan who save Jack, who in turn saves the day.
Rating:
Summary: A Nailbiter!
Review: This book was without question,exciting. This book allowed Tom Clancy to showcase one of his best characters,Jack Ryan. Terrorists gaining possesion of a nuclear bomb and then detonating it at the Superbowl in Denver. The ultimate horror story.To top this off Ryan has to battle interference from within the cabinet. This book made Ryan one of Tom Clancy's all time heroes. Through the skills of Jack Ryan the forces of evil are defeated. A very good read.
Rating:
Summary: Another stellar job
Review: The Sum of All Fears rates up there in my top ten list of all time favorites. I have read very few books that beg to be read again and again. This, however, is one of them. In true Clancy style, he is able to tie together many subplots in a way that is unpredictable, exciting, and keeps the reader off balance. This is truly one of his best. If you haven't read Clancy, or are a little intimidated by the sheer size of his books, stop waiting and jump into the fray. I gaurantee you will not be disappointed. Thanks Mr. Clancy
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: this book was great but the only problem was that it was a bit confusing at times.
Rating:
Summary: My god it is long!
Review: This is a very good book, with an interesting plot and good character developement. The only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars is the sheer length of it. You can read this book till your nose starts to bleed and only be a quarter of the way through it. The sequence where he describes the nuclear detonation is a good example. By the end of the book I found myself just skipping page after page of meaningless text to find out what happens in the end.
Rating:
Summary: Slow at first, but what a finish!
Review: As books of this genre go, this book is great! Compared to some of Tom Clancy's other books, this book is ok. To start, this book is looonnnggg. Over 800 pages if I remember. Many of these pages decribe how an atomic bomb is made and how they work. I found this interesting, but other people I know who read it got bored. Also, two of the characters are difficult to distiguish. I found this annoying. With all of these flaws you might wonder why I gave it such a hight rating, well that is because I haven't talked about the ending. The ending is fast paced and non stop. It took me forever to get throught the first three quarters of the book. But I think I read the last quarter in less than a day. I couldn't put it down. So if you buy this book, stick with it. You will be glad that you did.
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