Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good
Review: The best thing about this book is the interweaving plot lines. You never know when one of them is going to come to fruition. Any other writer would be happy to simply say 'they hit something', but Clancy actually tells us how what they hit came to be there. I liked the way he switched between the day to day lives of the American characters and the bomb-building of the terrorists. It really brings home to you just how much could be going on that we don't know about. The characters, too, are convincing an real. Several times I wished I could step into the book and throttle Liz Elliot - and I even felt pangs of sympathy when some of the villains were killed - that's how good the characters were.I would most definitely recommend this book as a second Clancy - after Red October.
Rating:
Summary: Long, but definitely exciting!
Review: "Sum of All Fears" is definitely a techno-thriller must-read. The immense detail of the whole book (the building of the bomb, operations of the "Maine", and the detonation of the bomb) is fabulous. The only flaw is how the book is somewhat long-winded. The plot was interesting, and, fortunately, that kept me reading, but if it hadn't have been, then I'd have been skipping big time. Aside from that, "Sum of All Fears" is exciting reading, especially at the end, and anybody who appreciates a good thriller will enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Master of prose still beset by Ryan worship
Review: Clancy proves he is still a master of prose, especially when it comes to battle, espionage, and technical details. However, this book also shows a glaring weakness carried over from his previous books - Ryan worship. It's somewhat nauseating how Ryan's friends and enemies alike are constantly complimenting him in one way or another. Their generous estimates of him are generally obseqious and ham-handed. More subtlety would be in order here. Another weakness - the occasional thoughts in italics, which sometimes sound too forced. Apart from that, the storytelling is gripping; his seemingly effortless recounting of the narrowly failed attack on Israel, for example, evokes heroism, bravery, courage, and miracle. His explanations of such intricacies as the fabrication of a nuclear weapon are immensely readable. If only the characterizations were better done!
Rating: 
Summary: Takes Too Long
Review: Really exciting ending. But getting there is a real chore. Mind numbing detail about uninteresting plot twists. The book should have been about half the length.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: One of the most gripping novels I have ever written! Although rather lenghty, the pages are wonderfully filled with some of Clancy's most amazingly detailed plot and descriptive scenes. Especially interesting was the obvious in depth atomic bomb research done by the author. This book was somthing I could see happening today, much less in the earlier part of this decade. A frighting and intense last hundred pages, this book will hold you raptly on the edge of your seat and will not let you go!
Rating:
Summary: Tom Clancy hits the nail right on the head.
Review: What are the chances of Third World terrorists getting a nuclear bomb? Slim to none? I doubt it. I'm no expert but from what I've heard, it's very easy. Remember the Sarin nerve gas that was set off in the Tokyo subway system? How about the fertilizer bombs that were used against the World Trade Center and the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City? What if they'd been nuclear bombs? With the Internet, it's very easy to get what you need to know about making bombs. I don't care if they're nuclear or conventional. A bomb is a coward's way of making a statement. Let's take a look at this hypothetical situation that Clancy has put before us. The Cold War is over. Ryan is DDI, the post held by his predecessor and mentor, the late Admiral James Greer. His boss, Marcus Cabot, is a lazy, incompetent bum who was appointed by J. Robert Fowler, the new President of the United States, who's a mean, petty, vindictive, and small man. Fowler's National Security Adviser, Charles Alden, Ryan, and Father Timothy O'Reilly, SJ, are sitting in a room in a private club. Ryan mentions the Middle East and how peace would be served if Jerusalem was treated more like the holy city that it is and how it would be better if the three religions had a hand in running it. That's the catalyst for the plot to use a recently discovered Israeli nuclear bomb against the United States. The dye is cast when an Israeli policeman, under the influence of a fundamentalist rabbi not unlike the late Meir Kahane, fires into Palestian demonstrators who are marching on the Temple Mount singing the anthem of the U.S. Civil Rights movement. The first bad penny who'll turn up again in later Clancy books is introduced here. He's the Ayatollah Mahmoud Haji Daraeyi, who hates the Ryan peace plan. Ismael Qati, and his partners in crime, Gunther Bock, Ibrahim Ghosn, and Marvin Russell, a member of AIM, the American Indian Movement, find the bomb in the field of a character simply identified as the Druse Farmer. Qati and Bock, whose wife Petra, committed suicide in a German prison, hire Dr. Manfred Fromm, a former East German nuclear physicist, to rebuild the bomb. After the bomb's completed, Fromm and the others are killed. Russell's kept alive because he has to show Qati and Ghosn where to go. The minute they reach Denver, they kill him. The bomb goes off just as the Super Bowl's about to begin. Ryan and Cathy go to a state dinner for the President of Germany and Cathy confronts Liz Elliot, Fowler's new National Security Adviser and lover, who'd launched a dirty tricks campaign against Ryan. Elliot's burned by Bob Holtzman, a White House correspondent for the Washington Post, with his wife, Libby. The Holtzmans are surprised by Cathy's confrontation with Liz Elliot. Libby's amazed. The Ryans leave after Cathy feigns a headache. By the end of the book,Clark and Chavez capture Qati and Ghosn. Ryan now a private citizen, is on hand for the executions of Qati and Ghosn. After the execution, Prince Ali of Saudi Arabia presents Ryan with the sword that beheaded them. Its name is The Breeze of Evening. Ryan confronts Daryaei and confirms what had been suspected. That Daryaei wanted a war with the United States and that he wanted a nuclear missile to land on Qum, Iran's holiest city. Ryan paraphrases the Koran and says that Russell was a guest in his camp and that he'd violated his religion's laws on hospitality. Ryan and Durling had forced Fowler to resign and Durling became President.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely terrifying and brilliant
Review: By far Tom Clancy`s best Jack Ryan novel. The plot is highly convincing and too feasible for comfort. The message here is that nobody is immune from either terrorism or sleaze allegations, (that being the case of Cathy) - I was praying she wouldn`t walk out on him! Elizabeth Elliot is an inspired yet utterly dislikeable badmouth. The scenes involving the destruction of the Superbowl, President Fowler`s incompetence(also quite realistic in today`s climate) and the world heading faster than a bullet train towards nuclear war are simply compulsive reading. The military scenes, are, of course, unsurpassable in their brilliance. For those who have not read Clancy yet, this one is an ideal intorduction to his inimitable style of writing and intricate plotting.
Rating:
Summary: Sum of All Fears was a great book
Review: In "Sum of all Fears", an Israeli nuclear bomb was lost when one of its combat jets crashed in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Some mid-east terrorists gain control of the bomb and plan to nuke the super bowl. What happens after the super bowl 'incident" is pretty interesting. The president of the United States mistakes it for an act of war by the then Soviet Union. Things get a little interesting...
Rating:
Summary: So many subplots! Clancy is a master story weaver.
Review: Get your tablet and pen ready! You'll want to keep track of all the characters,.. and there are quite a few. Clancy colors espionage with grit and realism without spoiling our fantasy for hero and rescuer, Jack Ryan.<PB>You may snore through the technical text, but it's spiced generously with predictable yet yummy character development.<PB>In this saga our hero faces excruciating personal crisis at every turn, so you'll see the other characters dodging most of the bullets and missiles this time.<PB>"Sum of All Fears" gives us a fallible yet becoming Jack Ryan
Rating:
Summary: A thrilling, real page-turner book!!
Review: When the movie The Hunt for the Red October was shown in my country, Brazil, I thought "Man, the guy who wrote this book is a genius!". Then I started to look for Clancy's books on the bookstores shelves, and I found that he's more than a genius. No one else in the world can write this kind of book better than him. And "The Sum of All Fears" is here to prove what I'm saying: it's the kind of book that you just can't stop reading. Once you started, you won't want to do anything else than reading it, if you know what I mean... The last chapters alone are worth its price, and if you like Clancy's books but you haven't read this one yet, I have to ask you: what is taking you so long? If you read "The Cardinal of the Kremlin" and "Clear and Present Danger", you shouldn't miss this: it's Clancy at his best, as never seen before. Here you'll see our hero, Jack Ryan, as the Vice-Director of the CIA, going against some politicians and even the President of the USA to avoid a nuclear war
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