Rating: 
Summary: A great story that keeps you hooked
Review: Tom Clancy's "The Sum of All Fears" is one great book. This book follows "Clear and Present Danger," which was spectacular, and this one is almost as good, if not better. The story is very technical at parts, but it's about nuclear weapons, so it's actually pretty interesting, and it's also pretty important to the story. Clancy does a good job at creating those bad government officials who set Jack Ryan up with a sex scandal in order to get him out of his job. In the meantime, some terrorists recover a lost Israeli nuclear bomb and rebuild it, planning a dreadful attack against the U.S. The action in this book is excellent, and the story is pretty emotional at times, and it's one of the absolute best that Tom Clancy has written. It may take a little while to get through, but read it, because it's definitely worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: The start of Clancy's downward slide
Review: This book was, for me, the starting point from which Tom Clancy began his decline as a writer. It was also the last Clancy book I actually paid money for (I got a couple later ones as gifts, and checked out the rest from the library). My biggest complaint is that this is where his hero, Jack Ryan, makes his transition from resourceful and brave CIA operative to superhuman Saviour of the World. In short, he goes from being a genuinely credible character to one that belongs in a comic book. Don't believe me? Just look at all the world crises he single handedly solves in this (and later) books. For starters, he magically cooks up a plan that will permanently bring peace and stability to the Middle East, a task that has, to date, eluded countless diplomats and any number of US presidents and Israeli Prime Ministers. But not Jack Ryan, nosiree Bob, with a few phone calls and some help from the Vatican, he gets everything solved over there, and that's just in the first quarter of the book! He still has some 600+ pages to Save the World from nuclear holocaust, which of course he proceeds to do despite a terrorist atomic attack on the Super Bowl, a president who doesn't trust him, a National Security Advisor who hates his guts and plots his downfall, a wife who's starting to suspect him of cheating, and, on a personal level, a bit too much reliance on the bottle to deal with stress. OK, to be fair, a certain simplicity in terms of plot and character development is pretty much a Clancy forte, and he does at least provide us with a highly entertaining page-turner. And my objection to this book would have been lessened had he not followed it up by promoting Ryan on to ever bigger and more important jobs, culminating with his getting the world's top job (the presidency) a couple books later. Ryan is at his best solving more manageable problems, as he did in "Red October" or "Cardinal of the Kremlin", but he is far less interesting as a world power broker who seems to be able to solve any crisis, no matter how terrifying, with nearly as much ease as Superman leaping a tall building. The "problems" that Jack encounters are all solved in a fairly simplistic fashion, his personal driver (John Clark) saves his marriage by giving his wife the truth about the alleged affair, she then goes on the publicly humiliate the National Security Advisor who'd promoted the cheating rumors, and Jack eases off on the sauce just in time to intervene in a potential nuclear crisis by personally making contact with the Soviet leader and defusing tensions that had been built up by the incompetent president who's been giving way too much credence to the aforementioned National Security Advisor, a woman way out of her depth. And, as if that weren't enough, noble Jack intervenes when the president prepares to launch a nuclear attack to avenge the Super Bowl bombing. To "sum" it up, this book delivers the goods in terms of entertainment value, but does little else. And Clancy's books from here on merely continue that pattern. What made his earlier books work was that he seemed to genuinely take his plots and characters seriously, whether it was the machinations of mad Irish terrorists, the efforts of a revered Soviet sub captain to defect with the latest, most potent missile boat, or a rather convoluted war in Latin America against the drug barons. He made the people and the situations seem alive and real. But from this point on, he chose to indulge in ever more grandiose tales that are the literary equivalent to big budget action and special effects laden Hollywood blockbusters.
Rating:
Summary: Moves Fast
Review: A great job by the author. I am finding that I enjoy this period of his fiction-writing better then the newer stuff with my favorite character Jack Ryan the president. As always there is a great deal of detail that does as much to teach you about the weapons used and groups of people involved. I know that a few of my friends do not always appreciate the large amount of lead in time to the main event that Clancy always uses in his work, but for me that is actually one of the drawing points. Given the current world situation post 9/11 a book like this does cause some concern. I would be surprised if it is not made into a movie. If you like Clancy fiction then you will enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Even moreso now!
Review: Particularly since September 11 2001, the thought of a nuclear weapon landing in the hands of a fanatical and irresponsible terrorist organization or 3rd world country has been a sobering and hideous thought. Sadly, it is nowadays a far more realistic scenario than it was when this book was written. In the story, Clancy brings back his C.I.A. hero Jack Ryan for one last hurrah. In this case, it's the biggest "hurrah" of Ryan's career, as his mission is nothing short of saving the planet. Some nasty Arab terrorists have in mind to blow up the Superbowl with the efficacy of starting World War III (believing the U.S. would automatically think it was under attack by the Soviet Union and "counter-attack", which would leave the Soviet Union no choice but to.........well, you know). Ryan is the one person who stands a chance to foil the plan of the terrorists. As is the case with other Clancy novels, the author's knowledge of military technology is uncanny. Moreover, his books point out some of the idiosyncrasies of military life, such as the general degree of animosity that exists between officers & enlisted men. Supposedly, Clancy developed a lot of his ideas on these accurate portrayals in his novels by hanging out at the bars outside of Pax River naval station & discoursing with the enlisted sailors. Nevertheless, I have difficulty believing that Clancy was never in the armed services himself. His stories are just SO real. Being a former Navy man myself, I find the degree of authenticity in his books very refreshing. If you're a fan of Tom Clancy, military novels, or thinking about the unthinkable, here is a book for you. Is a nice combination of cloak-and-daggar C.I.A. work and military espionage. It is also worth mentioning that Congress has called into question whether or not classified information re: advanced hardware and the techniques of spy games were somehow leaked to Clancy. [For the record, Clancy claims that all information in his books may be found on the internet and in books]. Suffice to say, one does not have to worry about lack of realism being an issue when Congress finds it incumbent upon them to summon him for questioning.
Rating:
Summary: Some people are just more active than others.
Review: You'd think that after saving his family from a terrorist organization, and then bringing it crashing down (Patriot Games), or convincing the command of the United States that a supersecret russian sub was defecting, (The Hunt for Red October), or helping to bring forth the Star Wars missile defense system (The Cardinal of the Kremlin), or bringing down a columbian drug cartel (Clear and Present Danger) Jack Ryan would have some peace to himself. That won't be the case. Islamic terrorists have found a nuclear bomb from the 1967 Israeli-Syrian war. Peace finally comes about in the Middle East. And Jack's falling apart. In the White House, the President's National Security Advisor is also his new lover. Her name is Liz Elliot, and she has a grudge against Ryan. Jack's having trouble with alcohol. And Elliot capitalizes. Old stories from Clear and Present Danger (Buck Zimmer) appear. Jack helps out Zimmer's family, and Elliot finds this data. Accusing Ryan of cheating, in all but name, adds another problem to Jack's already full plate. If you like old grudges, high-tech terrorism, and two nations at the brink of war, you're gonna love this book.
Rating:
Summary: Sum of All Fears - both national and personal
Review: In Clancy's Sum of All Fears, Jack Ryan takes center stage again as he faces dangers from enemies both abroad and at home. Middle East terrorists discover nuclear material from an unexploded Israeli bomb and convert it to a thermonuclear device. The Japanese play fast and loose with trade laws. The East Germans may have lost some nuclear material when the country's Communist goverment collapsed. The Russians appear to have a crisis of leadership. Jack Ryan brings peace to the Middle East on a religious, not political basis, earning the respect of those who know what he did, the contempt of those who know, but want the credit for themselves. The new National Security Advisor is more than an advisor to the President. She attempts to destroy Ryan through others. And when a nuclear device fizzles at the Super Bowl, Ryan must discover the perpetrators, or watch as the President launches a full-scale nuclear war. It is Ryan against all comers in a page-turning thriller. The first time I read this book, it cost me a night's sleep. The second time wasn't much better...and even after repeated readings, it is a book that compels the reader to keep moving.
Rating: 
Summary: Long winded but great.
Review: I Listen to the CD Audio of this book, it was read very well, but the only problem is that it was looooong and borning until the last two CDs in a 5 CD set! What next it a blurp on the up coming movie. From various internet sorces the movie will be relased on May 31st, straring Ben Affleck(Afleck? No body's perfect.) as a young Jack Ryan, no kids, and had just met Caroline. Morgan Freeman plays Jack's mentore, a completely new charaticer. And that guy from the Scream Moives, Liev Schreiber, is John Clark! I thought the Will Dafoe played a great Clark and nobody can beat Ford. I fear that this movie will bomb and destory the Jack Rayn francise
Rating:
Summary: The Sum of All Fears - aptly named
Review: This is another example of Tom Clancy's talent to be able to develop a complex and classified subject into a gripping scenario that the average citizen should be able to comprehend. His task in this book is to demonstrate how nuclear weapons are created and how they may be deployed, and in this respect, it is worth reading the book if only for the appendix, which is written to encapsulate Clancy's experiences in gathering the material necessary to accurately (within secure reason) describe the functionality of the weapon, along with its vulnerabilities. ... Clancy has been accused of being a conduit of plausible deniability for national security interests, able to present in an open forum those topics and that information which cannot be discussed by any spokesman of the government. This book only increases the plausibility of the rumor.
Rating:
Summary: Very timely (2001)
Review: Given the current world situation (2001), I found the bombmaking stuff to be the most interesting. In an afterword, Clancy declares nuclear energy to be both safe and environmentally benign. Nuclear waste, however, is neither. We need to seek out clean alternative energy sources and peaceful means of ending conflict.
Rating:
Summary: Not His Best
Review: There are several things that Tom Clancy does well, and several that he does rather badly. All of them come together in this book. The plot is a believable account of nuclear terrorism in the US, which, put together with the larger story of Mideast tensions, is an engaging read. However, Tom Clancy had better steer away from his attempts to do love scenes. They are stomach-churningly rendered, and they do nothing to advance the plot. Number two, and just as disturbing, is the attempt to re-make the character of John Clark. He attempts to give Clark a human face, but I feel he goes overboard in re-making him to be - in his own words - a teddybear. That is not Clark's role in these novels, and comes out badly. All in all, have a little patience for the slower parts in the middle of this book. Patience for the irrelevant segments - all the submarine sequences and an inexplicable sub-plot involving a felled redwood and a Japanese temple. Pretty decent fun.
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