The Sum of All Fears - Tom Clancy > Reviews > The Sum of All Fears, and then some

Author's product rating:   

Would you listen to it again?	Absolutely
Story	Outstanding
Characters	Outstanding
Listenability	Once you start it, you won't be able to switch it off!
How does it compare to audio works by the same author?	Very good

Advantages:	Great storyline, strong characters, tantalising
Disadvantages:	Some people get annoying

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Sum Of All Fears

Once again, this is a thrilling read from worldwide bestseller Tom Clancy. To illustrate my point, I stayed up until 2.15am to finish this book, as I couldn’t possibly put it down!

To start, I’ll give you the blurb from the back cover (or in this case, from the inside front cover, as I borrowed it from my school library and it’s a rather old copy!):

*****
As Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, Jack Ryan, first seen in The Hunt For Red October, is coming to terms with a new world order: the Cold War has vanished and the political map is being re-drawn at an alarming pace. Ryan is preparing the ground for a Middle East peace plan that finally has a chance of working -–but too many groups have invested too much blood to allow the plan to succeed. Shunned by their former Soviet sponsors and increasingly isolated by the shifting loyalties in their region, the terrorists have one final, desperate card to play, a card that requires a degree of ruthlessness never yet witnessed.

In the face of such events, Ryan is forced to confront a question he has never before imagined: what do you do if the President of the United States is incompetent to deal with the greatest crisis of all? With one terrible act, the world is plunged into nuclear crisis and brought to the brink of war. Jack Ryan and his FBI counterpart, Dan Murray, frantically seek a solution – before the heads of state lose control of themselves, and of the world…
*****

See what I mean? Doesn’t that sound gripping? It is, trust me! For those of you familiar with Tom Clancy, this book follows the mould – you will know what to expect.

For those who have never read a Clancy book before, here’s a brief overview.
Tom Clancy is a patriotic American who has great respect for the British and Russians. He is fascinated by military hardware, tactics and security.
As such, he always manages to include a military conflict in his books, and these are always described in utmost detail. There are many interesting facts peppering the text, mainly about American hardware.
He has a fascination with the Secret Service, who protect the President. They are the ultimate in paranioa.
His main character (who appears in all books except one) is Jack Ryan, a character of absolute integrity, dedicated to serving his country to the absolute best of his ability.
Clancy is very good at creating atmosphere, by his use of detail, and superb writing style. His plots are often complex, and require intellect to follow and enjoy to the full. You also need a basic background knowledge to gain full satisfaction from these books, although they often manage to teach you themselves.

Anyway, that’s Clancy, and his general style. Needless to say being a bestselling author, nearly all of his books going to number one, he is quite good at what he does.

On with the actual book. In the ‘series’ which Clancy has written, this books is placed between Clear And Present Danger and Without Remorse. This means that most of the characters in the book will have been met before if you are reading the books in order. The main characters are the following:

Jack Ryan
Always a key player. He is 110% devoted to his country, often clashing personalities with important people, but he doesn’t care, because he is serving the country. He is completely selfless, and always wants to be ‘just a normal person’. He used to be a Lieutenant in the Marine Corps before he broke his back falling out of a helicopter (hence his fear of flying) then became a trader on the stock market, making himself a vast personal fortune and therfore making him independent from the pay from his job. He then became a Naval History teacher at Annapolis Naval Institute. Then he was asked by CIA to do a few analyses for them, leading to his appointment as Special Assistant to the DDI (Deputy Director of Intelligence). He then became deputy DDI, and then DDI when the then DDI James Greer died. Then he became Deputy Director of Intelligence, where he is in this book. I won’t spoil any future books, but let’s just say he keeps on progressing on and on…
So that’s Jack Ryan. Quite a varied person really!

The Ryan Family
Cathy Ryan, Jack’s wife, is an eye surgeon, and just about as perfect as her husband.
Sally and Little Jack are their two children.

John Clark
A mean fighting machine. He’s served countless jobs for CIA as a man with no face who does all the jobs that are extremely dangerous and bordering on illegal. He’s getting on a bit but he’s still hard as nails and scares the crap out of anyone he meets. In this book, he’s a bodyguard to Ryan.

Domingo ‘Ding’ Chavez
Another CIA guy like Clark, only younger. He’s Latino, so a fiery temper and an accent is really all that distinguishes him from Clark.

Roger Durling
He is the Vice President. He plays a small part in this book, but he likes and listens to Ryan.

Robert Fowler
The President of the United States (or POTUS as Clancy likes to call him.. often). He’s a big headed, know-it-all kinda guy. I guess he means well but Clancy portrays him in a way to make you hate him.

Elizabeth Elliot
National Security Advisor to the President (and a little more as it turns out). She’s had a run in with Ryan before and hates his guts. She’s a complete bitch and Clancy makes you hate her even more.

Dan Murray
Ryan’s counterpart at FBI. He’s always described as ‘an honest cop’ and that’s what he is. He’s practically a twin to Ryan.

Sergey Golovko
Ryan’s counterpart in the Russian KGB – Sergey is another honest guy, in a dangerous kind of way. He’s very intelligent and respectful of Ryan. He’s the voice of reason in Russia.

Andrey I’llch Narmonov
Russian President. Supported by the west in his role of ending communism and bringing about world peace.

Ismael Qati
A muslim terrorist, with a deep seated hate of americans. Sound familiar? Tom Clancy has written some stuff that has become very scary recently.

Ibrahim Ghosn
Another muslim terrorist, with a knowledge of bombs, as becomes important.

Marvin Russell
An indian american who hates the white americans.

Bock
A german terrorist.

Well, those are the characters – of course there are many more, but these are the main players. Clancy’s typical style is to have several different plots going at once, and these typically all come together in the climax at the end.

The book is about what it says in the blurb. Basically it starts with an incident in the real life 1973 Middle East War.
At one point the Israelis go to a nuclear alert. By a series of mistakes, when the alert is stood down from, a nuke is left on an aeroplane. When the jet is shot down the bomb is lost in enemy territory, where it remains for a while.
At some not too distant point in Clancy’s imaginary future, the bomb is recovered by terrorists. A peace treaty in the Middle East largely instigated by the Americans (i.e Jack Ryan) creates a lot of ill-feeling towards the americans, and the muslim terrorist group who recovers the bomb enlist the help of german and indian american terrorists.

***** Warning *****
I’m about to give away a large part of the plot. If you don’t want to read it, skip to the row of stars below:

Eventually the bomb is smuggled into the US and exploded. As expected, a serious situation develops when the American president stops thinking rationally. The russians are implicated, and the buildup is incredibly tense. A few military skirmishes ensue and heighten the danger. This is where Clancy is at his best, creating stunning atmosphere.

************************************************************

Okay, there’s the plot.

Here are my gripes with Clancy’s writing style:
His characters can get VERY annoying. Such as the amount of times Jack Ryan tells everyone that he has killed to protect his family, and that he hated doing it. Such as the way Ding Chavez has a vocabulary of about 2 words.
They’re a bit predictable in the short run, i.e you can work out what will happen on the next page.
Having said that, you can’t predict more than a couple of pages into the future. He is brilliant at tantalising the reader.

I guess all that’s left to say is how much I enjoyed the book. I found it absolutely fantastic. I admit I am a huge fan of Clancy and he and I are two of a kind, we are both fascinated by military technology. He completely satisfies my desire, and his recounts are completely plausible. It’s terrible to say, but the current situation in the world is remarkably similar to some of his work.
Debt of Honour ends with an aircraft being deliberatly flown into Capitol Hill by a terrorist. If that isn’t scary, I don’t know what is.

Hope you enjoyed reading this 
O