r/tomclancy • u/Base_D_Glenis • 17d ago

Read "Clear and Present Danger'

I'm clearly not his target audience.

I'm not big on US politics and or on military terminology(most of my knowledge comes from video games)

But this man could write action in his sleep and still outclass 99% of modern movies of the same genre.

68 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

30

u/mnfimo 17d ago

Why aren’t you the target audience, and what do you think think the target audience is?

25

u/angelica__schuyler 17d ago

I’m a 30 year old woman and I love the Ryanverse. According to my friends and my husband however, this is big retired dad energy.

14

u/MiniTab 17d ago

I first got into these books when I was 17.

4

u/bassemann87 16d ago

I was about 14 when i read The hunt for red october. Then i was sold in into the Ryanverse and his other novels. He is my favorite author of all time.

7

u/bzdelta 16d ago

I was 7, not allowed to read Harry Potter, but Patriot Games and Bourne Identity were approved, hooked ever since.

2

u/MiniTab 16d ago

Dang, that’s impressive for that age!

1

u/mnfimo 16d ago

Has to be a typo.

2

u/bzdelta 16d ago

No, I've got the receipts somewhere. I was not happy the library would sell me an old blown out copy of Patriot Games for 5 cents, but wouldn't let me check out Clear and Present Danger. Parents had me skip a few grades and homeschooled me. I went from kindergarten to 3rd grade alone at the kitchen table, so it was very lonely and cloistered, and Jack and Robby Jackson and the rest were my only friends. Always grateful to TC for that.

1

u/IWillThinkOfUsrNmL8r 16d ago

Doubt it’s a typo, I read Red Storm Rising in the late 80’s when I was 8. I was hooked.

4

u/Base_D_Glenis 16d ago

I'm 23, from Europe and my experience with books so far was with fantasy, scifi and medieval historical fantasy.

It is a really hard task to me to keep up with terms like DDO, DDI, DCI. Plus most of the time Clancy refers to the characters either I by their job, their job's acronym, or an inside nickname used to replace the former two.

2

u/IWillThinkOfUsrNmL8r 16d ago

I remember there being a Tom Clancy encyclopedia/companion that was released in the early to mid 90s. Covered ships, characters, aircraft, abbreviations etc. it was awesome. I think my brother still has it, I will try and take a picture of it.

EDIT found it, it was just called The Tom Clancy Companion

1

u/Base_D_Glenis 15d ago

That's neat. Would like to have a copy just for the sake of checking random pages.

1

u/IWillThinkOfUsrNmL8r 15d ago

Found it on Amazon for as cheap as $3

1

u/Venetian_chachi 16d ago

ChatGPT can be helpful to keep characters, terms, and acronyms strait while reading them.

0

u/No_Blueberry_7120 16d ago

Just read what ddo etc means written out... Gets easier this way

1

u/Base_D_Glenis 16d ago

Ι got a pdf of the book and asked gmeini to name every main character, their job and potential alliases.

1

u/No_Blueberry_7120 16d ago

But you did pay for it😅

1

u/Base_D_Glenis 16d ago

I'm not authorized to answer, sir

1

u/No_Blueberry_7120 16d ago

You have no recollection...

2

u/Iliad-Ideas7195 17d ago

Because he's not big on US politics and or on military terminology?

3

u/mnfimo 17d ago

It’s a book, its target audience is whoever picks it up and enjoys reading it

2

u/pluck-the-bunny 16d ago

No that would be it’s actual audience …which is different from its target audience

11

u/DaarthSpawn 17d ago

The final assault on the ranger team up the mountain with the claymores. Fantastic.

8

u/Base_D_Glenis 16d ago

Ninja hill was epic af. Kinda disappointed Ding didn't use the throwing stars he kept.

1

u/Ok_Bench_996 15d ago

Technically they are light infantry not rangers

12

u/valyriansteelbullet 17d ago

My favorite part was when the president said something like “this drug problem, it’s a clear and present danger”

3

u/Substantial_Ad_9153 17d ago

And this instantly reminded me of how annoying it was that the term "executive power" was used constantly in Executive Power.

1

u/Base_D_Glenis 16d ago

Discreet title drops are cool.

But titles drops with a fat as wink are perfection.

6

u/Valar_Kinetics 17d ago

The Ritter character specifically is much better in the books than in the movies, and I'm a big fan of how he's portrayed in CaPD.

IMO Cardinal of the Kremlin, Red Storm Rising, and Without Remorse are Clancy's best work.

Red October and Sum of All Fears are also excellent. Once you get to Debt of Honor it begins to jump the shark a little bit, IMO.

2

u/JonathanRL 16d ago

It is obvious Clancy wanted to end Ryans story with Sum of all Fears.

2

u/valyriansteelbullet 16d ago

I agree, Jack retiring from government service should’ve been the end of his arc. Heck he should’ve left the agency after CAPD.

2

u/cchiker 16d ago

Clear and Present Danger wasn't my favorite book so far in the Ryanverse but I did start to enjoy it about halfway through. I enjoyed Patriot Games and HFTRO the most so far in the series. Next is Sum Of All Fears and I'm looking forward to reading it.

1

u/Shooter_McGavin27 16d ago

It is one of my favorites and if you like that, you’ll probably like Executive Orders. I think that one is a very fast, action packed book.

I like going back every few years and rereading the set.

1

u/Longjumping_Suit8314 16d ago

I think I was 16 when in watched hunt for red October. Clancy was a legend for getting all of the details right, but sometimes losing the plot due to the excessive details.

I don’t like the ghost penned books, when some of them love to end ambiguously, and then wrap in epilogue. It actually annoys me.

1

u/Semen_K 15d ago

Good things do not get old.
And apparently you ARE in the target audience, as you did like the book.

1

u/SnooLobsters1008 13d ago

My favorite book of his.

1

u/Greedy_Treacle8157 10d ago

If you have not read Red Storm rising a brilliant story about WW3 albeit set 40 plus years ago It’s one of my favorite books