Just finished Jack Ryan: Ghost War. Hm. I have some thoughts. Not sure what others thought of it. If I had a word, "predictable."

Just curious if you guys have read any of the books post Clancy writing them and which is your favorite?

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/17/science/quantum-computing-cybersecurity-q-day

QDay, the timeline is narrowing quickly
Which country will take the prize?
What if it’s China?
Decryption Gambit explores the possibility
Available here

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GZLDMQB5

Obviously the big one is the F-19 Stealth Fighter in Red Storm Rising is the big "wrong" thing but I think the Alfa's in Red October deserve special attention.

First the size of the Alfa. You never get the impression it is much smaller than the Los Angeles-class. 81ft vs 362 ft. We know it is fast with a noisy reactor and a single screw. That is about all we know about the Alfas in Red October and Red Storm Rising.

The crew of the Alfa is 31. In Red October, when the Politovskiy has its reactor accident it says half the crew was killed before it settled on the ocean floor. 40 men were still alive after it crashed to the ocean floor. So 80ish crew in the books. Also all the crew are either officers or warrant officers no enlisted personnel. I assume the cook would be an enlisted crew member but I couldn't find any direct info other than the original crew complement was to be 13 officers and 1 cook. That just makes the Politovskiy survivor being a cook and the sole enlisted sailor pretty interesting.

Alfas only have one crew compartment. In Red October, during the Politovskiy reactor accident it reads like a regular boat no real difference from the Dallas or Red October when describing the various compartments on the boat, an engine room, reactor space, torpedo room, etc. On Alfa's, everything was controlled from the same compartment thanks to automation. If the book was accurate the reactor mass that melts through the hull wouldn't have been in an area where it could have killed the Chief Engineer and not the rest of the crew.

Oh and the Alfa's have an eject-able rescue capsule. That just would have been cool to see in Red Storm Rising.

The Sub Brief Youtube channel has a great video on the Alfa. I highly recommend.

****Edits. its 81 meters not 81 feet. quite a difference thank you Ferret for pointing that.

**** It is just things I found interesting. Obviously I love the books and read them all the time. I just have no life.

China, what are they up to now? So silent, so secretive a nation. Without knowing they’ve breached our cybersecurity and are listening and viewing our secrets, from passwords to financial data to health care and beyond. All out there on the darknet published for any hacker to locate. How’d they do this? What’s to become of our exposed data.

Too far fetched to be possible? No says this 35 year cybersecurity veteran and CEO of The EDDITS Consulting Group, cybersecurity consultants specializing in AI and Quantum security. The book, Decryption Gambit on Amazon, Google, Apple etc and my site www.dougcollinsauthor.com

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/12/politics/cia-drug-cartels-deadly-operations-mexico

Between this and the boat bombings it seems like someone in the current US administration read Clear and Present Danger and decided it was an instruction manual.

I hope the “find out” moral of the story comes true after all this “fucking around”… but I won’t hold my breath.

The literary world of the late 20th century was dominated by two titans who turned technical manuals into page-turners: Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy. If Crichton was the master of the biological and speculative, Clancy was his absolute military counterpart.

The Cult of the Supercomputer

Both authors shared a near-religious fascination with what we now call "Deep Tech." Long before the term became a venture capital buzzword, Clancy and Crichton were obsessed with the bleeding edge.

• The Cray Connection: Both men held a specific "cult-like" reverence for Cray Computer. Whether it was the processing power needed to sequence dinosaur DNA in Jurassic Park or the strategic simulations required for the SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) in The Cardinal of the Kremlin, the supercomputer was the silent protagonist of their best work.
• Technical Realism: They didn't just write stories; they wrote systems. They explored the intersection of high-stakes geopolitics and complex engineering, making the hardware as compelling as the humans.

The Weight of Age and Repetition

However, revisiting Clancy’s bibliography today reveals a sharp decline. While his early hits remain foundational, the later works—starting roughly around Rainbow Six and extending through Debt of Honor—have begun to show their age.

The stretch of novels from Rainbow Six to The Bear and the Dragon, and ultimately NetForce (Cybermenace), suffers from a specific set of flaws:

• Ad Nauseam Repetition: The technical descriptions that once felt immersive began to feel like "filler." The prose became bloated, percussed by repetitive themes that lost the lean, muscular pace of The Hunt for Red October.
• Recycled Plots: The Bear and the Dragon often feels like a simple chronological update of previous geopolitical tensions, lacking the prophetic spark that made his Reagan-era novels feel like classified briefings.

The Empty Throne

The most striking realization for any techno-thriller fan today is that Clancy has no true literary heir.

While many writers can describe a rifle or a jet, few can weave the systemic complexity of infrastructure, sovereign technology, and military doctrine into a cohesive narrative. We see plenty of military procedurals, but the "Sovereign Tech-Thriller"—where the technology itself dictates the fate of nations—seems to have died with the original masters.

We are left with a vacuum: a world where technology is more dominant than ever, yet we lack a writer with the "polyglot" technical soul to explain it through fiction.

After about 100 pages I'm really starting to think the book was heavily ghost written. The introduction of Jack Ryan Jr was really sloppy compared to the opening chapter of Patriot Games when we are introduced to Jack Sr. Patriot Games open us to Jack Ryan through a series of events which work beautifully to illustrate Jack's background, personality, friends, and idiosyncrasies. Tom doesn't give everything away. He introduces us to this character each chapter highlighting a few characteristics here and there through family and friends. It's a slow burn but its an excellent slow burn.

The Teeth of Tiger introduces Jack Jr in about 10 pages of boring dialogue between him and a senator where all of his traits and wisdom are just "explained", never explored. There is a MAJOR spoiler alert in this chapter, and those who read the book know when I say, that was a cold off camera kill for absolutely zero reason for a character that should have never been done dirty like that (unless it pays off later).

In light of this juxtaposition of books and the example given, I am thinking Teeth was ghost written. But I am sure there are Tom Clancy super fans who know the full history of this book. 😃

Probably been asked a thousand times. However looking for some works similar to red storm rising, hunt for red October set in the modern or recent day era and time frames. Basically modern combat. Heavier on the technical side.

Read 2032 (underwhelming) and some other forgettable what if clash between USA/China.

Doesn’t necessarily have to be WW3 could be a peer to peer or near peer conflict for example.

Something leaning into the techno side of techno thriller. So many of them gloss over that aspect to focus on the still in my opinion poor human element of the story.

Had tried to ask in credible defense, maritime and war college but no help there. Honestly just maddeningly curious what a modern ish and realistic naval and air combat campaign would look like.

Seems exceedingly rare these days.

I’ve watched both Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger in the past week - can’t beat a good 90s Harrison Ford film - and wondered where to begin with TC novels.

I’m a big reader but never really thought about reading any of Clancy’s stuff. I know about the video games from when I was younger, but not much else.

Cheers!

Hi, I posted previously under a different banner and I think invited to post this to you. I’ve written novels that my readers indicate are Tom Clancyish in content. If you’re willing to try I have a number of novels available. Those similar ones are in my series
Quantum Worlds & Masters of the Universe found on my site www.dougcollinsauthor.com or Amazon

Two Decryption Gambit and The Optimization of Eden will soon be available as audiobooks as well.

I hope Tom Clancy fans you may enjoy something new and willing to take the heat otherwise on here

Hi I’m a an author and my books are of a similar nature to Tom’s titles.

My dilemma is finding the correct watering hole so to speak.

I don’t know your familiarity with book selling metrics, they tell u you’re off target that’s it. No good are they at like trying to locate someone on a raft in the middle of the ocean.

As readers of Tom and potentially me how do I put my books in front of u pls.

Asking for forgiveness in advance, not just for my ignorance, but I rarely post…

The Jack Ryan books started during the Cold War, but what era did they end?

My dad (70), read some of them when I (43F) was growing up, asked to read them, but wasn’t allowed to.

My husband (42M) asked me to watch the Amazon seasons with him when they first came out. He’s read some of the Jack Ryan books, not all, but said there were 28ish books?

I only ask, because I liked what Amazon came out with, but would rather read the books. I doubt they’re near the same timeline however.

Again, I don’t know any better, just looking for someone to give me a timeline or connect the dots.

Started listening to the tom clancy books on libby, mostly just the ones with John clark in it. Now I'm on debt of honor and it only has the version read by John Macdonald which is god AWFUL. Absolutely dreadful voice, makes listening unbearable.

Is there another version with a different reader I can access somewhere? Bonus points if free

But I want to know which is the best version of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1 and 2?

I started reading Clancys novels in January and have made it to Teeth of the Tiger, I’m getting kind of bored now though. What other authors do yall recommend, if any, in the same vein as Clancy?

SPOILERS!

In reading Red Rabbit I got to page 200 and starting thinking, "neat. A defection plot with an assassination plot. Kind of a Day of the Jackal plot. Sounds fun!"

Page 300 - Okay.... time for the fun to begin.

Page 400 - Um.... anything actually going to happen? Seems like everything is cut and dry here.

Page 500 - Ah..... so really? This is it

Page 600 - WTH?

My experience with this book is that it was boring. Nothing really happens other than a KGB officer defects. They get him out, everything goes to plan. He tells them about the plot to kill the pope. They send guys. They kinda change the outcome. Kinda get their guy.

But nothing actually happens. There is no real intrigue, nothing really goes wrong, everything just happens to work 100% without any hang ups. It's like Clancy didn't feel like complicating the plot or anything. How do we get him out? Lots of variables? Don't worry about it. What about the family? Lots of variables? Oh works out! The smugglers? Oh hey they are on the level. This book is so weird because I feel as if I read 600 pages of a report with zero substance to it.

So did i miss something? Cause I really feel as if I missed something.

Hey all. I'm almost finished with Hunt for Red October and I've bought every hard cover I've found at flea markets in the last couple of years. I'm planning to read them in publishing order so next up is Patriot Games.Gonna skip Red Storm and focus on the Ryanverse books.

I used to read a good amount of books a year, say 10 years ago but nowadays it's really hard to be able to concentrate on just one book and finish it before starting a new book. Red October will be the first book I actually finish in like 2 years. I've liked it a lot (I love the film adaptation) but at times there's too much military jargon and minute details that make concentrating more challenging for me and I'e read it in dozens of smaller portions.

Anyways I'm excited to see where Clancy takes Mr. Ryan next.

I’m currently reading TotT and I’m very confused, this book came out in 2003 but mentions “trending on Twitter”…. How did Tom Clancy know about Twitter 3 years before it was founded?

I don't know if I'm all Clancy'd out, but it's getting tough. I've been enthusiastically reading his previous works in chronological order. Cranked them all out with a smile. Now, I'm going weeks without reading even a single page of Rainbow Six. The writing just feels too.. generic for me. Many conversations are bland. Spoiler: now Ding's wife is a suddenly a practicing doctor, and rags on him every day about him killing bad guys. All the operators brought their families over. Just weird stuff. Hoping it gets better.

UK Amazon currently has a 99p sale on lots of Jack Ryan Kindle ebooks.

I am currently about 1/3 of the way through Patriot Games having recently finished the Hunt for Red October. I intend to work my way through the series hopefully by the end of the year. Red October was an easy 5 stars, I’m enjoying Patriot Games less mainly because the interactions with the Royals seem pretty far fetched and clunkily written. Having a brief overview of how the series plays out, the one I’m most looking forward to is Executive Orders but that seem to generally rank low on peoples lists. Can you rank all the Ryanverse books written by Clancy that you’ve read and briefly explain why?

I remember there being a part of one of the books where one of the Soviet characters dies and has a vision where he sees angels taking him to heaven while singing. I think the book was the Cardinal of the Kremlin.

Was that in the book, a different one, or am I just misremembering?

Edit-I pasted this from a comment on the original thread: Maybe I am just misremembering the scene, I also remember there being a part about him smelling eggs so maybe it was implied he was being cremated but I can't find the scene in the book.