Hunt for Red October
The book that I though I was getting and as I thought was being advertised, was to be signed by Tom Clancy. What I got was a new, just released version.
Amazing tech thriller
The Hunt for Red October is a fast paced tech-thriller from the mastermind of Tom Clancy. It a very exciting read that often feels too real for the reader's own good- you almost feel as if you're reading some sort of top secret file that you somehow picked up by mistake. In that lies the magic of Tom Clancy's thrillers: it's all in their believability.
The plot revolves around Tom Clancy's signature character, CIA pencil pusher Jack Ryan, as he attempts to assist a Russian submarine captain - Captain Marko Ramius- who along with a group of his personally selected officers wishes to defect to the United States, bringing with them the latest vessel in the Soviet Navy, a nuclear submarine with a new propulsion system known as Red October. It becomes a race against the clock as American and British naval forces compete with the Russian navy to see who can apprehend the super-sub.
This is a book that will keep you interested from beginning to end and has enough details to feel believable without ever getting boring. Clancy knew how to keep his story interesting and he never seems to steer away from the exciting core of his story.
P.S.: The exciting movie adaptation is also worth checking out.
Desperately Needs an Editor
I enjoyed the overall plot and Jack Ryan's character; they were the only elements that kept me dedicated to completing the novel. Clancy could have edited 40% of the text out and had a much better story. This novel is bogged down with irrelevant character descriptions, military acronyms, tedious sub-plots, and background stories that have nothing to contribute to the novel's overall focus. I found myself constantly frustrated with the monotonous length it took to cover simple plot points. Clancy obviously has a huge audience; however, he needs an effective editor. This novel is a very slow read.
One of Clancy's best books
The Hunt for Red October is a good novel for so many reasons. It's about a Russian nuclear submarine which implements a new technology called the "caterpillar drive" which makes this particular sub very difficult to track by radar. The famous fictional CIA operative Jack Ryan deduces that the Russian captain intends to defect to the United States because the power of this submarine shifts the balance of the Cold War too dramatically which could lead to apocalypse. What I like is how Clancy's book is not entirely fiction, he is a military "insider" and there is some truth to this story, and even if most of it is "made up" it's still very realistic, because what takes place is probably what "would have happened" had the scenarios been in place. This is a good book, good character development, good espionage, and it's exciting at times. Nothing against Clancy or the book, but the movie was even better. Yes, this is a rare case that the film was even better than the book, so read it and also see the film!
The standard for this genre
Of the Jack Ryan series of books by Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October, Tom Clancy's first successful effort, is my favorite. The characters are well-developed and Clancy brings the reader up to speed with military jargon and the thought process of the US and Russian military and political leadership. Clancy does a good job of explaining actual submarine warfare tactics and equipment limitations and vulnerabilities without being over-technical. The plot twists are nicely used to keep the story interesting. Even without such twists, the concept of a renegade "enemy" submarine with extraordinary capability was enough to attract and hold my interest.
It took me a while to get used to Clancy's style of jumping around to pick up on developments from all the different angles, but it was not very difficult to keep track of things if you do your reading over the course of just a few weeks and don't put down the book for too long.
Finally, I would tell fans of the movie that there is much more of the story to enjoy if you read the book and you will still find it interesting even if you remember the ending.
(319 reviews)
