If you're talking about the Ryanverse, yes. The earlier ones are amazing, peaking with Without Remorse, the latter ones ok. After Executive Orders, they get painful.
Read them in publication order NOT chronological order.
Yep. It is dated though, but a damn fine tale of strategic combat. As for the Ryan books, I would say read the first 5, then stop. Shit gets crazy after that. Red October, Patriot Games, Cardinal of the Kremlin, Clear and Present Danger, Sum of all fears. Maybe Without Remorse if you have a hard on for Clark.
And yeah, read them in publication order, not chronological.
I hated reading RSR in high school. HATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTED IT.
Loved the Ryanverse books. Just good fun. Read them in publishing order. After Exec Orders they get weak yeah. Best one was...umm....Cardinal through Exec Orders. Any of those are great.
Yeah, that's me. This was the first i read, after somebody told me to read them in chronological order. It blew me away but spoiled the hell out of The Cardinal of the Kremlin for me. After WR i reverted to publication order.
Yeah, that's me. This was the first i read, after somebody told me to read them in chronological order. It blew me away but spoiled the hell out of The Cardinal of the Kremlin for me. After WR i reverted to publication order.
Without Remorse is the high point, you can also read it on it's own since it's pretty much a prequel.
Rainbow Six had some great set pieces and I loved it as a teenager but now I find it so lacking in any kind of grit, like all the Spec Ops guys are 2 dimensional "family men" with no faults or flaws at all, the Brits all speak like it's been written by someone who has never been here "Bloody good show chaps" kind of thing.
Yeah, but just be aware that Debt of Honor and Executive Orders really start to fly off into fantasy land. I would recommend stopping after Without Remorse unless you like really escapist political action novels.
Yeah, but just be aware that Debt of Honor and Executive Orders really start to fly off into fantasy land. I would recommend stopping after Without Remorse unless you like really escapist political action novels.
Red Storm Rising and Red October are the best by far. I actually thought the film Red October was better though. Patriot Games is pretty good. Debt of Honor, Executive Orders are okay. The Bear and the Dragon is...hehe. Sum of All Fears is better than the movie.
If you have to read just one: Red Storm Rising, even though its not the Ryanverse. The sheer scale of RSR, compared to the others, is incredible.
I've only read Rainbow Six and Sum of All Fears, and I really liked them both. Rainbow Six reads like an action flick; great for getting dudebro-gamer teenagers into reading.
Yeah, but just be aware that Debt of Honor and Executive Orders really start to fly off into fantasy land. I would recommend stopping after Without Remorse unless you like really escapist political action novels.
I really like all of them up to (and including) Bear and the dragon but I agree that the Debt of Honor/Executive Decision/Bear and the Dragon trilogy is going in a crazy direction.
I still like them (and I'm actually re-reading Executive right now) because I'm a fan of all the presidential/procedure stuff. Like how the USSS works and things like that. I still get goosebumps when you get to the part where (ED spoiler)
The terrorists attack the day care and the USSS broadcast the alarms. The see all the agents reacting at the same time in all the schools and the white house.
That's the kind thing that get's my blood pumping when I read it. Same thing when they get the first alarm in Rainbow Six and Clark gives to "GO" on the phone.
All the later books with the next generation (Ryan's son and I think one of the Foley's son too? not sure) are terrible.
I agree that Red Storm Rising is amazing. It really is a big "What if: World War 3". It's really the craziest thought process that goes through the Soviet's mind to justify the war but it's a great book.
I also agree that Without Remorse is good but it's the book I find the most borring. Sure it's great for the Clark and even Ryan back story but ugh.
While I agree that the book is DEFINITLY better than the movie but, for some reasons, I love that movie lol. I know I'm in the minority and I'm not even saying that it's a good movie but I still like it. I don't even consider it a Sums of all fear movie since it really doesn't have much to do with the book.
I'm probably a bit biased because 1-It was filmed in Montreal near where I live so I recognize some of the buildings/landmarks. 2-It was the first Clancy movie I watched after I started to seriously read the books so I remember saying a loud "ohhh shit" the first time I realized that the guy talking to Morgan Freeman was John Clark lol.
In a slightly OT kind of way I'd like to suggest a book by another author. It's 100% spy stuff so not really millitary like Clancy but I still recommand it in every book thread lol. It's called "The Company: A Novel of the CIA" by Robert Littell. It's a fictional story but it's mixing fictional characters with historical characters. The story takes place between June 1950 up to the mid 90s. It's basically the life of a group of friends who starts working for the CIA in the early 50s and move up the ranks. In the later parts of the story you even have some of the son/daughters that are working there too. The mix between real and fiction is amazing. For example you can have the main fictional character talking to John F. Kennedy or another example is Kim Philby (a real person) who's one of the very important character in the story. The first time I read it I kept going to wikipedia to see if that new character they were introducing was actually a real person or not lol.
If you like espionnage and/or cold war history you HAVE to read that book. Probably my all time favorite book.
Like how the USSS works and things like that. I still get goosebumps when you get to the part where (ED spoiler)
The terrorists attack the day care and the USSS broadcast the alarms. The see all the agents reacting at the same time in all the schools and the white house.
That's the kind thing that get's my blood pumping when I read it.
