Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
4th out of 19 books
—
69 voters
Without Remorse (John Clark #1)
by
Tom Clancy
WITHOUT REMORSE is the epic bestseller Tom Clancy fans have been waiting for. Its hero is a man very familiar to Clancy's readers. His code name is Mr. Clark. And his work for the CIA is brilliant, cold-blooded and efficient ... But who is he really? In a harrowing tour de force, Tom Clancy shows how an ordinary man named John Kelly crossed the lines of justice and moralit...more
Paperback, 750 pages
Published
August 1st 1994
by Berkley
(first published 1993)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
Kelly is a Navy Seal back in the states as Vietnam rages half way across the globe. He's done his service, and well, and is now working as an underwater demolitions expert.
Of course, that all changes when his pregnant wife is accidentally killed. Several months pass. Then on a wimhe picks up a female hitch hiker while he is on the way to his boat. (he lives on an island somewhere off the coast of MD that used to be a military site).
The hitch hiker has a horrendous past, she's running from some...more
Of course, that all changes when his pregnant wife is accidentally killed. Several months pass. Then on a wimhe picks up a female hitch hiker while he is on the way to his boat. (he lives on an island somewhere off the coast of MD that used to be a military site).
The hitch hiker has a horrendous past, she's running from some...more
I am confused. A "Jack Ryan" book, without Jack in it, except for an occasional sentence. This book is about John Kelly - a "revenge" book - a man with considerable skills using those skills to make evil people pay for their sins now. Sort of a 'kill them all, and leave the results to God' approach.
This story reminds me of the movies "Unforgiven", "Open Range", or "Taken". He has lost purpose in life and is going through the motions. A chance meeting, something clicks, and he has a new lease on...more
This story reminds me of the movies "Unforgiven", "Open Range", or "Taken". He has lost purpose in life and is going through the motions. A chance meeting, something clicks, and he has a new lease on...more
One of the benefits(?) of middle age is stumbling across "new" books that you already read. I stumbled across this bit of Clancy-ana at the bookstore last week and could not recollect (until I was about a third of the way through my (re-)read of it.
A decent read, though likely of particular interest to Clancy fans. It is a semi-conventional masculine fantasy revenge tale, filtered through the Clancy techno-thriller machine. The military stuff is the usual interesting array of Clancy flashy and a...more
A decent read, though likely of particular interest to Clancy fans. It is a semi-conventional masculine fantasy revenge tale, filtered through the Clancy techno-thriller machine. The military stuff is the usual interesting array of Clancy flashy and a...more
4 Stars ~ My 90's reading contained many of Clancy's Jack Ryan stories including this one, which is John Kelly's (Mr. Clark) story. Jack's father Emmett is a detective that plays an integral role throughout this story. There's a brief scene with a very young Jack who is about to enlist in the Marines.
I had forgotten how intricate the plots are in Tom Clancy's books. This book opens with several sub-plots; Kelly's wife's death; the capture of an airline Colonel in Vietnam; the rapidly growing dru...more
I had forgotten how intricate the plots are in Tom Clancy's books. This book opens with several sub-plots; Kelly's wife's death; the capture of an airline Colonel in Vietnam; the rapidly growing dru...more
1 like · like · see review
view all 4 comments
Without Remorse is a basic action/revenge novel. It is set in the low tech drug world. It relies much more on character and emotions. Some interest, dimension, and character development is given to the hero by evolving him into a revenge machine without remorse. But, that is the only interesting aspect of the hero and Clancy ends up cheapening it by later glorifying it in this book and Executive Orders. The other characters in the book aren't very interesting. Clancy is very awkard with the love...more
Unbelievably my first Tom Clancy book, but will not be my last! This is the story of John Kelly a man who lost his wife, found a new love, and had her taken away from him by the drug lords who enslaved her and tortured her. John has a mission: to rid the streets of the drug dealers who take young girls off the streets,turn them into prostitutes, addict them to drugs, then throw them away. John's other mission: working with the government to rescue 20 prisoners of war from a North Vietnamese pris...more
Mar 08, 2013
Henri Moreaux
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
action-adventure,
crime-murder,
gangs-org-crime,
law-enforcement,
military-war,
asia,
favourites,
americas
What a fantastic book. Having seen Hunt For Red October/Patriot Games/Sum of all Fears at the movies and finding them to be good movies I thought I'd try out the actual books. Hating to start in the middle of a series I decided if I'm going to read a Tom Clancy book I might as well start at the beginning and enjoy them all (assuming they're any good) and boy am I glad I did!
This book isn't what I expected - I thought it'ld be more action, shooting and explosions with little substance, but no the...more
This book isn't what I expected - I thought it'ld be more action, shooting and explosions with little substance, but no the...more
This book was...well, ok. It wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't as good as I'd hoped, given Clancy's success.
First gripe: There were FAR too many side plots, which I know where there in some attempt to round out the narrative, to show how things happen, but it just got distracting. Stupidly so at times.
Second gripe: What the hell was Clancy thinking when he started calling people by different names? Sometimes a character is referred to by his first name, sometimes by his last, sometimes...more
First gripe: There were FAR too many side plots, which I know where there in some attempt to round out the narrative, to show how things happen, but it just got distracting. Stupidly so at times.
Second gripe: What the hell was Clancy thinking when he started calling people by different names? Sometimes a character is referred to by his first name, sometimes by his last, sometimes...more
7 likes · like · see review
Without Remorse is a action/thriller during the Vietnam War. The book is filled with twists and turns at every corner. You'll find yourself flying across oceans, on ships, underwater, or in the big city. It will keep your attention and you will not want to put it down.
The takes place in America and Vietnam. The book follows the life of John Clark, a Vietnam War veteran whose wife just died in a deadly automotive accident. He will meet new people from around the world and do things many people w...more
The takes place in America and Vietnam. The book follows the life of John Clark, a Vietnam War veteran whose wife just died in a deadly automotive accident. He will meet new people from around the world and do things many people w...more
I really enjoyed this book. In fact, I have read it three times now and I still am picking up nuances in the sub-plots with each reading.
The story has, essentially, two major plots. One follows John Kelly (soon to be John Clark) through his civilian life where it seems like he just can't catch a break. There is a bit of everything in this part of the book: romance, violence, introspection. It's pretty up-and-down emotionally and really keeps you hooked.
The second main plot follows John Clark (th...more
The story has, essentially, two major plots. One follows John Kelly (soon to be John Clark) through his civilian life where it seems like he just can't catch a break. There is a bit of everything in this part of the book: romance, violence, introspection. It's pretty up-and-down emotionally and really keeps you hooked.
The second main plot follows John Clark (th...more
The book although written by Tom Clancy after the Hunt for Red October occurs in and earlier time. The book introduces you to Jim Kelly aka Jim Clark who is featured in the book Clear and Present Danger. Jim Kelly is a former Navy Seal that lives in Baltimore. He has left the Navy and leaves on an island in the Chesapeake Bay. On the way home he picks up a young girl.
The girl has been involved in a drug ring and is running away from the drug dealers that had been holding her hostage and using he...more
The girl has been involved in a drug ring and is running away from the drug dealers that had been holding her hostage and using he...more
Aug 19, 2010
BoekenTrol
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
people who love espionage novels
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This one gets 4 stars (even though its from Tom Clancy) because the main character //ISNT// Jack Ryan (shudder), kills a dude in a deep sead diving pressure chamber. Also because John Kelly (main character) becomes John Clark, who was the mission briefer in all the Rainbow Six games I used to play as a kid. (Wooo Ding Chavez!!) -- yeah he's in the other books, but so is Jack Ryan ='()
3 likes · like · see review
Another international masterpiece, Without Remorse by Tom Clancy, is solidly in the winner’s circle. Clancy has created a culinary smorgasbord to please any taste. First you take sex, drugs and murder; add a pinch of love and mix it all slowly together. To this you add war and espionage, making an unforgettable meal of words. Love, sex, drugs and war… what more can you ask? John Kelly, a semi-retired Navy Seal, finds himself in a world he didn’t know; the world of drugs and dealers. His special...more
One long read, but if you get into the story and the suspense of wondering whether John Kelly (A.K.A. Mr. Clark) will be able to survive his own ruthlessness. Set during the vietnam era, this story details how Kelly stumbles across a drug ring that is using woman as couriers--and mistreating them horribly. When one of those woman--a personal friend of Kelly's--is brutally murdered he assigns himself a new mission--to take down the drug ring and deal out his own kind of justice. But at the same t...more
This book is the best of Clancy's. It is also a must read for anyone who has read or is planning on reading any of Clancy's other books (at least up through Rainbow-Six, which is as far as I have gotten). Definitely adds a lot of background information that seeps into other characters and storylines in the series.
This is kind of generic review for Tom Clancy, who writes in a very MCP male-centric social style with enthusiasm (just be prepared). To me his stories are multi-faceted but fragmented at the beginning while myriad plots are developed. During this early phase it is often difficult for me to plod through while keeping track of everything else that has happened. But the plots do pull together near the middle of the books, at which time everything congeals and you are propelled non-stop through to...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
What makes this book a treat is all the technical information that goes into it. I'm not a soldier, weapons expert, or engineer, so I found the plethora of information a bit overwhelming, but I did come away having learned a few new things. The fact that this book is so well-researched gives a solidity to the novel that utilizes this information to tell us what is going on and what is being used. This was my first Tom Clancy book, and I was not disappointed at all. This tale of revenge and the m...more
So bad yet so good...
Tom Clancy has long been a hit and miss author for me. I should say that a lot of it has to do with his incredibly detailed and dense descriptions of everything military. He earns a lot of kudos for his intense knowledge of his subject matter and his ability to base his fiction in frighteningly realistic circumstances, but there are times when I just want to get on with the story and not learn about a firing pin and its historical significance to military maneuvers in the ea...more
Tom Clancy has long been a hit and miss author for me. I should say that a lot of it has to do with his incredibly detailed and dense descriptions of everything military. He earns a lot of kudos for his intense knowledge of his subject matter and his ability to base his fiction in frighteningly realistic circumstances, but there are times when I just want to get on with the story and not learn about a firing pin and its historical significance to military maneuvers in the ea...more
One of the worst Clancy's books I've ever read. Boring, too much description, too many unnecessary drama... Yes, I know it's about the "making" of the legendary John Clark, but I still cannot enjoy it.
4 likes · like · see review
John Kelly (the John Clark of Clancy's Ryan novels and Rainbow Six) balances two missions in this novel: a personal revenge campaign against a Baltimore drug gang, and a professional assignment to rescue prisoners from North Vietnam. Typically readable, the story is dark, with unpleasant actions unleashed by both sides. The major question of the book is whether it is right for an individual to operate outside the law in order to secure justice; to what extent the end justifies the means. Kelly's...more
In what is easily the best book I've ever read, Tom Clancy creates a cast of characters that trancend the series of Jack Ryan.
John Kelly, the main character of the novel, is easily the most astounding person I've ever read about. From his times in Vietnam as part of the Third Special Operation Group, to the harrowing tale embodying the main plot of Without Remorse, you just can't help but be taken away with the perfect machismo and badass-ness of the character.
The storyline in itself is excelle...more
John Kelly, the main character of the novel, is easily the most astounding person I've ever read about. From his times in Vietnam as part of the Third Special Operation Group, to the harrowing tale embodying the main plot of Without Remorse, you just can't help but be taken away with the perfect machismo and badass-ness of the character.
The storyline in itself is excelle...more
My first response to this book was negative because I could not get beyond the violence. However, after re-reading certain chapters, I understood that the violence was thematic. For example, the violence dished out by the protaganist John Kelly carries a profound moral argument: All is fair in love and war. The pimp violence against the sequestered women, in turn, is symbolic. It is used to gain control through the fear of violence. The Vietnamese violence against the prisoners, likewise.
Sandy t...more
Sandy t...more
Bevor ich dieses Buch gelesen habe kannte ich Tom Clancy nur von Videospielen, ich habe erst die deutsche Version "Gnadenlos" gelesen, da man mir diese geschenkt hat. Als ich dann erfahren habe, dass es eine Serie ist, ab an den Computer und den ersten Teil gekauft. In englisch, da ich Bücher von englischen Autoren gerne in der Originalsprache lese.
Ich war begeistert vom Stil Tom Clancys, von der packenden Geschichte und allein die Tatsache, dass ich im Moment bei Teil 8 der Serie bin, sollte al...more
Ich war begeistert vom Stil Tom Clancys, von der packenden Geschichte und allein die Tatsache, dass ich im Moment bei Teil 8 der Serie bin, sollte al...more
I mostly enjoyed this Clancy book, but it is nowhere near as good as his books featuring Jack Ryan. And there are other non-Ryan books that I also enjoyed more.
But this was a good book...perhaps a little long, but not too much. I was glad when it was over. The main character, John Clark, is a complex figure who is changed, not only by his military training as a seal, but by the tragedies in his life concerning women he either loves or cares about. But that leads to his recruitment into the CIA.
T...more
But this was a good book...perhaps a little long, but not too much. I was glad when it was over. The main character, John Clark, is a complex figure who is changed, not only by his military training as a seal, but by the tragedies in his life concerning women he either loves or cares about. But that leads to his recruitment into the CIA.
T...more
It's easy enough to allow yourself to slip into a mindless passive approval as John Clark--the main character in this book--methodically murders his way up the chain of command of a drug syndicate. As a reader, you sense that while Clancy never comes right out and says it, that you should feel these bad guys are getting what they deserve. But if you're a thinking human, it's awfully difficult to put the book down and not have it occur to you that Clark's enterprise is completely morally bankrupt...more
This would make one hell of a movie - can't understand why no one has made it yet...
I read this back when it was first published. As a Clancy fan I was up to date until Rainbow Six,then the novels started going off in all directions with collaborations and I lost track and although I've bought more of Tom's books I can't stand reading a series out of order. But if you're a fan and you know where I'm up to you'll understand when I say nigh twenty years after reading it is the most memorable of all his novels. For its unswerving violence in the name of revenge. I'd recommend this...more
Beware! Spoilers!
This was my very first Tom Clancy novel after hearing about these books forever. It took me almost two weeks to get through this one. Its lengthy and a bit long winded at times, but I ended up enjoying it.
So the book introduces John Kelly, a former Navy SEAL who fought in Vietnam. When his wife and unborn baby die unexpectedly, everything changes for John. He picks up a hitchhiker on the side of the road which leads him on an adventure of violence, revenge and espionage.
So I ha...more
This was my very first Tom Clancy novel after hearing about these books forever. It took me almost two weeks to get through this one. Its lengthy and a bit long winded at times, but I ended up enjoying it.
So the book introduces John Kelly, a former Navy SEAL who fought in Vietnam. When his wife and unborn baby die unexpectedly, everything changes for John. He picks up a hitchhiker on the side of the road which leads him on an adventure of violence, revenge and espionage.
So I ha...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What's the joke about the name John Clark? | 8 | 160 | Mar 10, 2013 09:52pm |
From www.loc.gov: Best-selling author Tom Clancy was an English major at Baltimore’s Loyola College and he had a dream of writing a novel. As a Maryland insurance broker with a passion for naval history, his dream came true with his first effort, The Hunt for Red October (1984). He has since written more than a dozen novels, which have a blend of realism and authenticity, intricate plotting, and r...more
More about Tom Clancy...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Christ, how did you ever get this screwed up! his mind demanded of
him. He knew the answer, but even that was not a full explanation.
Different segments of the organism called John Terrance Kelly knew
different parts of the whole story,
but somehow they'd never all come together, leaving the separate
fragments of what had ...once been a tough, smart, decisive and to blunder
about in confusion - and despair! There was a happy thought.”
—
5 people liked it
More quotes…
him. He knew the answer, but even that was not a full explanation.
Different segments of the organism called John Terrance Kelly knew
different parts of the whole story,
but somehow they'd never all come together, leaving the separate
fragments of what had ...once been a tough, smart, decisive and to blunder
about in confusion - and despair! There was a happy thought.”
