I've flipped through Tom Clancy in the past, but his books have always felt like tech-manuals with plot. Fascinating, but never exaclty enegaging or absorbing.

Executive Orders, on the other hand, creates a situation so outrageous and inconceivable...and spends the rest of its page count bringing it all to chilling life. It continues to lean towards the technical side (and it's too long!), but as a polisci grad, I appreciated Clancy's ability to take government and turn it on its constitutional ear. This book IS fascinating, make no mistake...and I could easily picture Harrison Ford as this novel's rather tortured, prematurely-aged Jack Ryan.

I also read this pre-9/11...and those events have added an extra chilling, almost prophetic spin to the plot. If you're not a Clancy fan, but want to give at least one of his novels a try...pick this one.