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Anila's Reviews > The Hunt for Red October
The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan, #3)
by Tom Clancy
by Tom Clancy
Damn, Marko Ramius is an awesome character.
Just sayin'.
Real review:
Well, I've finally read a Clancy book. Yay me?
It reminded me a bit of the Honor Harrington series, which I guess makes sense. They're both military, after all; one has spaceships and the other has submarines and other than that the genre conventions seemed about the same. AND THEY BOTH HAVE ONE REALLY ANNOYING HABIT: The 'action action action loooooongwiiiiiinded descriiiiiiption of teeeeechnoooology' format. If I'd been paying attention instead of trying not to fall asleep in those bits I would have learned more about submarines than I ever wanted to know. As it was, I kinda skipped those bits.
Plot-wise, there's a lot of buildup. Like most of the book. And while it's interesting and yes, it's necessary, there are so many threads and they were disconnected for so long that I lost track of them. Clearly, Clancy is not an 'in late out early' sort of writer. Or maybe this is a first book thing?
I don't think I'd classify this as a thriller of any sort, because it was never really thrilling. Is it a spoiler to say that of course they got the Red October away safely and no one knew? Frankly, I don't think so. I mean, if they failed there would have been no book and if the Russians had found out Clancy would have had to turn this into a series. Since neither of these things are true, the operations must have been a success. Simple logical deduction. So this isn't a book that you want to read to find out what happened so much as how it happened, and at that Clancy excels. I'm obviously not a submariner, but this has been well-recieved by the navy and certainly seemed meticulously researched.
Clancy is now on my radar (ahem, pun?) enough that I'll read more of his work later. I'm in no big rush, though. Also, this book was difficult for me to get through and I don't need another millstone novel to slow me down reading everything else.
Just sayin'.
Real review:
Well, I've finally read a Clancy book. Yay me?
It reminded me a bit of the Honor Harrington series, which I guess makes sense. They're both military, after all; one has spaceships and the other has submarines and other than that the genre conventions seemed about the same. AND THEY BOTH HAVE ONE REALLY ANNOYING HABIT: The 'action action action loooooongwiiiiiinded descriiiiiiption of teeeeechnoooology' format. If I'd been paying attention instead of trying not to fall asleep in those bits I would have learned more about submarines than I ever wanted to know. As it was, I kinda skipped those bits.
Plot-wise, there's a lot of buildup. Like most of the book. And while it's interesting and yes, it's necessary, there are so many threads and they were disconnected for so long that I lost track of them. Clearly, Clancy is not an 'in late out early' sort of writer. Or maybe this is a first book thing?
I don't think I'd classify this as a thriller of any sort, because it was never really thrilling. Is it a spoiler to say that of course they got the Red October away safely and no one knew? Frankly, I don't think so. I mean, if they failed there would have been no book and if the Russians had found out Clancy would have had to turn this into a series. Since neither of these things are true, the operations must have been a success. Simple logical deduction. So this isn't a book that you want to read to find out what happened so much as how it happened, and at that Clancy excels. I'm obviously not a submariner, but this has been well-recieved by the navy and certainly seemed meticulously researched.
Clancy is now on my radar (ahem, pun?) enough that I'll read more of his work later. I'm in no big rush, though. Also, this book was difficult for me to get through and I don't need another millstone novel to slow me down reading everything else.
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The movie is awesome! The Red October is a very very very large submarine. Sean Connery is in it too....
That is what I have heard. My mother, who would never read a Clancy novel if it was the last book on earth, has told me several times as I was finishing it that she loves the movie. (Sean Connery's presence had something to do with that...)By the by, The Sum of All Fears looks freaking terrifying.
The movie version of The Sum of All Fears sucked because they did not follow the book. They changed the terrorists to non descript German terrorists and the city was changed as well. I think they didn't want to offend people.
It was a scary book in that sense. If you've watched 24 or MI-5, they had similar story lines. I often wonder how many people get caught before they can do any damage.
I've not watched either of those, but I can imagine.It's always the ones you never hear about that are scariest, isn't it? The idea of them, I mean.
Clancy used to be a guilty pleasure. Don't like his newer stuff. I do love the movie adaption of this book.