Irina slutsky read and liked Anne's review of The Hunt for Red October:

"It took me so long to finish this book--not exactly a good sign. Mostly, a good book should captivate its reader absolutely, even if they don't understand the endless submarine jargon. I don't blame it entirely on the writing...Red October is definit...more It took me so long to finish this book--not exactly a good sign. Mostly, a good book should captivate its reader absolutely, even if they don't understand the endless submarine jargon. I don't blame it entirely on the writing...Red October is definitely something you have to be in the mood for.

That being said, I did see the movie (several times) before I read the book. They are pretty similar, though for me, if I see the movie first I generally tend to enjoy it more...In this case I think maybe I'm just bias for Sean Connery, though parts of the movie seemed to flow better. I was a little annoyed at everything going right at the end, and the V. K. Konovalov coming in as the finish line came in sight. Obviously life happens and this book was adapted for the movies with drama in mind, so I really shouldn't complain.

In all I'm not sure I'd read Clancy again. The story was neat, intriguing, whatever...But all that jargon? It's hard for me to keep up when I have no desire to do anything with submarines and really just want to read about those Ramius and Ryan dudes.

So would I recommend it? Depends on the person.

Notes:
I was amused by two things, mainly. First, Arbatov's quote on page 141--"It was their stupid Christmas season, and Americans were addicted to happy endings." An interesting statement. Second on page 387, the comment about the two defectors who "stayed awake watching cable television, already amazed at what they saw of life in the United States."

I don't know what the Cyrillic spelling of these are, but I did learn some submarine jargon in Russian--
zampolit: political officer
Rodina: Motherland
Nasha lutcha: Ours is better
michman: officer
starpom: executive officer
michmanyy: warrant officers
glavnyy sharshini: senior petty officers
matros: seaman
starshina: petty officer
stukack: "cruel and bitter epithet or informer"
Krazny Oktyabr: Red October

Of course, I can be perfectly wrong about all of these, so a comment is always appreciated.(less) "