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In de aanval

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Mark Greaney

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In de aanval

(Jack Ryan Universe (Publication Order) #18)

Mark Greaney (Goodreads Author),

Jolanda te Lindert (Translator)

4.23 · Rating details · 9,193 ratings · 513 reviews

In Noord-Korea is een jonge dictator aan de macht gekomen die de wereld wil laten zien dat er niet met hem te spotten valt. De ontdekking van zeer waardevolle mineralen in zijn land heeft de economie een impuls gegeven en het verworven kapitaal stopt hij in de ontwikkeling van een grootschalig nucleair programma. In korte tijd ontwikkelt de kluizenaarsstaat zich tot een ze ...more

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Paperback, 528 pages

Published April 12th 2016 by A.W. Bruna (first published December 2nd 2014)

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Sep 06, 2014 Mike (the Paladin) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: action, thriller

Not long ago Tom Clancy died. Like many of you I read each of his books as they came out. I enjoyed the story of jack Ryan as he moved through the ranks of government to the presidency.

It was a sad day when he passed. Other thriller writers have gone and their names continued along with others writing their series and or franchises.

Now Mark Greaney has picked up Tom Clancy's fallen banner so to speak and he's doing an excellent job.

Mark Greany is one of my favorite writers. His Gray man series i ...more

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Dec 20, 2014 Mike French rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Mark Greaney has done a bang up job on this Tom Clancy inspired book featuring Jack and Jack Jr Ryan. It grabbed my attention from the start and never let go! I am looking forward to his next Ryan father and son adventure,but in the meantime I will be reading his Gray Man series.

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Dec 06, 2014 Dan Curnutt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I have become a fan of Mark Greaney and enjoy reading the books that he has written under the Tom Clancy syndicate. Most of his books up to this point have been middle range books that have had good intrigue and lots of action. This is what I would consider a more daunting longer read epic in the style that Clancy made famous.

The story is well conceived and well written. It has that overarching epic feel of a huge political situation that has multiple fronts and threats that have to be analyzed I have become a fan of Mark Greaney and enjoy reading the books that he has written under the Tom Clancy syndicate. Most of his books up to this point have been middle range books that have had good intrigue and lots of action. This is what I would consider a more daunting longer read epic in the style that Clancy made famous.

The story is well conceived and well written. It has that overarching epic feel of a huge political situation that has multiple fronts and threats that have to be analyzed an dealt with. The main gist of the story is that North Korea has a new leader, the son of the previous dictator. This son wants to accomplish what his father started by getting ICBM missiles with nuclear warheads that can reach the west coast of the United States and thus push the U.S. to listen up to North Korea and consider them a world power.

To do this they need cash. To get cash they have to find a new way to produce income. Lucky for them the worlds largest deposit of rare earth minerals is found in their own back yard. This mining operation could produce 12 trillion dollars of income for the regime. That is enough money to buy everything they need to go nuclear.

Thus the Campus is on the trail of what is going on as well as the CIA and DNI Mary Foley. All the characters are coming together to try and determine the best way to stop North Korea from getting this funding online. President Ryan wants this stopped. Thus he is willing to step out on a limb and handle sanctions against North Korea even against the wishes of other nations.

This epic tale is current to todays political climate. It is ripped right from our front pages. Maybe the only stretch is the rare earth mining issue, but that just adds to the intrigue of the book.

Greaney does a masterful job of weaving this story together and providing plenty of little sub-plots to help you learn more about the characters involved and the dynamics of how espionage works in todays corporate and political world.

You will enjoy every once of the book. So, why did I only give it four stars you ask? Well, because I think that as a larger epic piece under the Clancy name it still didn't have the gripping power of the Clancy style for this longer work. It's close and with more time of development Greaney will get there, just not completely this time. BUT, that doesn't detract from a great story.

Enjoy! ...more

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Jan 10, 2016 Jon Kurtz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A timely story of intrigue based upon North Korea's ambition to become a nuclear power.

The young and untested leader of the north, suspiciously similar to Kim Jong-Un, tasks his minions to develop a nuclear missile program within three years. The stated aim is to force the U.S. and it's allies to soften restrictions on the beleagured country. The reality is a despot exerting his will to expand his own power.

I found the relationships between the dictator and his subjects to be of particular inte ...more

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Dec 14, 2014 Simon Patterson rated it did not like it · review of another edition

What Mark Greaney has done to the world of Jack Ryan is nothing short of sacrilege. Gone are the carefully thought out and deftly interwoven plots of Tom Clancy, gone are the multitude of highly detailed characters, gone are the perfect understanding of the geopolitical situation of the Ryan universe.

What's left is yet another standard issue airport techno-thriller, and if I wanted that I'd read someone I actually like, like Dale Brown. ...more

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Oct 27, 2014 Jarrod rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I had to think a little about the ranking and rounded up to 5. Yeah, it's that good. Though sad to see a founding member of Rainbow die, the ending was satisfying as hell. Loved it and I'm looking forward to the next Ryan installment. ...more

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Jul 16, 2015 Will rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Clancy's Jack Ryan fans

Shelves: mystery, military-action, thriller, mob-connection, narcoterrorists

SUBJECTIVE READER REVIEW FOLLOWS:

For a couple of years now I've been wondering how Tom Clancy is still publishing from the after-life. It turns out that Clancy's last five books were 'written in collaboration with' Grant Blackwood, Peter Telep and Mark Greaney. A little snooping revealed that the collaborationists did most of the legwork, all of the travel and most of the geopolitical research. Now Mark Greaney's published two Tom Clancy books that he's written, has another one in the hopper and SUBJECTIVE READER REVIEW FOLLOWS:

For a couple of years now I've been wondering how Tom Clancy is still publishing from the after-life. It turns out that Clancy's last five books were 'written in collaboration with' Grant Blackwood, Peter Telep and Mark Greaney. A little snooping revealed that the collaborationists did most of the legwork, all of the travel and most of the geopolitical research. Now Mark Greaney's published two Tom Clancy books that he's written, has another one in the hopper and Grant Blackwood's published UNDER FIRE which he wrote. I suppose they're written under the Tom Clancy legacy--as well as the estate--taking advantage of great characters Tom put in place; Jack Ryan, Jack Ryan Jr and John Clark come to mind. I was curious as to the 'watering down' effect of the collaborationists, but I rated the twelve novels before shared attribution 4.67 stars on average; the six novels released under collaboration got 4.67 stars on average. Pretty consistent, so the students have learned from the master well. The only noticeable uptick was Clancy books released before 2003, and I rated those twelve novels got 4.83 stars on average.
FULL FORCE & EFFECT is a really great read, but Greaney followed the Zen master's MO; the hardcover's 3" thick and 671 pages. I don't think that's a complaint, because I stayed up one night six hours trying to get through the plot development to see where Greaney was taking it. To make rare earth minerals the key to the plot was downright unique but somehow believable, so I salute the plot even though I had to wonder if any deposit of reserves in the world was worth $12 trillion! So I'm a Jack Ryan fan--though not as much as Mitch Rapp, Scott Harvath and John Corey--and it was an almost incredible read. I was straddling the fence on 4.5 stars, but gave it 5 due to the plot's complex but interesting trio of a North Korean intelligence chief, a Mexican billionaire without scruples and a retrofitted MI6 Station Chief. I'll put it this way; I liked it enough to read UNDER FIRE in the near future.

SPOILER PLOT SUMMARY FOLLOWS:

The North Korean Rare Earth Metals Conspiracy. North Korea has become the Cold War Hangover, bent on launching an ICBM with enough range to hit the US West Coast. The insanity of the plan is the US will retaliate dramatically, with extreme impact to their South Korean allies as well as Northeastern China. Long hampered by the lack of natural resources and UN economic sanctions, the DPRK Dae Wonsu Choi Ji-hoon has hatched a diabolical plan based on the discovery of proven reserves of rare earth metals from a mine in Chongju valued at $12 trillion. The Chinese were mining and refining the ore before a dramatic split appeared and the PRC technicians and geologists abandoned the site. With the future value of the much in demand though not easily attainable metals, Choi sets his intelligence chief LGEN Ri Tae-jin on an impossible mission; obtain an ICBM with adequate range in 3 years or die. Ri's desperation hatches the unholy trio of Mexican billionaire Oscar Roblas and Wayne Sharps to solve the mine/refining problem to get access to the cash from the rare metals. Roblas commits to $500M in credits via his banking network and Sharps is to find and deliver the refining software and hardware and technical expertize needed to replicate the PRC operation. Mary Pat Foley, the US Director of National Intelligence, is so keyed into preventing the DPRK from obtaining ICBMs that DNI has taken over Operation Acrid Herald, also denying its existence. Relying on The Campus, Foley has the operatives surveilling a former stellar FBI agent gone broke, Colin Hazelton, at a secret meeting in Saigon. He is met by a hot blond former French DGSE officer Veronika Martel but refuses to convey the package of data, instead departing he restaurant as DPRK RGB assassins run him down and kill him. The Campus guys kill two of the assassins then high tail it out of Vietnam. Ri becomes concerned that some agency is trying to interfere with Sharps Global Intelligence Partners and has his agents across the world shadow SGIP operators to provide protection. As Duke Sharps pursues and blackmails the UN subcommittee considering additional sanctions, Campus kills two more DPRK shooters bent on killing an uncooperative UN officer. As the UN group vetoes the new sanctions, the Campus operatives travel to Prague to find the Czech Foreign Ministry employee who provided passports for Australian geologists/scientists to travel to North Korea. They find Karel Skala hiding and scared shitless, only to be confronted by a six man DPRK hit team, manage to kill four but Skala also dies. Shifting quickly to Vegas, Jack Jr gets the drop on Veronika Martel, there to steal proprietary software for use at Chongju, they snatch her smart phone just as the DPRK assassins attack. Ri puts a parallel op in play, planning to assassinate US POTUS Jack Ryan during a trip to Mexico City. When a shipment of critical froth flotation tanks is seized by the US Navy from a freighter on the Yellow Sea, Ri becomes desperate that the hit on Ryan succeed. Buck Sharps has entrusted the Roblas Account to ex-MI6 Station Chief Edward Miller, who hired the best Iranian IED builder and sent him to Mexico well in advance. The ambush is deadly but Ryan manages to live and escape, and now he is pissed beyond reason when the Campus team goes to Mexico two days later and snatches the Iranian from Miller and ten Cuban DGI agents. Adel Zarif sings like the bird and exposes the entire DPRK involvement in the assassination attempt. Ri promptly commits suicide by blowing his family up at dinnertime, but Hwang, the Mining Corp Director, is now holding the bag, his death imminent. Deep CIA mole Adam Yao has been at Chongju for weeks and takes Hwang and family to a pickup site, where they are exfiltrated via drones. Yao eludes the KPA until Ryan makes a trip to Beijing, convinces the PRC of the conspiracy, and they rescue Yao just as Hwang is making a broadcast to North Korea exposing the conspiracy. Choi Ji-hoon is dethroned and all is well.

...more

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Jan 04, 2021 Corey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: military, political-thriller, spy-espionage

I'm starting to wonder if Mark Greaney and Tom Clancy are blood-related, because Greaney has his writing style, he crosses every T and dots every I, it's unbelievable. Normally I don't like to continue a series written by an author that's passed and it picked up by someone else, but with Mark Greaney I'll make an exception.

When the new power-hungry supreme leader of North Korea wants to increase his country's Nuclear Weapons arsenal, but while it is being hindered by the US and it's allies, Kore ...more

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Oct 05, 2018 Patrick Read rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Another partial audiobook on YouTube. Why upload 3/4 of a book? Guess I will have to cough up the cash to finish and I think it will be worth it. "
President Jack Ryan faces a global threat on the verge of going nuclear.

A North Korean ICBM crashes into the Sea of Japan. A veteran CIA officer is murdered in Ho Chi Minh City. A package of forged documents goes missing. The pieces are there, but assembling the puzzle will cost Jack Ryan, Jr., and his fellow Campus agents precious time. Time they do ...more

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Apr 18, 2015 M. Dobson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-author-series

So, I'll admit it. I never read a Tom Clancy novel, but I loved the movie The Hunt for Red October for the twist. Then, being a huge Harrison Ford fan, the Jack Ryan movies were on my must see list.

Then came the aging of Harrison Ford - doesn't matter, I still love you Harrison - but the series pettered out with the character's election to President. So, I was intrigued when this popped up on Audible.

I'm glad to revisit the series. mark Greaney did a good job continuing the flavor of the other b ...more

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Jul 23, 2015 Gabriel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

As with all the books in the Tom Clancy series, this one will not disappoint.

A well constructed plot, with in fact one main plot and few other secondary plots unfolding in the background will keep you on the edge. You'll find plenty of action, suspense, adventure, intricate geopolitical strategy, interesting characters, great locations, colorful scenes and much more, all this will definitely make you come back to see the outcome.

A great motion picture type of book, very entertaining, and worth ...more

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Jul 21, 2015 Donna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-mystery

This gets 4 stars even though I can't even say how many times I wanted to put this in my DNF pile in the beginning. It was so heavy on the narrative for the set up. I only stayed with it because Scott Brick was the narrator. But I'm glad I stayed with it, because the last half was a page turner for me, even though the government couldn't seem to keep people alive.

What I liked most were the twists in the story and the character development. Those two things were well done. ...more

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Feb 07, 2015 Josh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The story of Jack Ryan, his son, John Clark and the gang continues, even after the unfortunate passing of the characters' creator. By this point it is hard to imagine that Tom Clancy was involved in the planning and development of these novels up to this point - although I'm sure keeping his name involved (as part of his franchise) means it will sell a whole lot more copies.

However, this story was actually quite good. Mark Greaney has done a remarkable job of taking the torch. And this particula ...more

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Dec 26, 2014 Ned Frederick rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Full Force and Effect, reminds me of vintage Clancy. There are hints of the same command of detail and relentless pacing that we were treated to in Clear and Present Danger. Tom Clancy may have left his mortal body in 2013, but the soul of Clancy the epic storyteller lives on in Mark Greaney.
But one question for Mark Greaney, "Why all this temporal hop scotch in the beginning?" I can understand a prologue or a chapter or two of historical context to anchor the plot. But all this jumping back an ...more

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Feb 03, 2015 Matt Randall rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I really wanted to quit reading Tom Clancy after he died...but I just cant. Mark Greaney is really doing a nice job of continuing his legacy. Gone are the days of really in depth information on submarines or airplanes. Now its a bunch of chasing people around and entertaining gun fights. Its kind of become my guilty pleasure. After so many books you want to see what happens with so many characters you have gotten to know. I would like to say that this would be my last, but as soon as the next bo ...more

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May 11, 2016 Jeff Miller rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

If I had any qualms at all about Mark Greaney continuing Tom Clancy's characters they are totally gone now.

This novel is as good as any of Clancy's best. I especially enjoyed the premise which was unique while also adding believability to the scenario. Totally captivated throughout and while you always know the good guys will win out - there was enough tension to not be sure how that was going to play out. ...more

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Nov 19, 2020 Amit Bagaria rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is Tom Clancy's 6th novel based on the clandestine privately-funded American intelligence and special ops company called the "THE CAMPUS". The book was written after Tom Clancy's death by ghostwriter Mark Greaney.

The Campus was created by a former senator on the encouragement of President of The United States Jack Ryan (a former CIA director), during his earlier term as POTUS. His son, Jack Ryan, Jr. works there as an analyst/operator. In the 5 past novels, The Campus has been involved with This is Tom Clancy's 6th novel based on the clandestine privately-funded American intelligence and special ops company called the "THE CAMPUS". The book was written after Tom Clancy's death by ghostwriter Mark Greaney.

The Campus was created by a former senator on the encouragement of President of The United States Jack Ryan (a former CIA director), during his earlier term as POTUS. His son, Jack Ryan, Jr. works there as an analyst/operator. In the 5 past novels, The Campus has been involved with missions to save the USA from enemies within and abroad.

In this novel, the rogue nation of North Korea—with the help of China—discovers the world's largest deposits of Rare Earth Minerals (REM). The megalomaniac North Korean dictator (officially the rogue nation's Grand Marshal and Supreme Leader) Choi Ji-hoon gives the Chinese government a license to extract the REMs and process them. However, in return, Choi asks China for long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching the West Coast of USA.

When China refuses, Choi tasks his minister of minerals to find an execute an alternate plan within 18 months. Simultaneously, he tasks his head of foreign intelligence (RGB), Lt. General Ri Tae-jin, to find long-range ICBMs (inter-continental ballistic missiles) capable of striking America. Lt. Gen. Ri brings in a Mexican oil and mining billionaire to take up the mining contract, which will give North Korea enough money to acquire the ICBMs. Ri also brings in a crooked New York City-based private intelligence and security firm to help with clandestine ops that will hide North Korea's involvement.

As US President Jack Ryan thwarts North Korea's plans to smuggle equipment into the country to be able to execute its two missions, Choi orders the head of RGB to assassinate Ryan. While on a visit to Mexico City, there is an attempt on Ryan's life.

When an analyst in USA's National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency discovers (on satellite imagery) a lot of new activity near the North Korean REM mines, there is concern in the American intelligence and defense leadership. The CIA does not have a single asset (man) inside North Korea. How will the US get intelligence? How will The Campus get involved?

Though this is a nerve-chilling page-turner, I have given it 4 stars (instead of 5) primarily because of two reasons:
● Like all of Clancy's novels, it is too long (693 pages)
● There are an unacceptable number of mistakes in the book: (1) At least 150 perfectly normal words are hyphenated; (2) There are incomplete words such as "photog" for "photographer"; (3) Sentences end without full stops. SURELY PENGUIN EDITORS COULD HAVE DONE A BETTER JOB!!! ...more

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Apr 20, 2019 Preston Stell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I had low expectations...because I’m quite hesitant of different authors picking up on where Tom Clancy left off. The genius of the Jack Ryan novels is that Clancy could be so detailed in how he describes the different ins and outs of government, military operations, professional expertise, etc. Many people hate Tom Clancy books because they are so detailed. I’ve loved this about Tom Clancy novels and appreciate it as it has expanded my knowledge on several subjects. I write all that because I t ...more

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Jul 21, 2018 Carl Alves rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It amazes me how much better the Mark Greaney books are in comparison to the later Tom Clancy novels in this series. Whereas Clancy seemed to have lost his way and his understanding of the Geopolitics of the world, the newer novels definitely have their finger on the pulse of what is going on in our world. Full Force and Effect mirrors much of what is going on today with North Korea. In this novel, the North Korean dictator, a proxy for Kim Jong Un, is hell bent on getting ICBMs with nuclear cap ...more

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Oct 01, 2020 Kronos Ananthsimha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It’s the Jack Ryans and the CAMPUS versus The Rocket Man(A clone copy of Kim), in this long espionage/military thriller epic which continued the Clancy legacy universe in 2014 after he died. Mr. Greaney’s attention to detail and ability to weave all the subplots & the buildups will keep any reader of this genre hooked till the end.

Don’t get me wrong, this does not read like an actual Clancy book from the 80s & 90s. People who want books like the ones Clancy wrote will have to only reread his c It’s the Jack Ryans and the CAMPUS versus The Rocket Man(A clone copy of Kim), in this long espionage/military thriller epic which continued the Clancy legacy universe in 2014 after he died. Mr. Greaney’s attention to detail and ability to weave all the subplots & the buildups will keep any reader of this genre hooked till the end.

Don’t get me wrong, this does not read like an actual Clancy book from the 80s & 90s. People who want books like the ones Clancy wrote will have to only reread his classic works. I don’t think there’d be another writer anytime soon on that level, and that’s maybe a good thing. Though I respect Clancy’s classic books, they wouldn’t work for today’s markets where readers(and all humans) have very low attention spans. The consumers today want stories that have the feel of an old genre, but fast-paced, sparsely detailed in comparison to the classic versions, and easy to understand & read & finish fast. This trend does help as I have trouble finishing a classic old Clancy book, and I enjoy the past decade’s Ryanverse/Clancyverse books as interesting pieces of entertainment despite any flaws.

Jack Ryan Jr. and his team at CAMPUS(Hendley Associates – an autonomous black ops group) tail a former CIA spook and witness him being assassinated in Vietnam. Their investigation confronts them with a Private Intelligence Company run by an opportunistic former FBI agent, a Mexican mining tycoon, North Korean assassins, and a few old faces.

The US government’s forces are looking into DPRK after the work of a sat-image analyst, a raid on a cargo ship by a SEAL team, and a North Korean missile that falls in the sea of Japan. Surprisingly for a Clancy book, there was no heavy military operations or large scale action involved. But it was good to experience Jack Ryan Sr. use the analytical skills from his former intelligence career in this book while still being an old, grumpy fictional President. His diplomatic skills with China, Mexico, DPRK, and within his own country is still on point as he resolves the whole situation in a matter of a few pages at the end while physically recovering from an assassination attempt on his life.

A previously used major character of the series, Adam Yao from Threat Vector, is back in this book for a big role. He gets trained by the top spooks at Langley to go deep cover into DPRK, the worst position for an undercover operative. The logistics, training, and detail of his operation is complex and written well compared to many contemporary thrillers. He gets to meet Jack Jr. in Vegas where they are both undercover at their separate operations, both indirectly connected to the same conspiracy. A change that I noticed was Jack Jr. being in full operator mode and avoiding the pages of his analyst work. Maybe it’s because a field operator would be a more entertaining main character than an analyst for most readers. Although, I did enjoy the Jack Jr. scenes in Command Authority(The previous Jack Ryan Sr/CAMPUS book) being a financial analyst for a firm in London investigating a complex web of money laundering and being dragged into an old school espionage type plot.

Jack’s cousin Dominic Caruso is dating Adara Sherman on their CAMPUS team, which starts in his solo book Support and Defend, but it appears to be a secret from their colleagues. Jack Jr. gets some chemistry with a private sector operative( a former French spook) who’s a bit older than him, but it doesn’t receive any happy ending when she’s betrayed by her own colleague – a fun, opportunistic, sociopathic scumbag named Edward Riley.

Riley, a private sector James Bond type character, is a washed-up Brit SIS operative who does anything necessary to keep his flashy lifestyle and rise into power, even working with North Korean assassins, Mexican Cartel enforcers, Cuban operatives, and middle eastern bombmakers. Despite being a villainous character, he steals the show by being the most interesting person in the midst of all the normal Chancy-esque characters.

The North Korean leader is portrayed as hilariously crazy as his real-world version which reads like a fun what-if scenario, considering the rocket-man drama that happened a couple of years ago. His ways of executing his own officers by feeding them to hungry dogs, burning them to a crisp, and his intense paranoia makes him appear like a comedic comic book villain, yet unfortunately realistic compared to his real-world counterpart. But the serious, fleshed-out North Korean characters are the director of their mining operations and the director of their foreign intelligence agency. They are portrayed as flawed, human, and realistic characters living in fear of their leader and working together trying to save their lives(and their families) by any means necessary while deceiving their own Supreme Leader.

Although very long and dramatic, this book reads more like an intelligence & espionage thriller than the normal Clancy military technothriller. There are good doses of techno fun including a human extraction capsule that uses a UAV drone, bomb tech, mining mechanism, and other things. A recurring major character on the CAMPUS team, who first appeared in Dead or Alive, dies in this book. I felt that he deserved to get a more meaningful death if the publisher needed him out to bring in another character. Reading Full Force and Effect is a better experience than watching any of the Clancy movies or TV adaptations. If you can avoid comparing it to Clancy’s classic works and view it as a contemporary work in his fictional universe, this long thriller is a good entertaining tale for a weekend in.

For more long-form book reviews, check out - www.kronosananthsimha.com/book-blog/ ...more

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Mar 09, 2018 Dave Taylor rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Highly predictable Clancy-style book, Greaney definitely has the writing style and storytelling style down to make it seem like Clancy himself was involved. Story was still compelling and timely about North Korean shenanigans with a rare earth minerals mine worth trillions of dollars once it comes online and an assassination attempt on President Jack Ryan. Formula? Yes. Enjoyable and a good read? Yup, that too. Recommended.

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Nov 25, 2018 Opa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Every time I read a Mark Greaney Clancy book, I am amazed at how he keeps multiple story lines running cohesively without missing a beat. I enjoyed the action and intrigue. It's easy to sit down several days with this book. ...more

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May 27, 2019 Angela Han rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller

As a Tom Clancy fan for his books, Mark Greaney delivers!

1) the author gracefully integrates multi-level, complex plots into one major plot that reveals North Korea's intention

2) the plot is action packed from beginning to end.

3) the book was technically long but not too long for integrating multiple major plots!

See blog for detailed review ...more

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Jul 23, 2017 Leslie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This was the first Jack Ryan book I read. I will definitely read more. I will start way back at beginning, see if Tom Clancy was better. I will definitely read more Mark Greaney books.

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Jul 23, 2017 wally rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: clancy, clancy-greaney

finished this one this evening, 7:10 p.m. 23 jul 17 good story four stars. i really liked it.

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Oct 29, 2020 Shaun rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I read and liked many of Clancy’s novels – The Hunt for Red October (great), Patriot Games (very good), Clear and Present Danger, Cardinal of the Kremlin (both good), The Bear and the Dragon (passable), I forget if I read The Sum of All Fears. The only other one I started but got bored with was Debt of Honor, I think. I haven’t read any of the co-authored books because I have a bit of a prejudice against them. I think co-authored books are often a bad money-making scheme, bad in that they’re bad I read and liked many of Clancy’s novels – The Hunt for Red October (great), Patriot Games (very good), Clear and Present Danger, Cardinal of the Kremlin (both good), The Bear and the Dragon (passable), I forget if I read The Sum of All Fears. The only other one I started but got bored with was Debt of Honor, I think. I haven’t read any of the co-authored books because I have a bit of a prejudice against them. I think co-authored books are often a bad money-making scheme, bad in that they’re bad for the mantle of literature and fans of authors. I think what these scenarios boil down to is a big-name author agrees to let a lesser-known author write a book in their style, they will let the book be published with their name at the top, using their popularity to get sales, and then presumably take the bulk of the royalties. What this means is that a lesser-known author does all this work, the big name author does little to nothing, maybe nothing at all beyond signing their name to it, and readers buy a book thinking one of their favorite authors wrote it when they really didn’t, the big-name author gets richer, the lesser-known author gets some success that they wouldn’t have otherwise had, but they still don’t quite get the credit for what they’d done, their name appears only in the small print and readers are still pretty unlikely to go buy their books. So I avoid co-authored books like the plague generally; I socially distance from them. That said, being the rebel I am, the non-conformist I am, I do break social distancing from time to time and cozy up with others, so that rebellious streak led me to give this book a try. In truth, what really happened was my mom brought this book home one day, knowing perhaps that I’d read a Clancy book or two before, so she thought I might be interested in it. I really wasn’t, so I let the book collect dust on my shelf for a few years until now, when I decided to read it mostly just so I could finally get rid of it. I will say that I’m at least slightly appreciative of the fact that, Clancy being dead, the book does say Full Force and Effect “By Mark Greaney”. It’s still in smaller font, Clancy’s name gets the bulk of the page, but I can at least understand that it’s Clancy-owned characters, or Clancy estate. It should be clear to readers that this is NOT the work of Clancy but Greaney, compared to supposedly co-authored books where we don’t know whether it’s 50% Clancy, 50% Greaney, or 99% Greaney and Clancy glanced over the book and changed a word or two and then signed off on it and went to the bank to collect his cash. Yes, I hate co-authored books, and I hate writers penning books from another author’s characters. Clancy is dead, leave him in the grave, publish the book with Greany’s name in big print, and small print “From Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels” or something along those lines. But at least it says “By Mark Greaney”. That’s some progress.

Anyway, rant over.

Two yellow flags appeared in the first chapter, and one of them wound up being one of the two deal-breakers that kept me from reading beyond three or four chapters (a brisk twenty pages). The first yellow flag, and I actually meant to do it second but I’ll do it first since it’ll take up less space, is use of profanity. Swear words are a major turn-off for me in novels. I was going to say I don’t know why, because I’m fairly profane myself, I enjoy dropping f-bombs, s-bombs, n-words from time to time, basically anything except the c-word. And I do tend to drop some profanity in my own books, but generally I will edit these words out the deeper I get into edits, deciding that no word is better than a swear word (I mean just cutting the word completely is better than leaving it in), or I’ll try to find some alternate way to get the emotion across instead of profanity. Profanity I think, in novels, stems from both a lack of vocabulary, the author can only use the four-letter words over and over again, and also that I think writers think using profanity will make their characters appear “gritty”, like look at me, I used a four-letter word, I have attitude. No, all you’ve done is proven you’re immature and have few words to choose from. So yeah, when I see any profanity in novels, especially early on, it sends up a red flag. In this book, I saw four swear words in the first five pages or so. This might have become a deal-breaker by itself if I’d read on, but as it turned out, I called it quits on the book before any more offenses could creep up. But my tolerance level was pretty well blown away.

The second yellow flag, and it’s something that is a major pet peeve to me, is Greaney full-named many of the characters, especially when going to them at the start of a scene. He jumps around a bit from character to character, but there are only three or four main ones in the scene, yet each time he shifts to a different character, he gives their first and last name. Why? Like why say Jack Ryan Jr. when I just read about him a page ago? Why say Ding Chavez or whatever his first name is instead of just Chavez, when I just read about him a page and a half ago? Just say Chavez. Just say Ryan, or Jack. Not only is this a common fault with many writers, full-naming characters, but I think Greaney commits an extra sin when he does it, because my sense is that he full-names characters as a sort of sentimental nod to the characters Clancy created, it’s like he’s especially going out of his way to remind readers that this isn’t any ordinary Ryan, this is JACK Ryan, this isn’t any ordinary Chavez, it’s DING Chavez, or whatever his name is. And you just don’t need to do that. When writers full-name characters, I think they’re behaving something like teenage girls dreamily doodling their first name with their crush’s last name in a pretty heart, surrounded by more hearts. The author is more in love with their characters than I am. Like I know Chavez and Clark, and I recall Jack Ryan Jr., though he was still just a little lad when I read him last. So just say Chavez, Clark, and Jack (leaving the Ryan name to Ryan Sr.) So far any other writers out there, personal request, please pick one name for your characters, a first or a last name, use it, and stick with it, don’t use the first and last name at every opportunity, and often you don’t need to do it at the start of chapters either. Even if you start a chapter with Clark or Ryan or whoever, I’ll know who that is, you don’t need to remind me what their first name is so often.

Greaney still continues to sin, though, because he does something that I think is especially bad writing. Whenever he starts a scene or a chapter, he tends to begin it with not only full naming a character, but also he’ll often tack on some kind of bio for that character. The most egregious offense I saw, randomly flipping through the book, is he literally starts a chapter or scene with, “Iranian bomb maker Adel Zarif…” I can’t express in a sentence how laughably bad this is. He is literally taking the character bio in the back of the book and splotching it into the novel when he introduces or presumably re-introduces the character. Why not just say Zarif? Or even Adel Zarif, if he has to. There surely aren’t many characters in the book with names like this, and Zarif is a pretty unique name, but to give an introduction like this…. I’m just beside myself with how terrible it is. Nigh anything is better. “Zarif handed over his Iranian passport.” “Zarif felt the zealous drumbeat of Islam pounding in his heart.” Whatever. But “Iranian bomb maker Adel Zarif…” That’s how you introduce a character? It’s criminally thoughtless, unimaginative. It’s a complete stereotype. Not just that he’s an Iranian bomb-maker, but that that’s literally how he’s billed. I can get him getting that billing in the cast of characters, but to introduce him in the novel that way??? No. Put out some effort, for God’s sake. Greaney gets a big fat F for this.

Lastly, a final issue I had with “Full Force and Effect”, again, I only got about three or four chapters in, but I quickly saw what was happening – the book was descending abruptly into generic action blandness. Very short chapters, jumping around from character to character, cliffhangers at every turn, and generic action – fight scene, gun battle, escape scene, etc., all about a page and a half long before moving on to the next one. While some would claim this makes the book an action thriller, I think it is anything but that. Look, just after or before reading this book I read a chapter of “Gone With the Wind” where the entire chapter was about Rhett Butler gives Scarlet a new hat. That is what the whole chapter is about, maybe ten, twelve pages, just on a new hat, but you know what, it was far more captivating and edge-of-my-seat than this garbage. Why? Because it was well-written and I cared about the characters. Here, with Greaney, I don’t care about the characters (this despite knowing them from previous encounters). No, past knowledge isn’t enough to make me care about them. I knew Clark in the past, but I really don’t care if he dies here, or if Chavez gets it, or Ryan, or whatever. I don’t even care about the plot yet because he’s given me no reason to. He hasn’t invested me any bit whatsoever with the story, therefore the “action” does absolutely nothing to grab me. It’s just a boring chase scene, gun battle, fight scene, whatever, nothing that hasn’t appeared in about a million other books. And the lesson I think is that you cannot just plug in an “action” scene and think you’ll grip your readers. You must, absolutely, make them care about your characters first. I care about Rhett giving Scarlet a new hat because I am interested in these characters and I see how this new hat is important. But just throwing “action” at readers is not an acceptable substitute for building plot or providing entertainment. You know what, I might’ve been much more willing to get an opening chapter talking about Ryan’s financial problems, or Clark’s balding issues, or Chavez’s impotency, and get twenty pages on that, rather than getting a page and a half about a mysterious guest, a page and a half on an assault, a page and a half on a gun fight. No. That’s bad. It’s cheap. It’s not thrilling, it’s not captivating, it’s not good, it’s not action. Good writing can make 12 pages on a new hat pleasurable reading. But not even gunfights, high-speed chases and life-or-death fights can make a bad story interesting. Throwing mindless, boring action at readers cannot rescue bad writing. But good writing can make the gift of a new hat interesting. So I’ve seen everything I need to know about Greaney from just about fifteen, twenty pages of experience. Hard pass. Not interested in anything that bears his name; maybe one day I’ll try one of his own books if he has any, but anything Clancy-related is absolutely off-limits with him. And even though I only read twenty pages or so, I feel comfortable giving it a single star. ...more

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Dec 09, 2017 David rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I liked it a lot. Good action, intrigue and international implications. Also, great insight into the evil workings of North Korean society as they aggressively seek to build ICBM's to reach the US with nuclear weapons. ...more

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Sep 24, 2015 Brad rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I'm not sure why I keep doing this to myself. The "franchise" has run its course. There isn't enough character development or meaningful dialogue to create tension when figures such as Ding Chavez and Sam Driscoll come under fire. In fact, Jack Ryan Sr. has become such a benign figure that the assassination plot scarcely moves the needle. John Clark is a mere shadow--and not just because he's aged. Sad "end" to some once-compelling characters. ...more

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Dec 10, 2014 Clay Davis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The page count by Goodreads was way off saying the book was 752 where it was 674 pages long.

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May 06, 2016 Donna Huber rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

We got a bit more of Jack Ryan Sr than some of the more recent novels so that was nice. It felt a little more like the early Ryan books.

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About Mark Greaney

Mark Greaney

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Mark Greaney has a degree in International Relations and Political Science. In researching The Gray Man series he traveled to ten countries and trained extensively in the use of firearms, battlefield medicine, and close range combative tactics.

Learn more at MARKGREANEYBOOKS.COM

Email Mark at MarkGreaneyBooks@gmail.com

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