Yepper, I’m posting about books, again! Just last week I told of a great book about espionage. But it wasn’t about the usual type of spies we think of but about the work our nuclear submarines did during the Cold War. This time, however, I’m going into the fictional world, though if you were to read these books you’d find them so realistic as to believe them to be true. What I’m speaking of is the world of Tom Clancy.

Clancy wrote many books before his death, fiction and non-fiction. He was the master of the techno-thriller dealing with espionage and military themes, writing of them in such a way to make you feel you were right there in the middle of the action. Many of his fictional novels were written in the form of a series with recurring characters and references to past event in the earlier novels. And after re-reading Blind Man’s Bluff, the story of American submarine espionage during the Cold War, I couldn’t help but think of Clancy’s first successful novel, The Hunt for Red October, detailing a Soviet sub’s defection to America. That being so, I decided to read the entire series again and went to the bookstore and got the ten main books of the series.

The most famous fictional character in this series is Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst. The second-most famous character is a CIA operative John Clark, the cover name of John Terrence Kelly, who had to disappear and change his name for reasons you’ll learn if you read the sixth book in the series, Without Remorse. The series should be read in chronological order to be truly enjoyed and understood. But two of my favorites in the series are Clear and Present Danger and Without Remorse, both featuring Ryan and Clark. Both of these books feature questionable methods of dealing with our drug problem but can’t help but make one wonder “what if”?

Another interesting note on a couple of the books is in relation to what’s going on in our world now, terrorism. In The Sum of All Fears, written in 1991, a nuclear device is exploded in Denver. Afterwards, mention is made of all the security measures that will be implemented in the U.S. after such an act, something we’ve actually had to deal with since 9/11. Even more ironic, in the 1994 book Debt of Honor, a Boeing 747 is flown into the U.S. Capitol dome during an address by the President to a joint session of Congress, killing the President and most of Congress, leading to Jack Ryan becoming president due to the constitutional line of succession. A plot device stunningly similar to the 9/11 attacks.

I’ve not yet completed my second journey through these books but I’m certainly enjoying the time spent with them. I’ll also want to see the movies again based on a few of these books, The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and The Sum of All Fears. Harrison Ford portrays Jack Ryan in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, my favorite portrayal of this character. But for those interested in reading, in order of printing, here is the series:

• The Hunt for Red October
• Patriot Games
• The Cardinal of the Kremlin
• Clear and Present Danger
• The Sum of All Fears
• Without Remorse
• Debt of Honor
• Executive Orders
• The Bear and the Dragon
• Red Rabbit

Clancy wrote four other books introducing Jack Ryan’s son and two nephews as the protagonists before his death, a series that has continued under his name, written by others. Though I read the four he wrote, I have problems continuing reading what I consider to be “ghost-written” works. But if you so choose to read the original series, I certainly hope you enjoy as much as I have.