This one is really for RR and could probably go in the artsy forum. I was reading the book last night and read this passage. Clancy seems to have a knack for putting into books things that pop up in the near future:

"It's pretty simple." Tont Wills observed. "If we do not have human-intelligence assets in the field, then it's hard for us to get any kind of warning, unless the bad guys are really loose with their cell phones. But the news media likes to tell people how we track the bad guys, and the bad guys learn from that. The White House staffers, too - they like to tell reporters how smart they are, and they leak data on signals intelligence. You sometimes wonder if they're stringers for terrorists, the way they give away code-word-sensitive information."

Okay, so he was off about the white House staffers and instead should have mentioned the opposing party partisan political games that come before national security interests

i started reading that book and i threw it out because it sucked.

it read like a bad movie script.

it read like a bad movie script.

That's actually what all Clancey books are.

That's actually what all Clancey books are.
Have you read most of his books or just watched the movies?

I've only tried to read two of them... "Teeth of the Tiger" and "SSN". They were both horrible. I later found out that "SSN" was a script for a video game. No wonder.

Clancey writes his books with the intention of turning them into movies or video games. The problem is, what looks good on a movie or computer screen doesn't usually sound good in written text.

I read a few of them, and that was enough. They're trash novels. Clancy is to literature as Michael Moore is to documentary film making.

GASP!

Yes, he's written some questionable books, but you're all reading the wrong ones. You have to read the Ryanverse books. I'm just finishing up Executive Orders, which is a 1300 page book that involves a plane crasing into the Capitol Building as its centerpiece. I highly doubt that he ever intends for that beast of a book to be made into a movie, this is NOT John Grisham we're talking about.

And what interesting timing, Caddis, my sister just got me that book like 4 days ago and I'm planning on reading it right after I finish my reread of EO.

As for what you're talking about... Clancy's pretty politically astute in the stuff he writes. You can tell he's a real true-blue paleocon, the kind of con I can respect and even agree with on a lot of things.

I honestly don't like the fact that these newsies are reporting stuff like this, but that's their job. What really kind of bothers me is not the newsies, but whoever is giving them their information. The timing of all of this stuff really makes me think that there's a possible Democratic conspiracy on this stuff.

I mean, let's take a look at the timing, huh? Congress extends the Patriot Act, but only for 6 weeks or whatever it was.
Leak about the EO allowing spying
Leak about NSA cookies
What next?
Vote on Patriot Act again....

The timing seems to fortuitous to be a coincidence. And don't give White House Staffers a total pass, let's not forget Plame.

I read Rainbox Six a few years ago and it was an ok book. Nothing special. It paled in comparison to the next book I read which was Starship Trooper. That was one of the best books I have read and the movie did the book no service.

Clancy bites, Im sorry RR. I did try the 'Ryanverse', with Patriot Games. I enjoyed the first maybe, 60 pages but then it just turned to ****. As for Grisham--How do you equate that? He writes great books that tend to make ****ty movies. And his ratio of books-to-movies is nothing next to Clancy or M.C.

No "Ryanverse" book should be read until Without Remorse is read first. It tells the story of the origin of John Clark. It's a book that stands alone in that you don't have to read anything before or after it. But if you do read it you will want to read every book that has Clark in it. To be honest, most Clancy books don't get good (in and 'action' sense) until you get through the first few hundred pages


Clancy bites, Im sorry RR. I did try the 'Ryanverse', with Patriot Games. I enjoyed the first maybe, 60 pages but then it just turned to ****. As for Grisham--How do you equate that?
You should have read Hunt for Read October first (or Without Remorse) Patriot Games may have been the worst of the three that were made into movies and they did a hack job on Clear a Present Danger

What's with all of this poop-talk about my favorite action-suspense author?

What Caddis said about Without Remorse is spot-on. Read that first, then Patriot Games, Red Rabbit, Hunt, and so on in order of publication. But either way, you really have to have a fetish for military stuff to read his earlier works, and a fetish for political stuff to read his latter stuff.

As for Grisham--How do you equate that? He writes great books that tend to make ****ty movies. And his ratio of books-to-movies is nothing next to Clancy or M.C.

Grisham writes the equivalent of literary crack. Yes, I stole that line from a sitcom, so sue me, its true. His writing is all plot, no character. Plus, he writes like he's never even heard of a thesaurus. I enjoy reading his books too, but to refer to them as great? Alexander would roll in his grave if he heard that adjective used to describe Grisham.

Grisham: 18 books published (one a year since 1989 except for 1990)
Clancy: 12 in the Ryanverse, plus Red Storm Rising, his non-fiction books, Netforce, Op-Center, and PowerPlays, all of which he simply lent his name and some resources too.

Grisham: Books turned into movies- The Firm, The Pelican Brief, A Time to Kill, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, Runaway Jury.
Short Story turned into movie- The Gingerbread Man
Books turned into TV movie or series- The Client, The Street Lawyer, A Painted House

You've never read a Grisham book, my friend, you've read a Grisham script.

And could he possibly NOT put "the" in every freaking title of every freaking book???


Sorry, I just really despise Grisham, and hate myself for reading his books.

I'm a Clive Cussler fan myslef...:p