PinkyGen
Paper copying intern
Clancy started going downhill when he left submarines. 
In reality, I think the problem was the end of the cold war.
Red October and Cardinal of the Kremlin were great Ryan books. (Cardinal's a little weird to read now). Patriot Games was pretty good too, as Clancy at least decently came up with credible villians with the IRA terrorists, and Clear and Present Danger was enjoyable to read. Finally, Red Storm Rising was great, with real casaulties on all sides, and what I thought were great scenes between the frigates and the subs, sorry Simon.
While I enjoyed the second half of the Sum of All Fears, it displayed signs of the downfall of Clancy which got amplified in most other books.
1. He spent too much time on exposition, a sin most noticeably seen in Executive Orders, where 3/4ths of the book is exposition and stage setting.
2. He raises the stakes to immediatly threaten the entire US/and or world, instead of smaller action stuff of the Ryan series.
3. Even the scale of action is bigger, he constantly downplays US casaulties. The bomb in Sum of All Fears is a semi-dud, only killing thousands. Except for Congress, it seems only Japanese and some American subs go in Debt of Honor, while Executive Orders has justifiably only a few thousand due to Ebola, while there hardly any US casaulties in Saudi Arabia, and hardly any US casaulties fighting the Chinese, I'm trying to remember the last time a US Fighter was even shot down in a Clancy book, I believe it's Sum of All Fears.
In reality, I think the problem was the end of the cold war.
Red October and Cardinal of the Kremlin were great Ryan books. (Cardinal's a little weird to read now). Patriot Games was pretty good too, as Clancy at least decently came up with credible villians with the IRA terrorists, and Clear and Present Danger was enjoyable to read. Finally, Red Storm Rising was great, with real casaulties on all sides, and what I thought were great scenes between the frigates and the subs, sorry Simon.
While I enjoyed the second half of the Sum of All Fears, it displayed signs of the downfall of Clancy which got amplified in most other books.
1. He spent too much time on exposition, a sin most noticeably seen in Executive Orders, where 3/4ths of the book is exposition and stage setting.
2. He raises the stakes to immediatly threaten the entire US/and or world, instead of smaller action stuff of the Ryan series.
3. Even the scale of action is bigger, he constantly downplays US casaulties. The bomb in Sum of All Fears is a semi-dud, only killing thousands. Except for Congress, it seems only Japanese and some American subs go in Debt of Honor, while Executive Orders has justifiably only a few thousand due to Ebola, while there hardly any US casaulties in Saudi Arabia, and hardly any US casaulties fighting the Chinese, I'm trying to remember the last time a US Fighter was even shot down in a Clancy book, I believe it's Sum of All Fears.
