What do You think about Clear And Present Danger (1994)?
There was a clear and present danger that I wasn't going to finish this.I don't watch soap operas. I used to. I'd get home and General Hospital would be on (Mom was heavily invested in the Luke & Laura saga,) so I got stuck with it. Consequently I know a soap opera when I see one and Clear and Present Danger is a soap opera. How so? It jumps from character to character, from scene to scene. Some of it's nearly as melodramatic as a soap, but I won't go that far in my analogy. Mainly the issue is in the episodic nature of the storytelling. The scenes are big-time ADHD in how they flitter back and forth. This has an adverse affect on character development. In fact, it seems as if Clancy attempts to counter this with info dumps. Often he introduces a brand new character, who may not even be particularly important, with a mountainous info-dump… This is Joe Schmoe. Joe was born in Eastbumfuq, IL, went to school at… and a minute later Mr. Schmoe is dead. I know it's a writer's attempt to instill an instant reader-connection to the character so that his death means something, but it doesn't work for me. I don't give a shit if a thousand such Joe Schmoes die at the hands of the baddest of bad guys. Nice try, but perhaps the issue is that you're trying to pack too much stuff into an already chunky book. Emotional bonds take time to develop. Okay, I've been too nasty those far. Let's look at Clancy's good points...Action is his strong suit. He puts you right in it. Whether it's firing a gun from a helicopter or stalking an enemy in the jungle, you're in the shit with the characters. However, if you were to debate that his strongest point is his research and application of military technical details within his books, I would concede. Guns, ships, helicopters, military rank and decorum, wartime politics, spy craft, covert missions, etc etc etc phew-eee! This book grunts and oozes the stuff! I can see how military buffs, special ops fanatics, and "gun nuts" would go gah-gah over a book like this. We've all got our little fetishes and Clancy provides the porn for violent techies. (Before you start calling me a liberal, hippy, pussy, tree hugger or any of that shit, just shut the fuck up. I've owned guns since I was a kid.) I just don't get a woody over firearms anymore. I shot that load when I was pre-teen and moved on. But I guess if reading a Clancy novel satisfies the sort of person that gets off on that shit and it helps them get it out of their system, well then I'm glad these books exist. Okay, back to the nasty…Where the F is Jack Ryan? He's barely mentioned in the first half of the book and then when he does show up it's only to look around and ask, "what's going on?" And that is really his only purpose in the book, and it's purposeless. Sure, the main character fumbling about trying to figure out what's going on works great for murder mysteries, but that's because we the reader also don't know what's going on. We're finding out the truth with them. But here we already know what's going on because that's what's being related in the main story. That's the more interesting part! Every time Clancy cuts to Jack the book bogs right down into a full-on snorefest. Like I said at the top, I almost didn't finish this. After about the midway point the whole freakin' thing turned into one of those snorefests for me. The writing was only adequate, the storytelling too jumpy, the spot-lighted details not my cup of tea. Perhaps if I spiked my tea with testosterone? Nah. I'd only end up inadvertently ripping the book in half out of sheer excitement. Rating: 2.5 stars. I generously gave it three stars only because I'm in a good mood and GR's rating system is ridged. * * * * * * * * * (Note upon the author's death)Seems like it's becoming a thing where if an author's book sits on my nightstand waiting to be read for more than a couple weeks, the author is doomed to die. Yikes.
—Jason Koivu
The story starts in an election year, with the sitting president of the U.S. realizing he needs to do something about the drug problem. The books starts off slowly, as often Clancy books do, laying the groundwork for the rest of the book. I advise you to hang in there, it gets good and picks up the pace. Clancy is very detailed about weapons, tactics, planes, boats, choppers, and everything military, from the struggles of politics to the struggles of the chain of command. For some this is a drawback, for me it is a plus.Tom (Mr. Clark) Kelly from "Without Remorse" is back. At first he only has a few cameos, and at first was disappointed, but later he joins as one of the central characters.The book starts with a Coast Guard ship finding a ship at sea with a family of four brutally murdered, after the wife and daughter are raped. Then the thugs dismember them all and throw them overboard to the scavengers to eat. This so affects the crew and captain, they come up with a plan to get them the two surviving murderers to talk. It wasn't legal, but it was quite innovative, and it will get your approval. What happens from there is the discovery of a money-laundering scheme for the Colombian drug cartel, and the FBI is able to seize over $600 million in cartel assets.From there we got to a secret black op, ordered by the president, to hit the cartel where it lives. He cites the "Clear and Present Danger" clause for his action, and delays informing the congress and senate. Jack Ryan is now acting director of the CIA, as Admiral Greer lays wasting away in the hospital, in the last days of his life, losing the fight with cancer. Meanwhile, Admiral Cutter, Judge Moore, and Ritter, run the op without informing Jack. A new team of Spanish-American light infantry soldiers are chosen for this op. The goal is to attack them where they operate, and to start a war among the cartel members.This is a story of spying, political intrigue, the frustration of America and Colombian democracies both having their hands tied legally to get rid of the cartels, and some determined men out to bend the rules a bit to achieve what can't be done legally. It is also a story of betrayal, one high American official sacrificing others for his own career.
—Morris Graham
Non tutti lo ameranno; io però me lo sono letto in un sol fiato. Alcune parti sono un po' meno godibili di altre, ma la tensione non cala mai, anzi! Se amate questo genere di letture "Pericolo imminente" vi piacerà senza dubbio: i combattimenti sono (come sempre) ricchi di azione, dettagli e realismo. Se cercate una lettura semplice e rilassata, questo libro non fa per voi. Come al solito Tom Clancy fa uso di termini tecnici e descrizioni accurate per tutto quello che riguarda il mondo militare, rendendo la lettura più complessa, ma, secondo me, più interessante.
—Giorgio Bonvicini
