The Pinnacle of the Jack Ryan Universe

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	• Executive Orders Tom Clancy Putnam, 1996 - 874 pages average customer review:based on 503 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Pinnacle of the Jack Ryan Universe

"Executive Orders" is 1358 pages long. Yes, you read that correctly 1358 pages long! No one has ever praised Tom Clancy for the brevity of his prose, but 1358 pages is one audaciously long book. The only thing that could keep reading a novel of this length from being an overwhelmingly tiresome exercise is for it to contain an audaciously good story. Fortunately for Tom Clancy and Jack Ryan fans, this book resoundingly succeeds on this count.

Now, please be forewarned [IF YOU HAVE NOT READ "DEBT OF HONOR" YET, THEN GO NO FURTHER WITH THIS REVIEW]:

Now, if you have read "Debt of Honor", you will remember the absolutely shocking way it ended, with a rogue Japanese commercial airline pilot crashing his 747 into the Capitol Dome during the President's speech to a joint session of Congress, killing all of Congress, the President, the Cabinet, and the Supreme Court justices (among others). This all happened after the sitting Vice President has resigned in disgrace and Jack Ryan was just approved to be the new VP by acclimation vote of Congress before the plane struck.

So, now Jack is President and he has rebuild a devastated government while facing a political threat from the former VP who thinks he should be president; a foreign crisis brought about by Middle East upheavals (one of which is proving to be quite prophetic); and a domestic crisis brought about by a biological terrorist attack. It's just another day in the life of Jack Ryan.

The real appeal of this book is that every different plot thread is extraordinarily well thought out and set up. In most books this ambitious, you will find certain plot lines boring, making you anxious to get to more exciting portions of the story. In "Executive Orders", Clancy never falls into that trap. You can feel each different thread building upon the others, instead of running in opposition to them. The payoff is a tremendous climax (or rather a series of them) which rewards the reader for their efforts throughout this magnum opus.

"Executive Orders" is a crowning achievement in the Jack Ryan Universe. There are so many fabulous books in the Ryan series, but this one is its apex.

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Plotlines review

Let rate each of the major plotlines in the book in true U.S. Navy fashion, of Outstanding, Excellent, Good, Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory. SPOILER ALERT -- spoilers abound.

The Asia Minor war with the United Islamic Republic. First off, I must note that Jack Ryan is not a good president. His unpresidential conduct (e.g., maudlin funeral service) made him, and by extension his country, look weak. Something to think about when we elect the next president. Second, we now know that Iran taking over Iraq in a matter of days is not something that could happen. Iran can barely control itself, let alone another country. The land, air and sea battles were fairly well done, however. Rating: good.

Ebola terrorism. Well done with the exception that Ding and Chavez pop up, Zelig-like, to provide crucial information about who has been experimenting with monkeys. The retribution at the end was fantastic (JDAMs on the mullah-in-chief's house especially), and my only question is, Why not use a high-level nuclear bomb to destroy the lab, instead of a low-level one? Rating: excellent.

The assassination attempt on Jack. The idea of a Mohammedan sleeper agent is certainly plausible, post- 9-11, post-Lackawanna Sleeper Cell. I didn't like the fact that catching the rogue Secret Service agent depended in part on luck, but it was certainly presented in a plausible way. Rating: excellent.

The assassination attempt on SANDBOX. I'm getting tired of "kids in jep." Clancy skillfully played that card in "Patriot Games" but I'm a little annoyed to see it come up again here. The only thing that saves this plotline from Unsatisfactory rating is the vivid description of the assault and the takedown of the bad guys. Rating: satisfactory.

The Mountain Men. Didn't go anywhere and was unnecessary. Unsatisfactory.

Edward Kealty tries to muscle back into the presidency. A little absurd but does present interesting legal issues. Rating: good.

Running the government. Clancy obviously took the chance to tell us everything he would change if he were president, but it wound up being just a series of political speeches that any competent editor could have stopped. Two hundred or more pages could have been taken out of the book in this part alone and it would have been far better. Clancy needs an editor with some backbone, for his sake as well as ours. Rating: unsatisfactory.

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Fast Paced and Thrilling

If you are a fan of Tom Clancy you will love this book. It has all the aspects a book require to make it a great read. Twist after twist this book will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. The events in this book are so realistic you might as well be reading a non-fiction book, that's part of what makes this book so good. If haven't read the books leading up to this I would definitely recommend that you read the other jack Ryan books first. You will fall in love with Jack Ryan in this book and all of Tom Clancy's other books.

Still a fantastic story

Executive Orders is the story of American survival after the government is decapitated. Enemies sense weakness and use terrorists to strike with biological weapons. The rest of the page turning story is about American survival and retribution. Another great, huge, Tom Clancy novel.

Another book with a similar theme is Behold, an Ashen Horse. The attack is more severe, and the president a more pragmatic and hard man than Clancy's Jack Ryan. Retribution is also much more sever than what President Ryan dispenses.

Both books are excellent reads, deal with real world problems, contain interlocking subplots, and will scare the you know what out of you with their realism.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

5 CDs / 6 hours
Read by Edward Herrmann
Also available on cassette

"I don't know what to do.  Where's the manual, the training course, for the job?  Whom do I ask?  Where do I go?"

Debt of Honor ended with Tom Clancy's most shocking conclusion ever: a joint session of Congress destroyed, the President dead, most of the Cabinet and the Congress dead, the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs.  Dazed and confused, the man who only minutes before had been confirmed as the new Vice-President of the United States is told that he is now President.

President John Patrick Ryan

And that is where Executive Orders begins.  Ryan had agreed to accept the vice-presidency only as a caretaker for a year, and now suddenly an incalculable weight has fallen on his shoulders.  With stunning force, his responsibilities crush in upon him.  He must calm an anxious and grieving nation, allay the skepticism of the world's leaders, conduct a swift investigation of the tragedy, and arrange a massive state funeral - all while attempting to reconstitute a Cabinet and Congress with the greatest possible speed.

But that is not all.  Many eyes are upon now, and many of them are unfriendly.  In Beijing, Tehran, and other world capitals, including Washington, D.C., there are those eager to take advantage where they may, some of whom, from Ryan's past, harbor intense animosity toward the new President himself.  Soon they will begin to move on their opportunities; soon they will present Jack Ryan with a crisis so great even he could not imagine it.

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