Executive Orders
by Tom Clancy. I went through the typical teenage boy stage of loving his gung-ho action movies (starring Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan) so I assumed the then-latest book would be a similar riot.

Instead, I was treated to a *massive* brick of pulped wood containing impenetrable and uninteresting subplot developments with no relevance to the main story, endless reams of military and technical jargon that is never explained, and the most unsatisfying and anticlimactic ending in all of modern literature. The characters... don't get me started on the *DOZENS* of characters too.

The pace of the first few chapters is actually rather good and he more-or-less predicted the events of September 2001 (back in 1996). However, at the point where the protagonists and antagonists are identified and the main story begins, it would appear his editor stopped reading and just assumed the rest of the book --all 1376 pages of it-- followed suit. Instead, it spirals out of control into a boring neo-con ultra-patriotic propaganda device.
( chart cat has an itch, Wed 15 Jul 2009, 3:11, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

Oh c'mon
You've obviously not read "The bear and the dragon" - which follows it on.

Now that's even worse.
(james_tiger_woods is going to start his killing spree on the, Wed 15 Jul 2009, 13:18, Reply)