Well, the games were pioneering works and even though his novels were pretty good they were just good executions in an already standardized genre.
I must respectfully disagree. Back in the ‘80s I was a submarine qualified Quartermaster working for ComSubGru 2 in New London. I’d read quite a bit of submarine techno fiction, and the best of it was horrible. I’d always wanted to meet one of these clowns that wrote so “authoritatively” on a subject about which they knew nothing. Then there was a small note in the paper that one of these guys was going to be signing his new book over at the Waterford Mall. The SubWife and I went and purchased one of his books, and had him autograph it. He handed it to me and said, “I hope you like it.” To which I calmly replied, “I hope so too. Because if I don’t, I’m going to come back here and shove it down your throat.” I read it at work, and every so often slid out the intel board to make sure the Soviet fleet was still where it was supposed to be. I still have my autographed 0th edition of Hunt For Red October. The next year he was back with Red Storm Rising. I went over to get an autographed copy of that too. He signed it, and started to hand it over. But, took a closer look at me, paused and asked, “Did you like the last one?” I said, “Yes, very much!” Then he handed the book over. If I’d tried that a couple of years later, after he’d gotten famous, and made some connection, I probably would have finished my hitch counting trees in Antarctica. I only crossed paths with Tom Clancy twice, but he struck me as a pretty decent guy.