I read “Hunt for Red October” during a drill weekend while a Reserve at NAS Coronado.
“Rainbow Six” was the first Clancy book I read. I was late to the party. My wife (girlfriend at the time) has all of his books in hard back. She’s a huge fan. I read “Patriot Games”, then Hunt, and was hooked from there. I enjoyed his recent book “Dead or Alive”.
I especially liked when he would try to talk sense into Bill O’Reilly on The Factor.
Will miss Tom Clancy. RIP.
What a memory the man had.
I remember reading a blurb from someone who provided him research for one of his books. Clancy wasn’t writing anything down. The expert asked Tom why he wasn’t taking any notes and he just said that he had it “up here”.
Amazing. How do you compete with that kind of memory.
I loved his early work. Not the best writer of character. His heros were too good and his villains were too bad, but I loved the way his books began with several unrelated story lines that seemed impossible to weave. Then when they merged, it was like the most natural thing and supported the story.
At least he was good at good dialogue for writing characters larger than life. I remember when “Jack Ryan” met either the Soviet leader or the head of the KGB over tea — can’t remember which book but probably Cardinal of the Kremlin, it has been too long since I’ve read it. At first it seemed implausible that this journeyman CIA analyst is talking to one of the Soviet Union’s most powerful men, but as the dialogue went on it felt more plausible, even as the Ryan character best the soviet. You do measure your protagonists against the strength of your villains, as Sherlock Holmes is made greater by the brilliance of Moriarty.
As an engineer, my favorite thing about Clancy was that he constantly taught me delicious details about the military and government. Red October was like a primer on undersea boats and submarine warfare.
I miss that quality of writing.
I stopped reading him after Debt of Honor. Just didn’t work for me. Without Remorse is the last Clancy book I loved.
Very sad to hear this...
A great author, with a lot of insight and intelligent story lines.
You will be missed, Mister Clancy. RIP and prayers out to his family.
Excellent fiction writer with a core based on probable facts.
Clancy’s “Hunt for Red October” was briefly discussed in a great book re our Silent Service and intel actions, “Blind Man’s Bluff” by Sontag and Drew.
On page 322 of “Blind Man’s Bluff”, Admiral Watkins noted that about 2/3’s of “Red October” is on target and the rest is wrong.
Awdang. I think I read most everything he wrote.
RIP, Mr. Clancy
Tom Clancy, RIP. He spoke to us at ITAC for an hour one afternoon back in 1991 or 92. he then signed autographs on his books that we brought from home until every one of us in line had received his autograph. I personally enjoy his 2nd book about a potential 3rd World War between NATO and the Warsaw Pact: Red Storm Rising. This was NOT one of his “Jack Ryan” novels.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Storm_Rising
RIP john Clark
How terribly sad. Prayers for him and his family.
Among my Clancy collection are two first edition copies of Hunt for Red October.
Ascension
And if I go,
while you’re still here...
Know that I live on,
vibrating to a different measure
—behind a thin veil you cannot see through.
You will not see me,
so you must have faith.
I wait for the time when we can soar together again,
—both aware of each other.
Until then, live your life to its fullest.
And when you need me,
Just whisper my name in your heart,
...I will be there.
- Colleen Corah Hitchcock
Tom Clancy, from the dedication page of ‘Executive Orders’:
“In the orginal hardcover edition of ‘Without Remorse’ are the words of a poem which I found by accident and whose title and author I was unable to identify. I found in them the perfect remembrance for my ‘little buddy,’ Kyle Haydock, who succumbed to cancer at the age of eight years and twenty-six days - to me he will never really be gone. Later I learned that the title of this poem is ‘Ascension,’ and that the author who penned these magnificent words is Colleen Hitchcock, a poet of rare talent living in Minnesota. I wish to take this opportunity to commend her work to all students of the lyric phrase. As her words caught and excited my attention, I hope they will have the same effect of others.”
ff