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Title: Patriot Games (Jack Ryan Novels) by Tom Clancy ISBN: 0-425-10972-0 Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group Pub. Date: 01 May, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.28 (146 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: "Games" is Classic Clancy Chiller
Comment: Tom Clancy's third novel, Patriot Games marked the return of Jack Ryan to the bookshelves. With the success of The Hunt For Red October and Red Storm Rising (Clancy's only major novel not connected to the Ryan saga), Clancy took readers back to Ryan's pre-Red October past in a tale which deals with the shadowy world of terrorism.
On a working vacation in London with wife Caroline (Cathy) and daughter Olivia (better known as Sally), Ryan is the accidental tourist-turned-rescuer when he literally runs into a brutal terrorist attack on the Prince and Princess of Wales and their baby. Without stopping to even think about it, Jack, a former Marine second lieutenant and now a professor at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, kills one terrorist and wounds another. Ryan is wounded in the brief shootout, but he survives and earns the gratitude (and an honorary knighthood) of the Royal Family.
Unbeknownst to Ryan, he also gets the attention of two very different groups. In Langley, VA, CIA Deputy Director, Intelligence (DDI) James Greer is impressed by Ryan's bravery and resourcefulness. He already knows Ryan is good CIA-analyst material; Jack has done some outside consulting for the Agency. Now Greer wants to recruit Ryan to work full-time at CIA.
The other group whose attention is on Ryan is less savory. It is the Ulster Liberation Army, a far-left extremist faction which has broken away from the Irish Republican Army. While sharing the IRA's desire to rid Ireland of British troops and break away from the United Kingdom, the ULA also wants an Irish Marxist state to rule the Emerald Isle. Thwarted in their bold attack on the Royals and thirsting for revenge against Ryan, ULA leader Kevin O'Donnell and his cohorts free the terrorist Ryan wounded and caused to be tried, convicted and punished, Sean Miller.
This novel not only deals with the shadow-world of terrorism and the agencies that combat this global scourge, but it also delves into the concepts of right versus wrong, honor, and the role of the family in society. Clancy, himself an Irish-American, has little sympathy for the violent means that Irish "freedom fighters" (and pro-British counterparts) have been using in Northern Ireland since 1969. He contrasts the stability of the Ryan family (and the fictionalized Royals) to the moral vacuum of the lone wolves and traitors who make up the ULA. The theme of the book is summed up by a quote by Edmund Burke: "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, and unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
As in the 1992 film adaptation, Patriot Games sets up a cat-and-mouse game as Miller and O'Donnell plot revenge against Ryan and to finish the mission the "meddling Yank" foiled. The storyline of the novel is obviously more complicated, and Clancy here uses a technique he will later use throughout the rest of the Ryan novels. He will introduce characters such as FBI Agents Dan Murray and Bill Shaw, who will be more prominent in later works such as Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears, and Debt of Honor. The ending, too, is more cerebral and less explosive than that of Philip Noyce's film version, with plot strands that will not be resolved so easily.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Action Extravganza
Comment: A Review by Sean
Patriot Games is a techno thriller in the classic Clancy style, starring his recurring character Jack Ryan. This time around, Ryan encounters extremist Irish terrorists, members of the ULA, while on vacation in London. He manages to foil their attack on the Prince of Wales' family and capture one of the attackers, but is injured in the process. While recovering from his injuries in England, the man he captures escapes while being transported to the Isle of Wight, and is not happy with Jack.
The plot clicks, and the book is alive with action. Clancy manages to keep the suspense alive throughout the book, and delivers every detail without skipping a beat, making Ryan's world come alive. The action sequences are jammed with, well, action, and the author keeps it alive right up to the end.
If you've read Tom Clancy before, you'll love this book as much as all the others. If not, you're in for a treat. Patriot Games is the book equivalent of an action movie.
Rating: 1
Summary: I Cringed
Comment: Back when this book first came out, I plunked down (...) or so for the brand new hardback since I'd heard so many great things about his first two novels (THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER and RED STORM RISING). Why not get his latest?
PATRIOT GAMES is horrible. The bad guys, IRA terrorists, are astonishingly inept at every turn throughout the whole book. There was never any dread that they'd actually succeed at anything.
What I really found annoying about the book was the teflon superhero Jack Ryan, his brilliant surgeon wife and their adorable-at-every-turn daughter. NOTHING WAS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE. I actually began picturing the white GI Joe doll with the black GI Joe doll for Ryan and his Marine pal after a certain point.
I mean, James Bond had a scar on his face, smoked too much, and was often a sentimental fool with the ladies--I'm talking the literary Bond here, not the strapping sexual dynamo of the cinema.
Does Ryan and his buddy and their families have to be so...perfect? It made it tough to really relate.
The scene where Ryan, laid up after the opening action sequence, bawls out Prince Charles for doubting his manhood is downright cringe-worthy.
I'd heard that Clancy had a cow when the film producers tinkered with the story for the movie. As much as he complained, I feel they'd done him a favor. Harrison Ford actually made him MORE human than he was in the book!
It's been over 15 years since I've read PATRIOT GAMES (and I keep telling myself I'll give Clancy another try), but I can still vividly remember what--to me--is the worst line ever written in a best-selling thriller:
"Way to go, your highness."
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Title: The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy ISBN: 0425133516 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: March, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Cardinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy ISBN: 0425116840 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: July, 1989 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy ISBN: 0425122123 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: July, 1996 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Without Remorse by Tom Clancy ISBN: 0425143325 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 04 May, 2004 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy ISBN: 042510107X Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: July, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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