Customer Reviews

The Jack Ryan Agenda: Policy and Politics in the Novels of Tom Clancy: An Unauthorized Analysis (Forge Book)

5 star:		(1)
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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you are looking for the equivalent of Cliff notes on Tom Clancy's works or a "how to be Jack Ryan" fan guide THE JACK RYAN AGENDA will leave you as confused as if you were reading THE ECONOMIST or FOREIGN AFFAIRS. What the book does provide however (and it does so exceptionally well) is an analytical overview of Clancy's works set against the real world in which they were written. It is quite impossible to seperate the author Clancy from his politics and the plots of his works from his pragmatic view of the way things should work.

Terdoslavich neatly draws comparisons between the fictional Jack's career and our changing times and in doing so speculates on the powers of the Presidency, Congress, the role of the US in the world ... and of course our "by any means neccessary" approach to problem solving that has no doubt inspired such post-Clancy franchises as 24.

An author as popular as Clancy deserves critical attention and Terdoslavich's work places it into the proper context.

Seminal reading for the "thinking" Clancy reader.

As the previous reviewer noted, the author spent most of the book explaining why things could not have happened the way Clancy described them. I'm pretty sure 99.9% of Clancy fans are aware that the books are fiction. I would guess that this author is simply looking to make some bucks off the Jack Ryan name, much the way others have doing critiques of Harry Potter or Dan Brown books. In short, Terdoslavich wrote a turd of a book!

The author spent a entire book explaining why Clancy's works are fiction...I have read every one for Clancy's books and I already knew that. The book was, however, a great review of Clancy's works and reminded me of you I like them so much!

I finally found the book that should never have been written. The book was given to me, so I tried to read it. Why would anyone waste their time comparing Tom Clancy's novel hero against real life presidents and presidental polices? I have concluded that the author must be jealous of Clancy's success and thought he could make a little money writing a book comparing a fictitious character virsus real presidental policy. This book really deserved a minus star.