Patriot Games [Paperback]

Tom Clancy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1992

CIA analyst Jack Ryan and his family are caught in a deadly game of international terrorism when an ultra-left-wing faction of the IRA targets him for stopping one of their assassination attempts. Reissue. Movie tie-in.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The bestselling author of Red Storm Rising and The Sum of All Fears brings Jack Ryan back in his to fight his deadliest battle yet.

From England to Ireland to America, an explosive wave of violence sweeps a CIA analyst and his family into the deadliest game of our time: international terrorism. An ultra-left-wing faction fo the IRA has targeted the CIA man for his act of salvation in an assasination attempt. And now he must pay ... with his life. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Introduced in The Hunt for Red October, Jack Ryan, the naval historian who freelances for the CIA, returns in this novel, in which Clancy demonstrates once again that he is a master of a genre he seems to have createdthe technico-military thriller. On a visit with his wife and daughter in London, Ryan stumbles onto an attempt by a new Irish revolutionary group to kidnap the Prince and Princess of Wales and their eldest son. Using his Marine Corps training, Ryan saves the royals (which leads to several visits between the Ryans and the residents of Buckingham Palace), but Ryan becomes the target of the surviving terrorists. Many familiar elements of the Clancy style are evident here: a fascination with machines and systems and procedures; thin characters; idealization of the soldier's life ("the discipline and the essential toughness that makes them different"); sarcastic humor; and a discordant sentimentality about family life. There are also some unintended ironies, particularly Clancy's praise of the CIA and the Marines, considering recent news from Washington and Moscow. Nonetheless, Clancy spins a marvelously tense yarn that will appeal to his legion of fans. First serial rights to Penthouse; Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, Military Book Club, Reader's Digest Condensed Books selections.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 1 pages
• Publisher: Berkley; later printing edition (May 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425134350
• ISBN-13: 978-0425134351
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (184 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #789,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tom Clancy is America's, and the world's, favorite international thriller author. Starting with THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, all thirteen of his previous books have hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. His books, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, PATRIOT GAMES, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER and THE SUM OF ALL FEARS have been made into major motion pictures. He lives in Maryland where he is a co-owner of the Baltimore Orioles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jack Ryan's First Adventure!, January 25, 2001

By 

Cody Carlson (Salt Lake City, UT United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Patriot Games (Jack Ryan) (Mass Market Paperback)

International terrorism is the topic Clancy tackles in his novel, 'Patriot Games.' When history teacher and sometime CIA anylist Jack Ryan intervenes in an IRA hit on the Prince of Wales, he soon finds himself a political target. When his family is attacked in Baltimore Ryan again goes to work for the CIA in the hopes of stopping the terrorists. While the story is gripping and the action scenes fast-paced and exciting, the first two hundred pages of the book are for the most part slow. If you're a patient reader you should get through it okay. The ending is a climax in the great Clancy tradition and the characters, as always, are people you'd like to know. There is much more in the book than in the movie, but it's essentially the same story. On the whole it's a great first ride for Jack Ryan.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Patriot Games, August 13, 2002

By 

Joe Zika "Khemprof" (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Patriot Games (Jack Ryan) (Mass Market Paperback)

Patriot Games written by Tom Clancy is a Jack Ryan novel. As Clancy's hero Jack Ryan takes us to England, Ireland and the United States in this techno-thiller, with international terrorism and action-packed excitement.

Clancy works his magic with this story and leaves the reader with a sense of dangerous adventure. This book gives the reader a better sense of who Jack Ryan is and Clancy keeps you well engaged throughout the book.

I enjoyed the read, as page after page seemed to melt away to an exciting climax. You will not be disappointed reading this book as a daring assination attempt and violence seem to carry you on to the conclusion. Tom Clancy is a storyteller in this well written book.

Definitely entertaining...

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great book - not so great Kindle edition, September 10, 2010

By 

Tony Pruitt - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Patriot Games (Jack Ryan) (Kindle Edition)

I've been a Clancy fan for years and love this series. However, the Kindle edition has some obvious flaws apparent right from the beginning. The initial quotes in Patriot Games from Edmund Burke and William Webster are simply not in the Kindle edition. Also, I believe the publisher used some form of OCR (optical character recognition) to input this book. Words like 'corners' in the hard-copy edition come across in Kindle as comers. Not a big deal, but jarring nevertheless. While I love the convenience of carrying around the whole series without the need for a backpack, this kind of sloppy, lazy data transfer gives e-books a bad name.