Four great page turners by the master of military techno-thrillers

I have always been a big fan of Tom Clancy, and it was a truly sad day when he passed from the scene in 2013.  I was an early fan of Hunt for Red October, and I consider Red Storm Rising still one of the best military techno-thrillers of all time..the true granddaddy of an entire genre of fiction.


So, when I got my new job and started my long commutes, I decided to plunge back in with his next generation of military thrillers, very ably co-authored…and now authored by Mark Greaney.  I pretty much devoured them in order on Audiobook…for 3 of them Lou Diamond Phillips does a marvelous job narrating and the newest volume, Full Force and Effect, has a new narrator that is acceptable, if not as familiar.

What is remarkable is how absolutely accurate Clancy and Greaney were at predicting world events.  From the South China Sea to Ukraine to North Korea, these guys clearly did their homework and got things 90% correct…with the events in Ukraine as a yardstick they were scarily accurate.

Now, as fiction goes, these will win no literature awards from snobby pretentious book reviewers I’m sure.  There is no moral angst or gray ethics here.  The good guys are good and the bad guys are bad.  The narration is very straightforward, although the duo does a good job of maintaining tension and keeping the story going at a good clip…always important in novels that weigh-in over 400 pages.  

Although Clancy loves his techno-babble, it doesn’t overwhelm the story and the books remain fairly character driven..focusing on the team from the “Campus” and their efforts to thwart evil doers and save the day.

If you hit these up in order, you won’t be disappointed,  I will be honest and say I enjoyed the last 2 more than the first 2.  Greaney clearly hits his stride and the back stories/secondary plots are really first-rate, especially in Command Authority.
These are great page-turners and just the thing for a cold winter night.


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