Executive Orders (A Jack Ryan Novel)

This is the direct sequel to Debt of Honor, and while not as not as good as the previous novel, is still a goo read, following the actions of Clancy's hero, Jack Ryan's, and his early actions as President of the United States, picking up about 30 minutes after Ryan is sworn in as president at the end of Debt of Honor. This story is continued in the next novel, The Bear and the Dragon, which takes place about one year later.

Jack Ryan and Tom Clancy may have reached their pinnacle of achievement with this book. However, this book is definitely not the place to start the series; as a minimum, The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and Debt of Honor should definitely be read before this book. Jack, due to the events detailed in Debt of Honor, suddenly finds himself President of the U.S., a position which he never aspired to and in which he feels decidedly uncomfortable. But, good former Marine that he is, he quickly buckles down to the demands of the job - a job that rapidly spawns seemingly endless problems and complications. In detailing these, Clancy weaves an incredible number of sub-plots together: an assassination of the Iraqi President and the amalgamation of that country with Iran, an attempt to kidnap his youngest daughter, a biological attack on the U.S., a heat up of the continuing dispute between the two Chinas, an attempt by the former Vice President to remove Jack from office, and multiple attacks on his integrity by the news media. This is where Clancy shines, as each of these sub-plots is probably strong enough to be a novel in its own right. They all have strong dramatic elements and are not only plausible, but frightening in just how close they are to events in the real world that have occurred since this book was written - so much so that the notion has been put forth that certain terrorist elements got the ideas for their deeds from this book and Debt of Honor. Jack is well drawn. His reactions to situations and problems make sense for the type of man he is, and Clancy does a good job of making the reader empathize with him. Most of the other main characters are shown with enough depth to make them real, though it definitely helps if you have read the prior novels in this series, as some of the background for these characters was presented earlier, and is not re-hashed in this book. However, most of the characters are not excessively deep, and it is very clear who are the `good guys' and who are the `bad', which perhaps is a good thing in a thriller. The battle scenes are typical Clancy, filled with a great number (quite accurate) technical details - perhaps too much so, as at times the picture of just what war is really like gets lost in all these details. Also somewhat of a detraction is the fact that the `good guys' have too easy a time of it; it seems like all their plans are precisely accomplished, with few of the screw-ups and surprises that always happen in real conflicts. Which leads to the other fault with this book - it really is too long, and a fair amount of it could have been cut without losing the impressive tapestry effect. Some may object to the political viewpoints expressed in this novel, as they are decidedly on the right of the spectrum. But Clancy does a good job of detailing why these viewpoints should at least be given some careful thought by all Americans. Here we find good rationales behind limiting the power of t

At the end of "Debt of Honor" a jet airplane slams into a Joint Session of Congress, pretty much wiping out the American government and suddenly putting Jack Ryan into the Presidency. While Clancy's book was at the top of the Best Seller list someone crashed a small plane into the White House, yet I heard nothing on the news about how life was imitating art. Now, of course, this is headline news and Clancy's books are suddenly being hailed as dire prophecies that are suddenly coming true. In "Executive Action" as Islamic leader assassinates the President of Iraq, forges Iran and Iraq into the United Islamic Republic, attacks the United States with biological weapons, and invades Saudi Arabia to grab the oil fields. Suddenly Tom Clancy has become the prophet of the moment as his fiction became fact with the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Of course, Clancy has not been alone telling such tales, but the focus is certainly on his writings at this pivotal moment in history.A few have suggested that Clancy was actually providing a blueprint for the terrorists and I seem to remember that there had never been a skyjacking until Robert Serling wrote about it in a novel. But writers just look at the world around them and find creative opportunities, which is certainly no different from what terrorists do in planning operations. However, the reason I feel compelled to reread and review "Executive Orders" is because I think that there are some important things that Clancy has to say about the moment that goes beyond terrorist attacks. First, as Jack Ryan repeatedly points out in the novel, the actions of terrorists for are fundamentalist Muslims do not reflect on the vast majority of the followers of Islam around the world. A war on terrorism is not a war on Islam, no matter what the terrorists claim, and no matter what ignorant and bigoted jerks in this country might want to believe. Second, another Jack Ryan mantra, that human agents are invaluable in trying to gather intelligence on terrorist organizations. Finding terrorists leaders is going to require human agents on the ground and not spy satellites or unmanned drones. Third, secrets are important for the government/military to respond effectively to terrorist attacks. We have the right to know, but the first thing enshrined in the Jefferson's trilogy is "life" and not freedom of the press. Besides, Congress provides oversight in such matters so the intrusive snooping of the press is unwarranted. A corollary of this, as Jack Ryan finds out repeatedly in the novel, is that you cannot trust the press to do the right thing. This particular point was made more strongly in "Debt of Honor," where news networks had to be convinced that reporting certain facts the government was trying to keep secret would result in the deaths of American military personnel (and that this was a bad thing). "Executive Orders" is a story well told, and what is important about it today is not just what it s

In the aftermath of the horrible tragedy that hit the US on September 11th, I keep hearing from everywhere in the world exclamations of the sort "Who would have thought they would strike like this!" and "Nobody could ever imagine what happened". Well, someone did. The moment I heard the news of the first crash, I thought "this can't be happening, I've read this in a book with Jack Ryan, it's some kind of advertising trick for a movie based on this book". Sadly, it was true. And for this only, the book deserves 5 stars. I bet Mr. Clancy himself is right now staring aghast to the TV screen, seeing that life sometimes does imitate good fiction...Let us just wish, for the sake of the planet who shares in US's sorrow, that the hard nationalistic, right-windish & purely capitalist outlook presented by Mr. Clancy in the book will not utterly prevail in reality, although I personally do not have very high hopes.