I just finished the book last night... pretty good, but not Clancy's best. I wish he'd put in a few more counter-terrorism scenes, with  different equipment and tactics for each. A crack international strike force that only trains with H&K MP5/10's and Beretta .45's seems a little simple.

Red Storm Rising is his best to date, IMO.  I picked up a copy of Blackhawk Down today, since the reviews on this board were very positive. Any new opinions?

What's everybody else reading these days?

edited to say I dunno WHAT Brouhaha is talking about a few posts down. [;)]

The Bear and the Dragon.

IMHO, The Hunt for Red October was one of the top novels by Clancy. Then again, all of his works are good, with the exception of the coauthored "Opcenter" series.

Keptain Kaganobitch

Edit: And Ranbow Six kicked ass!!!

My favorite of Clancy's was also Red Storm Rising.  Rainbow Six was pretty good...I thought the ending was attempting to be a bit too poetic though.

Black Hawk Down is excellent!  A very good read.  If I hadn't read it before, I might wait for the movie, then read the book since it seems 'the book' is usually better than 'the movie.'

Two other good books I've read recently:
[img]http://images.amazon.com/images/P/006103004X.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg[/img]
[b]* Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage

[img]http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0385495641.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg[/img]
* Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission[/b]
Wow! And double wow!  It goes through the fall of Bataan in '42, the Bataan Death March, and their liberation years later.  During the "march" the prisoners travelled some 75 miles, and if you were to evenly space out the casualties of the march alone, you'd come across a fallen soldier every 20 yards!

every 20 yards..I still have a hard time comprehending,,surrender. Death or dishonor, I know it is easier eaid than done,,but at the same time I find it hard to keep my hands from raising above my head (this is not a given for me otherwise)when I pass the automobile of a person that opted to get license plate denoting the fact that they surrendered and decided to take a chance and become a pow,,I don't know call me stupid,,who know maybe the cowardly jap bastards were right treat pows less than human because they chose to live,,to live as less than. Yea I said it,,tough shiit! They not only quit, but decided to relinguish their honor. Why would any Man want to let anyone know that they surrendered? Surrender is a shameful act,,is it not? Gee I'm sorry I was about to kill you till you got the upperhand,,surrendering is not the same as exercising descretion,,if your caught,,your fukked fight it out no option,,just do it,, eat flesh what ever etc.. do what ever ya gotta do but don't surrender! In the long run (at the least of it) it is not only the honorable thing to do but pobably the most cost effective thing to due,,,in time you reputation will procede you,,and which rep. would you want generations or for that matter you want to be remembered as? baby put your hands up etc.. fucck no! Eat flesh or what ever never surrender!

I think his best was "with out remorse"

That book kicked ass! Clark (Kelly) is the baddest of the bad! I've read all the Clancy books (the real ones, not that op-center crap) at least 3 times each, Without Remorse probably 6 times. Well....I've sort of run out of new books to read so I keep re-reading Clancy stuff. Bear & the Dragon was good too, so was Executive Orders.....and Sum of All Fears....and etc. Reread Red Storm Rising about 2 weeks ago for the 10th time.

Without Remorse was a great read... most of Clancy's stuff is, but what the hell is with that OpCenter BS? Those books are crap.  Did anyone see the made for TV movie they did on the first opcenter book?  With Harry Hamlin as the DDCIA?  Just bad!



Brouhaha, you may be right, as I'm not up to speed on all the H&K variants out there.  However, I took "MP10" directly from the book, and just assumed Clancy got it right, my mistake... if you are correct.

I lliked "Without Remorse" too. I must say that i did enjoy the poetic justice at the end of "Rainbow six"

Shawn

Of course when the some(all)the folks make it out of the jungle, we will have another Rainbow book.

Bear and Dragon was not Clancy's best effort.  WAY too much detail on the front end, and by the way, we fight the Chinese in the latter half.  Too quick, too clean, no NBC?  Sure...

I just finished Clear and Present Danger. I thought it was allright, though not one of his best. I liked most of the others I've read so far. He writes a pretty good book, though he really ought to put some more work into getting small arms details right.

"Without Remorse" and "Red Storm Rising" were definitely Clancy's most entertaining books.  I don't like his antiseptic style though.

I am currently finishing the last 5 pages of "Bin Laden:  The man who declared war on America" by Yossef Bodansky.  It's an eye-openning read on muslim terrorists, etc.

I'm also halfway through "The Hidden War" by Artyom Borovik.  That's one depressed Russian.  Good read on Afghanistan though.

I'll probably start "Blind Man's Bluff", or take a deep breath and struggle through the next 5 pages of "Atlas Shrugged" after the Broncos choke.  I'm on about 510 of "Atlas Shrugged".  I have to read it a little at a time so I don't miss anything.

"Black Hawk Down" is an excellent book.  Try to keep in mind that it is written by a guy who knows nothing about the military after he interviewed a number of very young soldiers (the type who seem to believe the most wild wives-tales).

Doug, is "Atlas Shrugged" that dry?  Being heralded as the best book ever written, I assumed it'd be eclectic, but readable.  I even asked for it for Christmas!  Bringin me down!

I'll just have to read "the Bear and the Dragon" instead.

My sister gave me "Rainbow Six" for Christmas last year. It was the first book I'd read in the many, many years since college (unfortunately). I really enjoyed it!

A friend's kid loaned me a couple Richard Marcinko books that didn't take nearly as long to read. While pretty entertaining, they weren't as good as the Clancy novel. I plan to read more TC books; almost forgot how enoyable and entertaining reading can be. [:)]