Executive Orders | Tom Clancy | The American "Iliad"

Executive Orders | Tom Clancy | Couldn't put it down

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Executive Orders

	Executive Orders Tom Clancy Putnam, 1996 - 874 pages average customer review:based on 505 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The American "Iliad"

This is truly an epic, an account of the struggle between the democracy of the United States and terrorism. After the initial, almost complete destruction of our government, we are left wondering how we will ever be able to put it back together again. At this point, the suspense is unbearable, and you must read on, you simply must. Of course, with the survival of the one person among hundreds of key politicians, who is the hero, Jack Ryan, we know that everything will be allright. But we don't know how, and we're anxious to find out. On the road to "happily ever after" we encounter one serious incident after another, any one of which could put us down for the count. Clancy weaves these plots with great precision, using the strokes of a master painter. Jack Ryan starts out slowly, cautiously, and seemingly unsure of himself, but builds confidence in himself to make the right decisions, and begins to issue his EXECUTIVE ORDERS to counterbalance and overcome the potential disasters facing him (and us).

The sub-plots are intricately woven and very well connected, and in a book this long, many times the suspense is unbearable.
Of course the good guys win, but this does not make the story trite, nor is this unusual in any way. It is the classic expression of the triumph of good over evil. And what's wrong with that ?

My two favorite passages are Ryan's confrontation with the Prime Minister of India, a woman, when she orders the Indian Navy to interfere with the passage of the US Navy in the Indian Ocean as they are on their way to the Persian Gulf, and he (Ryan), in a telephone conversation with her, gets her to back down, after her initial coy belligerence; and Ryan's confrontation in the oval office with the one who betrayed him.

The story is very long and sometimes tedious because of all the details, but overall it is terrific reading-one of the best books I've read in a long time. I always thought Ludlum's spy thrillers were good, but I think Clancy has pushed it up a notch to the next level.

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Couldn't put it down

I bought it when it was first published in 1996. An incredibly gripping novel. So many plots, so many twists. Filled with bad guys, worse guys, and down right evil characters. Like many Clancy novels, EO pulls back the curtain behind everything from infectious diseases to the TO&E of an Armored Cavalry Regiment. After several years, I bought a used copy and it consumed my entire weekend -- from Friday night to Monday night. I actually got weepy eyed during some parts -- Cathy Ryan as she was treating Ebola victims in Baltimore, the tactics of the North Carolina brigade as they clobbered the UIR forces.

Just an amazing book. Worth reading...again. It is a long book though. The paperback weighed in at 1358 pages. I still can't believe I read the entire thing. lol.

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Scott Shirley's review

I thought this was a great book! Jack Ryan is one of my favorite characters. Harrison Ford makes a great Jack Ryan! Hope you enjoy the book too!

Style as Metaphor

In EXECUTIVE ORDERS, Tom Clancy continues the saga of Jack Ryan in a novel that is so long (1,358 pages) that its length becomes a subtext. Historically, when any novel exceeds 1,000 pages, the author can use this length either to present a multiple point of view that aids the reader is getting involved (a good thing) or uses that length to present any and all nuances that can impede reader interest (a bad thing). In EXECUTIVE ORDERS, Clancy takes a middle course, but one that leans overly close to the latter.

The plot is surprisingly simple for its length. A kamikaze Japanese pilot crashes his 747 jumbo jet into the nation's capitol building, killing the president, all of the Supreme Court, and very many senators and other lawmakers. Ryan, as the recently selected vice-president assumes the presidency, only to face the immediate problem of reconstructing the foundation of the government of the United States. He soon learns that he has other concerns--the Ebola virus has broken out and may be the start of a co-ordinated bio-weapon attack.

I had no problem with this basic plot. It, after all, resonates quite prophetically in the post 9-11 world. Nor did I even have much of a problem with the annoying and going nowhere subplot of the Mountain Men, a plot which easily got lost somewhere in the first 1,000 pages. No, my concern was with placing EXECUTIVE ORDERS in the Clancy canon of Ryania. Clancy does tend to write at length so those who have come to this novel after having read a few of his other epics will feel quite at home. But here, Clancy has gone overboard--even for him. He uses omniscient narrator to peek into too many minds and not enough into the one mind that counts--Ryan's. Clancy comes perilously close to a stream-of-consciousness style as each narrator breaks in with his own perspective based mostly on a whim that pops into his brain. What Clancy is best at is the technical mumbo-jumbo verbal wizardry that deals with guns, tanks, planes, and bombs, but even here, an excessive amount of that quickly palls. When I began to approach the last one hundred pages or so, I got the feeling that Clancy realized that after more than 1,000 pages of introductory pre-climax writing, he was still nowhere close to wrapping things up. Those last one hundred pages seemed fast and forced. Unfortunately, that is all too common with the genre, but with Clancy, you usually do not mind being taken for a ride that seemed more than a tad too long.

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