The Sum of All Fears | Tom Clancy | My most unusual review

The Sum of All Fears | Tom Clancy | Excellent story, overly complicated technology

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The Sum of All Fears

	The Sum of All Fears Tom Clancy Berkley, 2002 - 928 pages average customer review:based on 204 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

When his proposal for a ground-breaking Middle Eastern peace plan falls through, Deputy Director of the CIA Jack Ryan must stop anti-Israeli agents from acquiring an atom bomb and using it against Israel. Reprint. NYT.

My most unusual review

I picked up the hard copy edition which was more than two inches thick containing 798 pages and wondered if I really wanted to read such a large book. Since I had read seven of Clancy's books and "Search for Red October" was one of my favorite movies, I decided to give it a try.

Soon after starting the book, I knew it was going to be a thriller that I would like but realized that there was no way I could finish it in one reading so I found a low ebb and stopping reading at page 203. Started the next day and did not want to stop until I finished at 6:15am the next morning with strained eyes.

There were several areas that were sub-par where details/history were not needed and only added pages to the book. For example the details of exactly how the bomb was built and again how the bomb exploded microsecond by microsecond was so boring that I skip-read pages at a time.

Whenever the location, time, etc. shifted the paragraphs were separated only by an extra line so it was difficult to know what sub-plot the text was continuing. It would have been a much easier read if orientation headings were used like in al-Qaeda Strikes Again.

There was a love story included that had tears running down my face several times. Damn it was great reading. An excellent book that draws you into the middle of the action, no matter where it was taking place. You are there. You see it. You feel it.

Only about twenty-five percent of my reviews warrant five stars and this thriller was that good even with the above faults.

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Excellent story, overly complicated technology

The movie with the same does not follow Clancy's original plot however the movie is also worth seeing.

The Sum of All Fears is one of Clancy's best stories. A plot based on the loss of a tactical nuclear bomb, an event that could occur in the fog of war. A somewhat similar event occurred recently involving a B-52 ferrying six supposedly unarmed cruise missiles that had nuclear warheads installed.

My only criticism is Clancy's description of how the terrorist rebuilt the old nuclear warhead. He went off the deep end describing very complicated technology. That said, I have read the book twice and a copy resides on my bookcase.

Can a terrorist really place a nuclear device in a city. The answers is yes, they can. But the device will probably be a gun-type, not an implosion device. The Rings of Allah is a story of such an attack. Set in the 21 Century, it is a tale of what can really happen. The reader is introduced to gun-type nuclear weapons technology in a realistic, accurate manner. Implosion weapons are also explained.

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Scary and realistic political thriller

Don't let the massive size of this book deter you from reading it (it is 912 pages in the paperback version). This is one incredible book, very detailed and a very good political suspense thriller that was fascinating to read.

There were a few negatives about the book I'll get through right now. The book has little action in the majority of the book. The action, the "thriller", doesn't appear until page 713 or 714. The book is told from several perspectives, Jack Ryan's character being one of them (the main character of the story), and all of the viewpoints do tie into the story (there's one from the Russians, a few from military officers one aboard a missile submarine), but it got tedious at times trying to read through scenes with little action. For instance, one side story being told is from the terrorist perspective, and just trying to read through pages of how the terrorists made a hydrogen bomb got very boring, technical, and I felt my eyes glazing over. Some might find detailed descriptions on how to make an H-bomb exciting, but it was all I could do to keep reading during these parts.

Other than that negative, the book was still a good read. I will say one good thing about the very slow build-up of tension and anticipation ("What's around the corner?") is it keeps you reading for more to see what happens. I also think the portrayal of politicians, government officials, and the military, and the interaction between various players was intriguing to read about. The inner-workings of the government and military was described in very accurate detail, not to mention the geographical area (being a resident that lives outside the Beltway I got a laugh out of reading about DC during the winter, like Clancy writes, the city and surrounding area screeches to a dead halt when snow hits the ground, no one can drive here in snow).

Anyways, this book was frightening in that the disaster depicted in this book (a terrorist detonating a nuclear device in a U.S. city) is something that could happen in the real world. Great read, Clancy is known for the technical accuracy and realism in his fictional books, and I recommend it for any fan of political/military thrillers.

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Terrorists Set Off Nuclear Device In Denver at Super Bowl

This was, I must say, my first Tom Clancy read. The plot was quite good involving a missing nuclear device from Israel; Terrorists of Arab and German extraction as well as a Native American accomplice. Many side plots including a duel between a U.S. and Soviet submarines. The book definitely shows how a real War could escalate out of control due to much confusion. Alot of good spy activity between the major players. The characters were well developed.The hero was CIA Deputy Director Jack Ryan. For my taste, though others may disagree, I found him to be a bit too much of a good guy and superhuman to be believable. I liked the book and found it to be a good -but even with the fine plot, at 914 pages- it was a ponderous read.

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