Next to Hunt for Red October, this is my favorite of all of the Jack Ryan novels. It was frightening the first time I read it and it only become more so after 9/11. Clancy's attention to detail is once again evident, but unlike some reviewers, I didn't find it to be too much detail. Unfortunately, I feel that this book also signaled the highpoint of the Ryan character arc. Beyond this book, it became more and more cliched. It's not great art by any means, but it is intense storytelling and nobody works the details better than the technothriller master himself. More than any other book, I always wanted to see this one made into a movie - until the poor excuse for a movie was actually made. Now I wish my only memories were of the book. ( )

I'll do the same review for all Clancy's novels because they're all pretty much the same. Very long, very detailed, and after a while, very repetitive. If you stop after just a few of his books you'd probably give them 4 or 5 stars, but beyond that they start to grate. Especially where Jack Ryan is involved. I mean, Clancy spends hundreds of pages getting his details just right, the settings perfect etc., then he has Ryan dodging more bullets than James Bond! I finally threw my hands up and surrendered when Ryan becomes President. I can't remember what piece of crap that was in.

I've given three stars as a compromise between my reactions when reading my first Clancy (brilliant) and last Clancy (doorstop). ( )

Okay, what's there not to like? This is my second-most favorite book by Clancy. Unusual for this author, the plot goes all over the place. Clancy is typically more focused than he was here. Regardless, read this book for the science - especially the science of building a nuke. The technology is the attraction here, at least as far as I'm concerned. My father worked on the Manhattan Project so I come by the interest in nukes honestly.

As a professional nerd, doing the science right is a big deal for me. Clancy has never let me down in this regard. There's very good character and plot development too. If you're a Jack Ryan fan, the Ryan family subplot is as good as it gets. The scene with Dr. Mrs. Ryan and the national security adviser is probably my favorite "Ryan moment" out of all the Jack Ryan books. Clancy nails Dr. Ryan's inner conversation over boob size, a thought train that is uniquely feminine. I'm floored that a guy could get inside a woman's head so well. It demonstrates just how good Clancy is as a writer. After all, most of his books are really just grown-up-boy adventures; I never expected him to go beyond the genre.

The whole Roman Catholic church sub-plot is a hoot - especially the bit about encrypted messages from Georgetown University to the Vatican. Jesuits with spy craft...it's the one place I had problems with the believability of the story line. Everything else is classic Clancy. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters were relatable and the action intense. I don't consider myself a Tom Clancy "fan" but this book could easily make me one! ( )

Sorry, Mr.Clancy, you know I love your books, but not this one. Well, at least this book does not deserve a usual 9 or 10 out 10. A 7 would suffice.

The story is actually interesting. A nuke dropped by an Israeli fighter during the Yom Kippur War - it didn't explode obviously - was found by a Syrian farmer in his land almost twenty years later. Terrorists from three corners of the world (Palestine, Baader-Meinhof, Indian-American), all with vengeance in their hearts, united to establish the ultimate plan using the nuke to create havoc where the Satan (the US) will suffer the most loss.

Meanwhile, Clancy's poster-boy, Jack Ryan, who was the Deputy Director of CIA, came up with a plan to reach the long-sought peace in the Middle East. Despite its over-the-top, wishful-thinking nature, the plan turned out to be a success. Yes, ladies and gents, this only happens in fiction. In the real world, there has to be an Armageddon, or some meteor hitting the earth or something.

Back to the story, those United Terrorists were so pissed with Russia who succumbed to the peace plan. So, they decided to detonate the nuke in US soil, near football stadium during the Superbowl, and put the blame on Russia.

As usual, political and military conflicts became the menu served by Clancy. For some reasons, I did not really enjoy them. The political intrigues only evolved around the incompetency of the state officials, notably the President, the NSA, and the DCI himself. Pfff.

For the military side, it was not as exciting as in the other Clancy works, like The Hunt for Red October, Red Storm Rising and The Bear and the Dragon. I want more Bart Mancuso! Him being a boomer squadron commander was a bore. However, I did manage to find out some new knowledge on submarine warfare. A submarine can evade a US Mark 50 torpedo because it can use the waves and water surface as a decoy due to their similar nature of water and air border, which would finally cause the torpedo heading to the wrong way, leaping out of the water like a salmon and finally detonate by itself. Cool, huh?

This novel has another interesting thing, that could serve as its strength or its weakness. Ryan, was a man after all. He's not perfect, he could be a jerk who put his job above all else, including his family. He also showed vulnerabilities in crisis. However, of course, he's the one who took all the initiatives, who thought all the solutions and who saved the world. Gosh, so typical. Too much, it annoyed me far beyond other Ryan-verse novels. He could be the next Captain America for all I know. Well, trying to objective, his vulnerable parts might be aimed to balance this superhero status.

Did I mention that this book is way different from the movie, starring by Morgan Freeman and Ben Affleck? Almost no similarity.

To continue my bitching here, the details of the nuke device and its making were so boring. The tritium and shits, they're cool but my simple mind just could not handle them. I'd prefer to read the explanation in Forsyth's The Fourth Protocol.

Speaking about the nuke, yeah it's so friggin' scary right, imagining the terrorist have such a weapon. But now, the states are also frightful. Everybody seems to have it nowadays. The nuclear proliferation agreements, like the NPT, CTBT, etc all just, sorry to say, bulls. Look at the current nuke states. Iran, North Korea, the US, France, India, Pakistan, who could guarantee the 'safety' of their nukes? Except for the Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) concept, I mean. Nuclear is not an instrument of peace. It was created to destroy, to annihilate. Screw all the justifications. Humans, with all their frailties, can not be trusted.

The Manhattan Project of the World War II still represent the most remarkable congregation of scientific talent in human history, never equaled and perhaps never will. Let us all pray to the almighty Lord that Hiroshima and Chernobyl would not repeat themselves, just like history often does. ( )