The Cardinal of the Kremlin

I've got a fondness for airport reading, and when he's on, Clancy is as good as any. Cardinal of the Kremlin centers around the CIA's top source in Moscow, three time Hero of the Soviet Union Colonel Misha Filitov, who's been passing secrets to for 30 years. But bad luck blows his courier chain, and Jack Ryan and friends have to break every unwritten rule in the CIA-KGB game to get him out. There's lots of tradecraft and spy versus spy. Meanwhile on the tech side of the technothriller, American and Russian missile defense programs are working themselves up--the Russian have the laser, the Americans the mirror. As usual, Clancy writes a great yarn, and this is actually a decent layman's primer on nuclear war strategy and why missile show more defense could be destabilizing, although Clancy is strongly pro-Star Wars, against the professional consensus.

Some parts have not aged well. Our heroic allies the Afghan Mujaheddin is sadly ironic in a Rambo 3 kind of way. But this book is way more homophobic than I remember. Not that I expect 80s era Clancy to be progressive or anything, but the most evil character is a traitorous lesbian mole out to seduce her best friend by any means necessary, including having the KGB kidnap her husband. A thinly veiled version of Representative Barney Frank shows up just so Ryan can call him a queer. Super awkward, but still better than anything Clancy wrote after the fall of the Berlin Wall. show less

For all its detailed research into the weapons and technology of the time, this book did not hold up well for me. To read about the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 2022, and all the events that are going on just in the past year, is interesting from a historical perspective. Yet there is also the patina of the "noble savage" motivated by a Holy War that is jarring in a post-9/11 world. And confusing the authoritarian rule of the USSR with the economic thought of Marxism is just bad scholarship.

That said, the insights into Soviet machinations and a quest for absolute power for its own sake are fascinating. The passing of secrets, tiny little film cartridges and the great detail that Clancy put into every single hand-off are great. show more What the spies do to maintain their cover and how they are found out are also brilliant. But Clancy constantly trots out the "Marxist-Leninist doctrine" as motivation for the non-US characters in ways that don't fit either the characters or the overall story arch. The women who are mentioned by name at least have some depth or motivation: the good ones are mothers and are US citizens; the bad ones are single and Soviet citizens.

Unlike "A Perfect Spy," this book has just not held up well over the decades when it was written and the events that take place in it. show less

Set in the late 1980s, we find Soviet Russia and the USA both developing laser-based weapons capable of destroying satellites and incoming missiles. If either is successful it could alter the delicate balance of power represented by their respective nuclear arsenals. Both sides have spies in place to discover what is going on and to disrupt progress if possible. The American asset in Russia, codename Cardinal, is a long time and high ranking member of the Soviet government. His cover is blown and Jack Ryan becomes part of the team tasked with getting Cardinal out of Russia.

When it was published in 1988 this was a leading edge novel of spying, tradecraft, military technology and process, international politics and the America versus show more Soviet Russia paradigm. Today it reads more like historical fiction, but without any benefit of hindsight. The action is exciting and the attention to detail in all areas very impressive. Clancy fetishises weaponry the way Fleming fetishises bling in the Bond novels.

Often regarded as a fine example of its type, I find it to be weakened by the lack of integration and resolution between the various narrative strands, with the spy ring action in America being particularly unformed and less believable.

Certainly a decent read and essential for fans of Clancy's Jack Ryan story arc. show less

The story was OK but I felt there were some behaviours that I didn't enjoy experiencing through Jack. I wasn't comfortable with some parts at all. There was a fair bit of homophobia in this book, which was not a comfortable thing to read either.
I'm going to rest TC books for a while as they are very long and detailed and I began to feel like I was "getting through it" rather than enjoying it.

Set near the end of the Cold War, The Cardinal of the Kremlin is a fast paced action adventure novel that I had a hard time putting down. Much like Clancy’s other novels, this story is told through multiple points of views, and stars Clancy’s famed protagonist, Jack Ryan. Mainly, it is about an undercover CIA agent, named Colonel Mikhail Semyonovich Filitov, who is hidden way high up in the ranks of the Soviet Army. When Filtrov sends information about the new Soviet laser defense system, all havoc breaks loose. A small slip on an exchange was witnessed by a KGB agent, and now the whole chain of CIA spies throughout Moscow is beginning to be uncovered. Jack Ryan and the rest of the CIA must find a way to get Filtrov and his show more information out of Moscow, while he is still alive.
The Cardinal of the Kremlin was another great masterpiece by Tom Clancy. Even though it may start off a bit dry and slow, Clancy’s meticulous writing skill leaves one satisfied and not begging for questions. I found that this book had one of the most intense few ending chapters of all time (even for Clancy standards), and I read the second half of the book in under three days, whereas the first half took several weeks. It was worth every second because The Cardinal of the Kremlin is a adrenaline fueled action espionage adventure which will make your hands tremble with anticipation with every turn of a page. show less

Een van de beste boeken van [a:Tom Clancy|3892|Tom Clancy|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1407672935p2/3892.jpg]. Genoeg spanning, en een hoop techniek. Boek komt soms zeer realistisch over.
Het boek handelt over, onder andere, een hoog geplaatste spion, met de codenaam 'Kardinaal', in de Russische Ministerie van Defensie, die al meer dan 30 jaar informatie doorspeelt. Deze spion dreigt nu echter ontmaskerd te worden. Door zijn hoge status in het ministerie en zijn bekendheid als 'Held van de Sovjet Unie', maken hem bijna onschendbaar.
Terwijl de KGB probeert om de zaak tegen deze spion waterdicht te maken, hoort de CIA van het onderzoek, en in een race tegen de klok proberen ze deze spion te redden voor de KGB hem kan arresteren. show more

Dit boek is een direct vervolg op [b:The Hunt for Red October|19691|The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan Universe, #4)|Tom Clancy|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1281995542s/19691.jpg|1112006]

De actie in dit boek was zeer vlot geschreven, maar op sommige momenten sluipt er dan toch weer een stuk tussen dat wat mij betreft wel weggelaten had kunnen worden. show less

Like most of Clancy’s books, they are about 200 pages too long. But once it gets going, it does keep you interested. It’s a good story about a double agent deep inside the Russian hierarchy during the Cold War. Ryan gets himself into a couple of scrapes but things work out in the end. The Foleys get themselves outed and thrown out of the country for getting caught with their collective pants down.