Executive Orders

Given my current country of residence's complete incompetence and the news that my native land is trying to be the world leader in everything including incompetence, I needed to escape to a world where real problems are met and dealt with by leaders with integrity and the skills to think through issues rationally with a view towards the long-term.

In other words, a fantasy.

I have always been and will always be, an unapologetic fan of Clancy's works - the ones he wrote himself - so falling back into Jack Ryan's world was, if not a comfort, at least familiar and comfortable. It's been 2 decades since I last read this, and it generally holds up perfectly. The first half of the book is a bit overly idealistic, but what struck me about it show more is that Tom Clancy showed a startling degree of prescience not just in some of his major plot lines, but in his story arc.

Executive Orders is the story about a non-politician ending up as President of the United States, vowing to eject the political riff-raff out of Washington, and appointing business sector executives to the cabinet to get things done.

Sound familiar? Of course, Jack Ryan wasn't a paranoid narcissist and he was highly educated and qualified regardless of his lack of political savvy. He also had more integrity than your garden variety black widow spider. But Clancy imagined the world we live in today twenty years ago, with startling accuracy, albeit in the most idealistic light.

His idealism extended to America's response (and only America because his plot extended no further) to the epidemic that grips the country in Executive Orders; his national lockdown works flawlessly; almost nobody ignores the mandate, there are no rushes on grocery stores, and there's no general panic. Of course, I'd like to think that any country's population would react to an epidemic of ebola exponentially better than they're reacting (or not) to the corona pandemic, so maybe my faith in humanity hasn't been completely snuffed out.

Either way, it was good to revisit a world that works, even when everything is pear-shaped. show less

This is the book that finished my interest in reading Tom Clancy novels. It's a real shame, too, as I thought Clancy's previous one, Debt of Honor, had an inventive set-up (necessary, as the Cold War ended too soon for the man) and a plot that kept things humming along entertainingly. Yet the end of that novel saw a contrived situation that set up the stage for this one, with Clancy's main protagonist/avatar now President of the United States. This gave Clancy an opportunity to sound off on American politics, a field which he demonstrates far less command than that of the military hardware that were a distinguishing hallmark of his previous novels. Moreover, Ryan is now completely detached from the action, which means large stretches of show more the novel are consumed with Clancy's attempts to write a political thriller, an area where he demonstrates far less skill than he did as an action novelist. By the end of it, I was through with Clancy, wishing only that I had stopped reading his books at the previous novel so I could have maintained a better opinion of the author than I have now. show less

Reading this was entirely an exercise in reading something that lies way outside my comfort zone. Why is it outside my comfort zone? Well, it's not aimed at me for a start; I'm a woman, and I'm not American. I knew what I was taking on; it's a thriller, by a mega-bestselling author who specialises in a particular kind of macho, flag-waving, Budweiser-swilling, big-dick, patriotic, all-action Americana. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, if the writing's good and knowing that I had every opportunity to avoid reading it in full knowledge of what it was. And besides I don't always conform to type. I love the spy thrillers of John le Carré and while your standard Action Movie leaves me cold (Bond films in particular because show more actually I'm quite fond of Fleming's original Bond books) I do have a big soft spot for The Dirty Dozen for reasons I've never fully understood. So, I was determined to see this one through.

Anyway, the premise of this 900-page doorstop is something like this. CIA spook and alleged family guy Jack Ryan becomes President by accident after a Japanese airline pilot flies a 747 into a packed Capitol (yes, really!) wiping out both houses of Congress, the Supreme Court and a goodly part of the Washington establishment. Yes, it's a Tea Party wet dream! Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, the demented leader of Iran takes advantage of the situation to take over Iraq and launch an invasion of Saudi Arabia with the wildly improbable cooperation of both India and China. And to complicate things, also attempts to kidnap the president's younger daughter and start an epidemic of haemorrhagic fever amongst America's car salesmen (you feel like shouting "Yay!" at that point)

Ok, it's fantasy stuff (Le Carré always has the ring of authenticity, not least because he was a real spook while Clancy was an insurance salesman) and that's fine if it's well-written. The big problem is that it's appallingly badly written. To be fair, Clancy knows his stuff about military hardware and he's obviously done his homework about life in the White House; in fact those are the most interesting bits although still a poor substitute for The West Wing. The rest is just dismal. Violence? I wish there was some. For great stretches nothing happens at all except digressions on Clancyan hobby-horses like why the US tax system needs reform. There's no humanity; we keep being told how much President Ryan loves his family but we never see any evidence; he never takes time to read his youngest a story, or play with his son, or have conflicts with his teenage daughter. In fact by the end of the 900 pages we know hardly any more about the children than we did at the beginning. There's the endless pauses while the author stops to explain some trivial point to his braindead readership (hey, naval parlance still talks about a ship 'steaming' even though a modern ship's engines don't do it that way, isn't that amazing, tell Ripley's Believe It Or Not at once!) Foreigners, of course, are meekly compliant and admiring (Russians, would you believe?) or sinister, devious, comic-book villians (Gadzooks! My master plan has been foiled again by those pesky Americans!).

Worst of all, though, is the sickly sentimentality of it all. The triumph of Mom's Apple Pie, beer and franks at the Ball Game and the Grand ol' Opry, with the mean streets of South Central LA and West Baltimore kept well out of the way in the Free Speech Zone. Hell, they love their President so much there's not a whisper of a protest even when the unelected President Ryan overrides the constitution to impose a ban on crossing state lines. I can think of one president who'd be glad of a tiny fraction of the cooperation from his truculent nation. And no, I'm not being unpatriotic: the US is a foreign country to me, I'm an alien there (I've been told as much in no uncertain terms) and owe no allegiange to Old Glory.

Ok, it was an experiment, and I'm glad I read it. But I don't think I'll be going back that way any time soon. show less

Reading this was entirely an exercise in reading something that lies way outside my comfort zone. Why is it outside my comfort zone? Well, it's not aimed at me for a start; I'm a woman, and I'm not American. I knew what I was taking on; it's a thriller, by a mega-bestselling author who specialises in a particular kind of macho, flag-waving, Budweiser-swilling, big-dick, patriotic, all-action Americana. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, if the writing's good and knowing that I had every opportunity to avoid reading it in full knowledge of what it was. And besides I don't always conform to type. I love the spy thrillers of John le Carré and while your standard Action Movie leaves me cold (Bond films in particular because show more actually I'm quite fond of Fleming's original Bond books) I do have a big soft spot for The Dirty Dozen for reasons I've never fully understood. So, I was determined to see this one through.

Anyway, the premise of this 900-page doorstop is something like this. CIA spook and alleged family guy Jack Ryan becomes President by accident after a Japanese airline pilot flies a 747 into a packed Capitol (yes, really!) wiping out both houses of Congress, the Supreme Court and a goodly part of the Washington establishment. Yes, it's a Tea Party wet dream! Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, the demented leader of Iran takes advantage of the situation to take over Iraq and launch an invasion of Saudi Arabia with the wildly improbable cooperation of both India and China. And to complicate things, also attempts to kidnap the president's younger daughter and start an epidemic of haemorrhagic fever amongst America's car salesmen (you feel like shouting "Yay!" at that point)

Ok, it's fantasy stuff (Le Carré always has the ring of authenticity, not least because he was a real spook while Clancy was an insurance salesman) and that's fine if it's well-written. The big problem is that it's appallingly badly written. To be fair, Clancy knows his stuff about military hardware and he's obviously done his homework about life in the White House; in fact those are the most interesting bits although still a poor substitute for The West Wing. The rest is just dismal. Violence? I wish there was some. For great stretches nothing happens at all except digressions on Clancyan hobby-horses like why the US tax system needs reform. There's no humanity; we keep being told how much President Ryan loves his family but we never see any evidence; he never takes time to read his youngest a story, or play with his son, or have conflicts with his teenage daughter. In fact by the end of the 900 pages we know hardly any more about the children than we did at the beginning. There's the endless pauses while the author stops to explain some trivial point to his braindead readership (hey, naval parlance still talks about a ship 'steaming' even though a modern ship's engines don't do it that way, isn't that amazing, tell Ripley's Believe It Or Not at once!) Foreigners, of course, are meekly compliant and admiring (Russians, would you believe?) or sinister, devious, comic-book villians (Gadzooks! My master plan has been foiled again by those pesky Americans!).

Worst of all, though, is the sickly sentimentality of it all. The triumph of Mom's Apple Pie, beer and franks at the Ball Game and the Grand ol' Opry, with the mean streets of South Central LA and West Baltimore kept well out of the way in the Free Speech Zone. Hell, they love their President so much there's not a whisper of a protest even when the unelected President Ryan overrides the constitution to impose a ban on crossing state lines. I can think of one president who'd be glad of a tiny fraction of the cooperation from his truculent nation. And no, I'm not being unpatriotic: the US is a foreign country to me, I'm an alien there (I've been told as much in no uncertain terms) and owe no allegiange to Old Glory.

Ok, it was an experiment, and I'm glad I read it. But I don't think I'll be going back that way any time soon. show less

I've never read Tom Clancy before. I've seen the movies, and enjoyed them (THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER in particular). But Clancy as a novelist was a new experience.

I suppose I should have seen my overall reaction coming. When Clancy dedicated his book to Ronald Reagan, I had a sneaking suspicion as to where the story would lead.

The story has plenty of pulp promise. What appears to be the entire American government is wiped out in one fell swoop, and it's up to Jack Ryan to become the new president. But Clancy doesn't know when to quit. He adds on layers and layers of subplots, most of which would work by themselves, but only serve here to bloat an already large novel.

Part of the problem is that there is no sympathy created for any show more character. Every person in Ryan's entourage is decent, hard-working, and completely uninteresting. Any person who doesn't fit in with Clancy's idea of a hero is treated with suspicion and contempt. It might make a difference if ANY character was remotely memorable, but evidently, characterization is not Clancy's strong suit.

I had higher hopes for the action portions of the novel, but alas, I was also disappointed. Pages and pages of technical jargon only prove that Clancy has done his homework. What it doesn't do is advance the plot. Tank warfare may make for entertaining viewing, but they make for deadly dull reading. Particularly if, once again, there is absolutely no empathy created for anyone involved in the actual battles.

And as for the actual backstage look at how the presidency is run? I am reminded of a recent newspaper critique of television's THE WEST WING. It stated (quite accurately, to my mind) that when it comes to drama, the democratic viewpoint is the most dramatically satisfying. It leads to shows such as THE WEST WING, I'LL FLY AWAY, PICKET FENCES, and HOMICIDE. When the republican viewpoint is emphasized in a drama, you get THE A-TEAM and TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL. show less

Executive Orders follows in the series of what was easily the worst Jack Ryan novel written, so my expectations were a bit tempered prior to reading this novel. After a suicide plane bomber (from Japan no less) kills off two thirds of the US government, Jack Ryan is the president by default. Now he has to deal with an Iranian terrorist group trying to manufacture and spread the ebola virus while trying to get the country's government back in order. Since most of congress and the senate were killed off in the previous novel, a whole new group of legislatures must be elected, and Ryan urges for citizen politicians, just like in the good old days of this country. Sometimes it's hard to get past some of the silliness in Clancy's novel, but show more the plot in this case is pretty solid, much improved from the last novel. Jack Ryan is often complaining about the politics of being the president, and is better cast as a CIA agent, but it was still fun to see him in this new role. Clancy's novels are never great, but they usually are pretty good, as is the case in Executive Orders. If you have read other novels in the series, you will want to read this one as well.
Carl Alves - author of Blood Street show less

The abridged version was a quick listen, providing the meat of the story without some of the very long stretches of boredom reported by others reading this 1300+ page book.Technology was dated somewhat since it was written nearly 20 years ago--noted but not distracting. It was well researched, as Clancy always does and includes a mix of national and tactical views. I especially enjoyed Ryan's first speech where he said that he did not want politicians...realistic? Maybe? The Iranian sponsored biologic attack is something that was developed with interesting effects, probably not horrific enough. DC and international. Iran inspired bio attack. The tactical movements of Army units around Southwest Asia during the last hour was pretty show more boring. Glad I listened to the abridged version...good story! show less