From Amazon
Tom Clancy goes to the White House in this thriller of political terror and global disaster. The American political situation takes a disturbing turn as the President, Congress, and Supreme Court are obliterated when a Japanese terrorist lands a 747 on the Capitol. Meanwhile the Iranians are unleashing an Ebola virus threat on the country. Jack Ryan, CIA agent, is cast in the middle of this maelstrom. Because of a recent sex scandal, Ryan was appointed vice president, a slot he doesn't hold for long when he lands in the Chief Executive's chair. He goes after the Iranians and then tries to piece together the country and his life the only way he knows how--with a fury that we've grown accustomed to in Clancy's intricate, detailed, and accurate stories of warfare and intrigue.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
Jack Ryan, Clancy's amazing upwardly mobile series hero, must put together a government from the wreckage left at the end of Debt of Honor (Putnam, 1994). While Jack, who assumed the U.S. presidency after the shocking deaths of the president and many congresspeople, attends to affairs of state, selecting a new Cabinet and arranging for special Congressional elections, enemies far and near continue to create nefarious plots against the United States. Political enemies prove themselves equally relentless, attacking the very legitimacy of Ryan's presidential role. While Clancy is, as always, chillingly up-to-date, he telegraphs too many plotlines here. Worse, Ryan has become something of a whiner, complaining at length about the miseries of living a political life. At almost 900 pages, the book includes too much minutiae and dwells overlong on Ryan's earlier adventures. However, with a two-million-copy first printing, Ryan's presence?at least for now?is assured in most public libraries.?Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Information Services, Inc., Ridgecrest, Cal.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
Early in his famous novel, Flaubert writes that Emma Bovary "turned away from the calm life for excitement. She loved the sea only for its storms..." An interesting question posed by Tom Clancy's thrillers is whether their bookstore and box-office appeal suggests merely a Bovary-like search for excitement, or whether his readers actually share his view of the world.
In all his novels, Clancy skillfully juggles several themes at once. But his most obvious talent lies in offering intelligible descriptions of contemporary machinery: a nuclear weapon, the electronic innards of securities trading, the basics of biological warfare. The reader of Executive Orders, in particular, is treated to a graphic description of the effects of the Ebola virus on the human body, from the initial flu-like symptoms to the vomiting, delirium, gross distention of organs, disintegration of vascular-system tissue, and eventual massive internal bleeding that ends in death. An equally explicit recipe follows for collecting the virus from a decedent's infected tissue and preserving it alive for travel and dissemination.
As always, Clancy uses this book, too, as a forum for stating his beliefs. Principal among them is that the United States--a decent nation confronted from time to time by states with immoral men at the helm--requires a vigorous defense, but may soon lack enough military power for the job. Unfortunately, Executive Orders, like its predecessors, does not afford much insight into the people who would be called upon to do the fighting, or into the moral issues raised by military action and diplomacy alike. -- Commentary Magazine, Seth Cropsey
Book Description
The President is dead--and the weight, literally, of the world falls on Jack Ryan's shoulders, in Tom Clancy's newest and most extraordinary novel.
I don't know what to do. Where's the manual, the training course, for this job? Whom do I ask? Where do I go?
Debt of Honor ended with Tom Clancy's most shocking conclusion ever; a joint session of Congress destroyed, the President dead, most of the Cabinet and the Congress dead, the Supreme Court and the Joint Chiefs likewise. Dazed and confused, the man who only minutes before had been confirmed as the new Vice-President of the United States is told that he is now President.
President John Patrick Ryan.
And that is where Executive Orders begins. Ryan had agreed to accept the vice-presidency only as a caretaker for a year, and now, suddenly an incalculable weight has fallen on his shoulders. How do you run a government without a government? Where do you even begin? With stunning force, Ryan's responsibilities crush on him. He must calm an anxious and grieving nation, allay the skepticism of the world's leaders, conduct a swift investigation of the tragedy, and arrange a massive state funeral--all while attempting to reconstitute a Cabinet and a Congress with the greatest possible speed.
But that is not all. Many eyes are on him now, and many of them are unfriendly. In Beijing, Tehran, and other world capitals, including Washington D.C., there are those eager to take advantage where they may, some of whom bear a deep animus toward the United States--some of whom, from Ryan's past, harbor intense animosity toward the new President himself. Soon they will begin to move on their opportunities; soon they will present Jack Ryan with a crisis so big even he cannot imagine it.
Tom Clancy has written remarkable novels before, but nothing comparable to the timeliness and drama of Executive Orders. Filled with the exceptional realism and intricate plotting that are his hallmarks, it attests to the words of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "This man can tell a story."
I don't know what to do. Where's the manual, the training course, for this job? Whom do I ask? Where do I go?
Debt of Honor ended with Tom Clancy's most shocking conclusion ever; a joint session of Congress destroyed, the President dead, most of the Cabinet and the Congress dead, the Supreme Court and the Joint Chiefs likewise. Dazed and confused, the man who only minutes before had been confirmed as the new Vice-President of the United States is told that he is now President.
President John Patrick Ryan.
And that is where Executive Orders begins. Ryan had agreed to accept the vice-presidency only as a caretaker for a year, and now, suddenly an incalculable weight has fallen on his shoulders. How do you run a government without a government? Where do you even begin? With stunning force, Ryan's responsibilities crush on him. He must calm an anxious and grieving nation, allay the skepticism of the world's leaders, conduct a swift investigation of the tragedy, and arrange a massive state funeral--all while attempting to reconstitute a Cabinet and a Congress with the greatest possible speed.
But that is not all. Many eyes are on him now, and many of them are unfriendly. In Beijing, Tehran, and other world capitals, including Washington D.C., there are those eager to take advantage where they may, some of whom bear a deep animus toward the United States--some of whom, from Ryan's past, harbor intense animosity toward the new President himself. Soon they will begin to move on their opportunities; soon they will present Jack Ryan with a crisis so big even he cannot imagine it.
Tom Clancy has written remarkable novels before, but nothing comparable to the timeliness and drama of Executive Orders. Filled with the exceptional realism and intricate plotting that are his hallmarks, it attests to the words of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "This man can tell a story."
About the Author
Tom Clancy is the bestselling author of The Hunt for Red October, Red Storm Rising, Patriot Games, Rainbow Six, and more.
About the Reader
Edward Herrmann won a Tony Award for his work on Broadway in Mrs. Warren's Profession. On television, Mr. Herrmann won the TV Critics' Circle Ward for his portrayal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years, one of the most honored productions in the history of television. His film work includes The Paper Chase, The Purple Rose of Cairo, and Mrs. Soffel. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
About the Reader
Edward Herrmann won a Tony Award for his work on Broadway in Mrs. Warren's Profession. On television, Mr. Herrmann won the TV Critics' Circle Ward for his portrayal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years, one of the most honored productions in the history of television. His film work includes The Paper Chase, The Purple Rose of Cairo, and Mrs. Soffel. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
From AudioFile
Jack Ryan becomes president by sheer accident when the former president, most of Congress, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court are bombed out of existence. Ryan must jump in to discover who did it, all the while contending with the threat of military takeover and covert biological warfare. Herrmann reads this spy-thriller with chilling precision, flawlessly switching from one scene to another in this choppy abridgment. As the plots rush to conclusion, Herrmann keeps track of the multitude of accents, representing both "good guys" and "bad guys" around the world. Herrmann brings Clancy's newest adrenaline-pumping audiobook to life. M.B.K. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
