Locked On [Hardcover]

There are no plot spoilers in this review.

I started with Tom Clancy 15 years ago, and he's been my favorite author since then. I appreciate his style of writing, technical accuracy, his character building, and his art of story telling. I am not as fond of the co-authored novels or the other series that bear his name. While generally better than most of the genre, they are not up to par with the Clancy of the early Jack Ryan and John Clark novels.

I approached this book with a bit of caution, because with "Dead or Alive", I walked away with the feeling that Clancy just didn't care about the quality of his work anymore. I was encouraged that this was a book with Ryan Sr. in a prominent role, but discouraged by it being co-authored.

Overall, I like this novel. The story telling, while not historical Clancy quality, is good. It draws you in, keeps you turning the page, and gets your blood pumping at times. Those who know Clancy's style of writing and his attention to detail will certainly appreciate many parts of this story. I found myself with a smirk several times thinking "typical Clancy" or "that's ingenious". The last Clancy novel I read where I had similarly good thoughts was "The Bear and The Dragon". As far as Ryan/Clark co-authored novels go, this is better than the others but far from being great. It was a very low bar that the Clancy/Greaney duo had to rise above.

While it is "good", I have an expectation for anything with Clancy's name to be "great". So many of Clancy's earlier works fall into this "great" category for me: Red Storm Rising, Hunt for Red October, Without Remorse, Executive Orders, Rainbow Six. This doesn't fit into the same category. There are gaps in this book with unanswered questions, which has been typical for the last several novels. The big ones? Chavez has previously-unknown expert skills, and it isn't mentioned how he acquired them. Ryan's resignation from his first Presidency still isn't clearly explained, which is something I wish was in this book since it is about Ryan's run for the White House, and, honestly, was something I was looking forward to reading about. The old Clancy doesn't leave things unexplained like this, and he missed a prime opportunity to address this.

I have read enough Clancy to know which parts are written by Greaney in this novel, and they don't all flow well with the rest of the book. The difference in writing style, at times, threw me off and interrupted the story somewhat. The opening action sequence of the book is such an element. The difference in style is very apparent as the next element of the story is about Ryan Sr., and is clearly written by Clancy himself. I do not have an issue with Clancy co-authoring his books, I have an issue with the quality of those books. There is no reason a co-authored novel has to be of lower quality. It is undoubtedly hard work to make the work of two authors flow well together in a single cohesive story, and where Clancy fails is in the editing and proof-reading. The only explanation is that either Tom is losing skill, or he lacks the same level of intense passion he had before.

As for my rating, it goes a little beyond just the star value I assigned to it. I like this book, I feel it's better than just "ok". As far as entertainment value, I feel it deserves the "I like it" four-star rating. If I were to rate it on five star scale against other Ryan/Clark novels, it would be a 3. While this isn't the Clancy redemption I hoped for, I can now see an author at least trying to get back to his roots. I hope the next one is a solo novel that ties up some of the loose ends from the last few.

Final thoughts: I can't think of a reason to NOT recommend this book. Through it's flaws is a good story that is a page turner, and has some great moments with familiar characters. It leaves me glad I read it, and I'll probably read it again.

Fair warning: this review has a spolier at the end. It's marked by ***SPOILER*** tag.

I've always enjoyed Tom Clancy's books. Red Storm Rising was my first exposure. Cardinal was next and it set the high watermark for his subsequent books. Hunt for Red October came closest along with Without Remorse, but his other books were never less than solid.

This book however is hard to like. It feels as if it was never edited, for flow, for clarity, for readability. It makes for a disjointed, jarring read. I understand that this was ghostwritten but even then, you'd think a competent editor would be able to shape up the writing up to Clancy's standard. It's a shame because the book does tell an interesting story. It just needs to be cleaned up.

But by far my biggest gripe of this book is the way the story is needlessly politicized. I can probably guess where Tom Clancy leans politically. I have no issue with it and I share a good portion of it. But his books never were bully pulpit from which to preach his politics. Even a powder keg issue like abortion, Clancy was careful to balance Jack Ryan's principled stance against it with his wife's feminist beliefs. All that went completely out the window with this book. What results is cliched and shrill depictions of domestic opposition that frankly detract from the story.

I'm sure there are segments of readers who will nod as they read along, completely agreeing with one-dimensional and polarizing representations. For them, I'm sure this would appear to be a great book. There will be others too who would find that distracting and unnecessary. As for me, I just find it lazy. Rather than trying to write a balanced book that can stand on its own merit, Clancy or the ghostwriter narrowed its focus and played toward a subset. If you're confident of your product, you don't do that. So it seems Clancy knew this book wasn't up to his standard. It's a shame.

***SPOILER***

I think much of what happens toward the end of this book is far-fetched and unrealistic. Others have talked about most of those so let me just focus on one aspect: Melanie Kraft. When she's first introduced, she was being browbeaten by her appointee superiors for showing initiative. This devastates her and makes her question her future at the CIA. Then she's headhunted out of CIA by Mary Pat when she reviews Melanie's memo and is lateraled to Counter Terrorism agency headed by Mary Pat. Yet toward the end of the book, she's a mole or a spy planted there by Alden to gather the dirt on Jack Jr. I just don't see the motivation here. She may be guided by ideology, but nothing in the book even hints at her sympathies. She may be guided by self-interest in her career, but she was headhunted by a legend in the intelligence community, and apparently has Mary pat's full support and attention. Surely, her career under Mary Pat would be brighter than what it would have been in the CIA. She may be interested in money, and the book mentions several times how she grew up wanting if not exactly poor. But there's simply no money man hinted in the book except for Lasko and there's nothing in the book that he's even faintly aware of her existence. Does she want power? Well, she's got Jack Jr.'s full attention, a son of a President-elect. What could others offer her? This is especially so at the end of the book where Alden is arrested and disgraced, with evidence against him presumably solid if Lasko completely sold him out, to be prosecuted in Ryan administration that would be less than sympathetic to Alden and his cohorts machinations against John Clark. Simply put, Alden has no influence anymore as a benefactor/mentor for Melanie.

Melanie was introduced -- quite insistently -- by Mary Pat for Jack Jr. Does that mean Mary Pat engineered the meeting in order to spy on Jack Jr.? Obviously not, since Mary pat is aware of the Campus, maybe not the full extent of it but knows enough, and the last phone call Melanie makes makes it clear that her controller is interested in the organization that employs Jack Jr, Ding and Clark. And Mary Pat as a traitor makes no sense anyway.

The trap Melanie sets is also, for lack of better word, stupid. She tells that Khan is alive, forcing Jack Jr. to excuse himself and make a call. But with Jack Jr.'s intel assets as good or better than Melanie's, especially with Pakistani assistance Jack Jr. can count on, he's going to find out pretty quickly that that's a bad intel. He's going to snoop on how Melanie's intel erred and he's going to find out that there was no intel from Melanie's agency that even hinted that Khan was still alive. That would lead inescapably to conclusion that Melanie made it up and lied to Jack. This would obviously out her as a spy.

This is just bad plotting, bad writing. I amended by review to one star and that's given grudgingly.

Without the energetic novelty from something like Gods of Ruin, and without the thorough overview and character development from Clancy's earlier works, his latest stuff just doesn't compare. Don't get me wrong, it's good and it should sell well, but it's not the stellar output that we're used to from the Clancy name.

Just like the other books in this latest push from Clancy to capitalize on his name, Locked on is ghostwritten (each with different writers; this one is by Greaney who has written a few books in the genre before (can't comment on those since I haven't read them). This will get the same criticism as the first two Clancy releases since his hiatus. If you're looking for "Hunt for Red October" or "Patriot Games" you're going to be disappointed. But if you want a good technothriller with a decent plot and most importantly the characters that you have grown so familiar with (Ding Chavez, John Clark, Caruso, and the Ryans), you'll enjoy the book.

Just look at it this way: there are hundreds of writers working on "The Simpsons" television show and that doesn't seem to bother people. Why should it matter if someone else is writing a Jack Ryan book?

This one gets behind the scenes of a Ryan's second race for the presidency, which is confounded by dirty tricks by the opposition (Ruin fans will love it), which evolves into a messy situation with Pakistan and terrorists. All the hot button issues today are hit on in this hefty volume and while you won't finish it in one read, that may be a good thing.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 186 reviews  3.2 out of 5 stars