- Mass Market Paperback: 1 pages
- Publisher: Berkley; Reissue edition (Feb 6 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0425133540
- ISBN-13: 978-0425133545
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 10.7 x 5.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 499 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (179 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #706,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Once again, Tom Clancy manages to add new twists to the alternate U.S. history he initiated in The Hunt for Red October. In The Sum of All Fears, the center of conflict is the perpetual hot spot the Mideast, where a nuclear weapon falls into the hands of terrorists just as peace seems possible. Clancy realistically paints an almost unthinkable scenario--the bomb is planted on American soil in the midst of an escalation in tension with the Soviet Union; the terrorists hope to rekindle cold war animosity and prevent reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.
Despite such a dramatic story line, Clancy doesn't neglect the individuals who drive his tale. Jack Ryan's problems are as much domestic as they are part of the international crisis that is the ostensible narrative: National Security Director Elizabeth Elliot has the president's ear, and she has convinced him that Ryan's ethics are questionable. She hints at marital infidelity and an insider-trading scandal. Of course, both accusations are false, but her arguments have enough evidence behind them (e.g. some photographs of an innocent embrace with a friend) to cause a strain in the Ryans' marriage and a flurry of media attention. While "Mr. Clark" tracks the terrorists, he also provides some needed intelligence to heal the Ryan family.
The Sum of All Fears is the stuff of nightmares but contains enough verisimilitude to terrify sober minds. Ryan has matured into a complex protagonist as Clancy's writing, too, has matured. Ryan is plagued by stress and self-doubts that test even his dauntless moral compass and make him a more interesting subject for readers' attention. Those fascinated by military hardware, from nuclear submarines to atomic weapons, will find almost enough here to start their own army. And Clancy's understanding of international politics seems chillingly correct. --Patrick O'Kelley
From Publishers Weekly
Clancy evolves from storyteller to novelist in his latest techno-thriller, as gadgets take second place to politics and personalities. In the late 1990s the world is cautiously emerging from the Cold War; even the Arab-Israeli conflict is being resolved, thanks to the cleverness of Clancy's hero Jack Ryan. But as confrontation yields to cooperation, what becomes of displaced terrorists? Palestinians without a cause and East Germans without a country seek to rekindle U.S.-U.S.S.R. animosity. A small nuclear device is exploded at the Super Bowl; in Berlin American and Russian troops are tricked into firing on each other; residual suspicions carry the action from there. After the solution of the Middle East crisis serves as an exciting preliminary to the main plot, the novel's middle parts seem a recycling of situations and characters from Red October and Cardinal of the Kremlin. But in the last third of the book Clancy integrates story lines, taking readers on a nonstop roller-coaster ride to a nail-biting finish. Fundamentally, Clancy is writing about a vital and elusive quality: grace under pressure. Whether terrorists or statesmen, Clancy's characters face a common challenge--situations that break down pretensions of rank, power and ideology. Their responses, carefully and empathetically constructed, make this book compelling instead of merely ingenious.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
"Like the wolf on the fold." Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Find out what the movie is missing,
By
This review is from: The Sum of All Fears (Mass Market Paperback)
Tom Clancy does it again. This is an excellent book for those who love detail and interwoven story lines. I recommend this to anyone who loves techno-thrillers. If you didn't understand how or why things happened the way they did in the movie then you definitely have to read the book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
One of Clancy's best,
By
This review is from: The Sum of All Fears (Mass Market Paperback)
I wish the film had been this good. Clancy hasn't written a book this great for a long, long time. I wish he'd study his work here and duplicate it (not literally!) in his next novel, because evidently the money has gotten to his head and he's lost it. He once told a classroom of students at his old high school that his inspiration to write is the car he drives. He's turned into a hack!
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Transitional Ryan Tale,
By
This review is from: The Sum of All Fears (Mass Market Paperback)
Jack Ryan is on the other side - political forces from the National Security Advisor to the President want him out. Information about his past - such as his connections to the Zimmer family - are hinted at in the press. His wife thinks he's unfaithful, the president thinks he's James Bond, and certain forces are building a hydrogen bomb to provoke a war between the US and the Russians.From the ashes of his dismay, Jack eventually finds redemption, not in alcohol, but in the form of Mr. Clark, and Domingo Chavez, who give his wife the truth about her husband's gallantry and fidelity. Those forces nudge him back to his job - and his interception in not only preventing a nuclear war, but in his ultimate choice to defy the President in his choices - and willing to sacrifice his job for it.
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