Customer Reviews

Executive Orders

5 star:		(242)
4 star:		(84)
3 star:		(59)
2 star:		(48)
1 star:		(44)

 

 

I had read all of Tom Clancy's books up to and including this one. But this one made me realize that now that the Cold War was over, so was my fascination with Clancy. This book is part "Tom Clancy's Public Policy Opinions" and part virus outbreak, with a homegrown terrorist plot that, without giving too much away, ends up a major disappointment. The virus plot is interesting, but the political plot wasn't to me. Perhaps this is because I don't share Clancy's views, and he portrayed them as such basic common sense, with the opposing side so hapless in offering a rebuttle, that I was a little offended. This also made me reflect on his previous books and realize even more that his characters all seem to be either really really good guys or really really bad guys with horrible character flaws. There's never any shades of gray to his characters, and even the "scandal" that dogs Ryan is due to him being too noble for his own good. Finally, I realized that with Jack Ryan as president, his days of dodging torpedos in a submarine were at an end, and thus, my favorite literary action character was being retired to a desk job.

"Executive Orders" picks up where Tom Clancy's previous novel "Debt of Honor" left off, as Jack Ryan--moments after being confirmed as Vice President--has just been sworn in as the new President of the United States following a tragic attack which has claimed the lives of President Roger Durling, most of the House & Senate members and all nine Supreme Court justices. Ryan immediately finds himself facing numerous challenges both at home and abroad. Domestic enemies, including the mainstream media and a disgraced former vice president question the legitimacy of Ryan's presidency. And in the Middle East, Iran invades Iraq after assassinating the Iraqi president, and now the two nations are unified as the UIR--United Islamic Republic. A biological attack on the United States by UIR-sponsored terrorists leads to another Gulf War as President Ryan sends U.S. troops into the region to deal with the attackers and their sponsors. "Executive Orders" is an outstanding read, the best of the presidential phase of the Jack Ryan series. As "Red Rabbit" revisited the beginning of Jack Ryan's CIA career, I would love to see Clancy revisit Ryan's presidency someday.

Tom Clancy is the master of multiple plots and subplots, as he expertly proves in this book.

The book begins with multiple - and at the time, unrelated - incidents happening in different places. An airplane driven by terrorists is piloted into the Capitol, killing the president, and Jack Ryan is asked to step in as president. A never-before-seen outbreak of the Ebola virus is found. And two men sit around talking politics.

But by the end of this gripping story, the plots and subplots have interwoven to make one plot that could only be thought up by a genius like Tom Clancy.

I won't say any more so I don't spoil the book, but anyone should read this.

Highly recommended!

If clancy had put this book on diet it could have been a five star book. The plot is there but it is covered up with needless chatter. You have to be good skimmer to find just the good stuff. This book is a thiller. It is not "War and Peace". Maybe Reader's Digest can turn it into a five star book.

Jack Ryan is doing his best. He took the opportunity to become Vice-President as his way out of government service - he'd serve, then retire to teaching. But then things went wrong, and the President, most of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the cabinet were killed in a terrorist action. Jack Ryan finds himself the head of the country - a job he never wanted.

Faced with being the most important President since George Washingon, he faces a press who thinks he is playing by political rules, an enemy in the middle East who is out to cripple the country, and an ex-Vice President who claims he never really resigned.

The middle-east thinks he's weak because he won't crush political enemies. The press pounces on him because he is being honest in a political world of dishonesty. His enemies think it's the right time to cripple the country - with an attack on the country, and an attack on his daughter.

The question Clancy asks is clear - could another man, faced with a devestation of the American political system, rise to the occassion and reject tyrnany and kingdom over democratic law. Plus, could he, if faced with terrible domestic and foreign policy issues, make the right choices to combat threats, both foreign and domestic.

Executive Orders put Jack Ryan, an honest man who served his country the best he could, in the position of being President. He wanted strict constituational law, but was willing to take a step beyond it (in preventing free travel in the wake of germ warfare crisis) - and very willing to be impeached and removed from office as a cost of his decision.

Jack Ryan is the hero of the everyday man - somebody who understands the world and the threats, and is willing to admit his weakness in domestic affairs. When facing rebuilding the government, he wants people who really know what the real world is like. In the end, he neither wants or craves power - he just wants to do what he thinks is the right thing.

Following the dramatic ending of "Debt Of Honor", the United States' new President is none other than Jack Ryan. Finally...a President who just doesn't take any crap from anyone. With the Ebola virus unleashed and a former Vice President back in the picture raising cain for his own political and personal gain, President Ryan has no time to get accustomed to the job. Americans haven't truly had a no nonsense Commander In Chief since the early 80s with Ronald Reagan, but Jack Ryan certainly provides that in Executive Orders. If you loved it when Reagan shot a missile into Gadhafi's tent 20 years ago, you will LOVE the final sequence of this one!

At over 1000 pages (paperback) it's a long read, but a FAST read. Simply a Clancy masterpiece, and his best work of the last 8 or 9 years.

In DEBT OF HONOR end's the story when the 747 jetliner drove by a japanese-terrorist crash on the capitol building which killed almost the cabinet member and congress-dead, as well as Pres. Durling and his wife, brought for Vice-President John Patrick Ryan as the new President of the United States of America, though only he was convince by Pres. Durling as a vice-president caretaker for 1 year, though he didn't like the job. Then here's now the EXECUTIVE ORDER begins. As the new President, the fact that Ryan have had no such idea how he will heal the nation while some other's try to distabilized the country( a. resign-Vice Pres. Edward Kealty take the chance to destroy Mr. Ryan's unprepared speech in official funeral for dead-Pres. Durling that made media a reason to air Ryan's legal-status.; b. two undercover plan try to assasinate Ryan's daughter).

In some part of the world, Iran-people-against america made a long-research for the new discover ebola-virus and wanted them to spread across america. While Daryei convinced Badryan to join his military regiment both with a colossal-plan to attack american forces and government.

The question that always inculcate from the reader is that, How Mr. Clancy his long-hero John Patrick Ryan comes to an enormous crisis that have had to solve problems whether inside and outside.

Tom Clancy undoubtebly a superb writer. Don't miss this one...a highly-recommended...

In Executive Orders, Jack Ryan has just becomne president, following the events of Debt of Honour. He has to deal with an assortment of domestic problems, along with simply being president. And then, America is infected with an airborne form of Ebola by the newly formed United Islamic Republic, an amalgam of Iran and Iraq. While the infection is combatted, successfully, Ryan has to cope with attempted assasinations directed at himself and his family, and an invasion of Saudi Arabia by the UIR, then as Mr.Jack Ryan the new President of a powerful nation, a most with influence-nation in the world, Ryan faces threats from outside and within the U.S., from a newly-formed nation bent on crippling America to an agent sent to kill the very man he swore to protect...so I honestly tell u it's a gripping masterpiece not to be missed...

Executive Orders takes just ONE minute after Debt Of Honor horrifying ending; with a plane crashed into the Congress building killing all of Congress, the Joint Chief's Of Staff, The Supreme Court, and the President Durling, along with the first lady. Who is left? Jack Ryan who was just sworn in as Vice President, now is POTUS! Now with the sorrow of a nation on his shoulders, now Jack has to bring back safe and heal wounds that was caused by this disaster. (Clancy predicated 9/11 5 years before it happen in Executive Orders, and Gulf War 2 if you think about it.) Now with no plan and no execution, he has to create a whole new government from SCRATCH!
While America mourns the lost of a President, here at home and around the world, people are watching, and they are planning to bring America to it's knees. One of the enemies being Mamoud Haji Darceyi and at home what Clancy calls 'The Mountain Men'.
Darceyi wants to see America gone forever, and the Mountain Men want to free America from the bulls*itters in Washington and bring back America for the people.
Now as President, Jack then makes a plan to build back Congress by having a early election, and asking state governments to run elections to make a new Congress, and now while doing this, Jack has to appoint new Supreme Court judges, and the hardships keep on coming for Jack.
In Africa, a nun comes down with Ebola, so with the help of other doctor, she is being taken care of, then he realizes that he could use this virus as a weapon, but for what? This he thinks long and hard. In America, the Mountain Men then gear up to buy a cement truck, and they plan to use it as a car bomb to blow up somewhere in Washington. As the book progresses, and America begins to lick their wounds, they are shocked to find out that Saddam is dead from a assassination coup from one of his bodyguards that were supposed to be loyal to him. So while this is happening, Darceryi gets in contact with the generals in the Iraqi Army and decide that Iraq and Iran should put it differences aside, and unite under Islam. This they call the United Islamic Republic: UIR, with their new flag green (the color of Islam) and two small gold stars representing Iran and Iraq.
While then, the nun is getting too sick, so she has to be transfered to Paris, so she is taken on a plane, and is supposed to be taken to France, but she is taken to Iran to have her blood transfused out of her body with the virus, isolate the virus, and take the main antibodies and use them to commit a biological terrorist attack on America.
The plane that the sick woman rode in called in mayday and they crashed before they got to France, Ding discovers this when he went to Iran and took some pictures and got the plane fin's number, which was used by Darceyi to travel from Terhan to Baghdad. So what is Darceyi using this plane if it crashed into the sea?
Back at home, the virus is then let loose, Jack Ryan orders everyone to get quartined, and to stop all travel and close all roads across America. So now as Jack see's Americans dying, he then finds out who did this and the finger points to this man: Darceyi. So with the proof, Jack then goes to war because they have plans to invade Saudi Arabia, so they defend KKMC: King Khalid Military City, and they win. Ding and John Clark head to Terhan as Russian photographers, they then set up shop, and they find where Darceryi is, and Jack orders him dead by a 2,000 pound bomb.
At home, the Mountain Men are caught thanks to a smart cop who noticed something strange when someone is driving a cement truck cross-country, he finds out the plot, and he spoils it. Ebola is no longer a problem because the virus fades out thanks to the climate of the region of the U.S. and again America is saved thanks to Jack Ryan.

One bad note; this novel is LONG, sometimes I think that Clancy writes too damn much for just one novel, I would understand 400 pages, but 1,000 for like every book he writes? Great novel though, just cut down the pages dude.

'Executive Orders' opens with Jack Ryan, the hero of numerous Tom Clancy novels, having suddenly found himself President of the United States as the result of a terrorist attack that killed most of Congress personnel and the President(Pres. Roger Durling) that appointed Ryan as his vice-president. He is immediately launched into several crises as a terrorist organization, sponsored by the Iranian governmen, brings the e-bola virus to the U.S., introducing an outbreak. At the same time, the Iranian government, who is in cahoots with India, China, and Japan, is also taking over Iraq after having assassinated the leader. The world is on the cusp of major problems and the leader of the most powerful nation, arriving there without having been elected, has to answer the call. But, what's more, the former vice-president, who resigned because of a sex scandal, now claims that he should technically be the vice-president. Jack Ryan holds up under the pressure, but in order to bring the U.S. under control he has to enact martial law, closing down numerous major cities to prevent the spread of e-bola virus. This book is really a collosal read, reading this book is not wasting of time but instead a learning. I can absolutely relate of some situation on the book as Mr. Clancy's colossal imagination on our present nation-ill( as I think Philippines known in all over the world a circus-activities in politics) - Pres. John Patrick Ryan and with his wife Dr. Catherine Ryan sorrounded by a lot-of-beaurucrat, sorrounded by a lot of unscrupulous politician ( as resign-Vice-Pres. Kealty as one I mentioned) were on the first place responsible for distabilizing the government. So to everyone that love's Mr. Clancy's novel... don't mis dis one...