6. The Sum of All Fears (Jack Ryan, #6)
The title of the book comes from a famous quote by Winston Churchill, and the quote is written as the book’s first two epigraphs:
“Why, you may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman or the most audacious soldier, put them at a table together – what do you get? The sum of their fears.”
Could terrorists detonate a weapon of mass destruction on American soil? According to the CIA at least 20 countries – half of them being in the Middle East and in South Asia – already have or produce weapons of mass destruction.
Moreover, it is a known fact that tens of thousands of such weapons were built and prepared for launch during the Cold War.
To date, according to a report 164 nuclear warheads transportable weapons are nowhere to be found. In the movie adaptation Ben Affleck is starring in the role of CIA agent Jack Ryan but in book the absolute danger provides a very realistic image of what might happen if such a weapon would fall in the wrong hands. Given the current political climate the book reveals how fear can turn into paranoia condition which prevents rational man of clear thinking.
The Plot
Takes place during the Yom Kippur War period, where an Israeli aircraft carting a nuclear bomb was shot down over Syria and the bomb was lost. Some years later an Israeli captain kills a Palestinian activist and the United States is unable to defend Israel and requests Jack Ryan’s help to make peace by converting Jerusalem into a city like Vatican for different religious people and the leaders of most religions and to be secured by military. But as usual things are not as easy as they seem and a group of PFLP terrorists try to stop the “crusade for peace”.
5. Without Remorse (John Clark, #1)
“I think about the characters I’ve created, and then I sit down and start typing and see what they will do. There’s a lot of subconscious thought that goes on. It amazes me to find out, a few chapters later, why I put someone in a certain place when I did.”
Written in 1993, Without Remorse presents John Kelly or John Clark, the once fearsome combatant, goes back into the jungle. Caught between two missions – one that he assumed himself and the one imposed by US military officials – Kelly faces a number of enemies in front of which the smallest misstep could be fatal.
The Plot
Takes place during the Vietnam War, in Baltimore city. Being the first book to introduce John Clark the author gives us some back-story for our protagonist, and serves as a guide trough Kelly’s life and explains how he became John Clark.
The story is wrapped around two major story arcs, one taking place in Vietnam where American prisoners of war are being kept for interrogations and John Jelly is asked by the military and CIA to plan a rescue mission, but on the other hand in Baltimore there is a heroin ring that uses prostitutes as drug mules, but John Kelly must stay out of the sight of local police which investigates this case and is led by Emmet Ryan the father of our hero.
John Kelly face situations that are made to make him or break him, struggling with the choices and questions about the use of violence and see the human toll of war and the drug case in Baltimore city. He is also faced with traitors that have in their mind only to put countless civilians in harm’s way.
4. Clear and Present Danger (Jack Ryan, #5)
In Colombia drugs are a religion, and those who challenge it means that they don’t wants to die in their bed. The drug barons form Cali and Medellin do not know how to send a verbal warning, but they know how to slash throats and shoot down American officials. In front of the hardness Cartel, Washington has one solution: to enter a shock-team under the command of the legendary Jack Ryan, a handyman and former combatant used to the horrors of war and the struggle with the impossible.
After the U.S. Coast Guard discovers a murdered family on a vessel in the middle of the Caribbean Sea and after finding and capturing the criminals it was found that the murders were a scheme for a drug cartel.
The President of the United States (from the book of course), having trouble with re-election based on his war against drugs tells his men to create a plan that will solve the problem.
The plan was made in four operations, Operation CAPER, Operation EAGLE EYE, Operation SHOWBOAT, and Operation RECIPROCITY. Here the readers can experience what made Tom Clancy’s books so famous.
For example Operation CAPER lead by John Clark, was made to intercept communications between cartel management and the ground troops only contact with the outside world. The EAGLE EYE operation was meant to intercept drug flights with F-15 Eagles to force them to land to interrogate the pilots but some were destroyed.
Operation SHOWBOAT consists in four teams of soldiers infiltrated in Colombia for surveillance in order to get information about drug-trafficking aircrafts for the EAGLE EYE team, later on the the light infantry battalions, all Hispanic to blend in, attack the sites. The other operation uses ground attack aircraft to bomb the cartel locations but the bomb casings are consumed in the explosion giving the impression of car bombs.