Tom Clancy, dead at 66

http://news.yahoo.com/bestselling-u-author-tom-clancy-dies-66-york-144624206.html

-Rob

Damn. Hate to hear that.

Sad story. The guy wrote books I'm willing to pick up.

He knew too much.

Damn, not even that old...

I have a lot of his books. Incredibly detailed and well researched. Multiple plot lines. NOT an easy read, but I can't put them down. Reread them multiple times. Plausible stories. The Kenya mall attack? Foretold in Teeth of the Tiger.

Sad. Most of his recent books have been "co-written" and not quite as good IMHO. But man, the "old stuff", I just couldn't put down.

Interestingly, he also had a story (Debt of Honor, IIRC) the "predicted" the use of commercial airliners as flying bombs. Red Storm rising talked about stealth aircraft long before anything was public. The man definitely either "knew too much" or had a lot of insight.

cwh wrote: I have a lot of his books. Incredibly detailed and well researched. Multiple plot lines. NOT an easy read, but I can't put them down. Reread them multiple times. Plausible stories. The Kenya mall attack? Foretold in Teeth of the Tiger.

This. IT comes across as a bit dry at times but there is so much information in there. He always did the research to make things as accurate as fiction can possibly be.

Yeah, he did incredible research. In 'The Sum of All Fears', he wrote a bit about how he had researched how to build an atomic bomb and that it frightened him how easy the information was to find, even in the early days of the Internet. He said that he had changed his description out of a sense of guilt, not that it would make any real difference.

I think Red Rabbit was very informational on the mentality behind soviet Russia at the time.

I love reading his stuff, the earlier the better. All the tech and battle porn is fun. I've always felt that Red October has a drive to it that the others are missing, it was the book he really wanted to write and just had to get it out.

I'm less excited about his political stories, especially as we didn't agree on a number of things and I got tired of being hit over the head. He needed a better editor, though. The same phrases or sayings pop up multiple times in the same book. Better than Dan Brown, but annoying for those of us who read popcorn books quickly but with a good memory. Still, the quality of the research is what Dan Brown pretends to have. This is not "first page of Google" stuff.

Too young for sure.

Curmudgeon wrote: Yeah, he did incredible research. In 'The Sum of All Fears', he wrote a bit about how he had researched how to build an atomic bomb and that it frightened him how easy the information was to find, even in the early days of the Internet. He said that he had changed his description out of a sense of guilt, not that it would make any real difference.

Yeah. I had a boss who had previously worked at the Savannah River bomb plant. He said that Clancy was pretty much spot on.

kazoospec wrote: Interestingly, he also had a story (Debt of Honor, IIRC) the "predicted" the use of commercial airliners as flying bombs. Red Storm rising talked about stealth aircraft long before anything was public. The man definitely either "knew too much" or had a lot of insight.

Yep, the whole "airliner into a building" plot from SOAF was one of the first things I thought about on 9/11.

Absolutely great writer. His action sequences were second-to-none. I'll never forget my dad handing me Red October when I was in my mid-teens and saying "you have to read this".

Curmudgeon wrote: Yeah, he did incredible research. In 'The Sum of All Fears', he wrote a bit about how he had researched how to build an atomic bomb and that it frightened him how easy the information was to find, even in the early days of the Internet. He said that he had changed his description out of a sense of guilt, not that it would make any real difference.

I worked at the Savannah River bomb plant too for short time. The lady who gave us training and who had worked there for many many years told us there were plenty of books in libraries on how to build a nuke. This was before Al Gore built the internet.

In reply to Curmudgeon:

The hard part has always been getting the enriched uranium.......and FWIW, I wouldn't have been surprised to have learned that missing israeli bomb was true.

yamaha wrote: In reply to Curmudgeon: The hard part has always been getting the enriched uranium.......and FWIW, I wouldn't have been surprised to have learned that missing israeli bomb was true.

Clancy definitely did his research.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_and_Israel#Weapons_production_1967.E2.80.93present

The CIA believed that Israel's first bombs may have been made with highly enriched uranium stolen in the mid-1960s from the U.S. Navy nuclear fuel plant operated by the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation, where sloppy material accounting would have masked the theft.

"Stolen", yes

His description of the 'Hush-A-Bomb' in Clear and Present Danger' was interesting as hell.

I've read many of his books, but I must admit, The Sum of All Fears scared me. Great writer indeed.

maybe he just didn't want to live on this planet anymore.

As stated, the first books were the greatest. I periodically just sit down and start reading them as a series. Red October cannot be beat for action sequences and the movie was incredibly close to the original theme of the book.

Yet they were both different in good ways. I read the 503 page paperback in an afternoon. Totally worth it.

I did read through his early books in college. I watched Red October, good movie.

my favorites are 1. Without Remorse, 2. Clear and Present Danger, and 3. Patriot Games .... all them are superb "escape" reading ... until he got to the Ryan Jr. books ... really don't care much for them