The Hunt for Red October

The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Clancy's first Jack Ryan novel, and my first Clancy read.

One of the few times I saw the movie before reading the book, which was a good thing, believe it or not. Else I would have been lost in the technical minutiae. But it seems a compelling depiction of modern naval warfare.

Definitely a product of the Cold War, Clancy throws in side comments about American freedom and the Soviet mindset that set them in stark contrast, and show the moral inequivalence between the two. It's probably overly simplistic: the Americans are always meritocratic, while for the Russians politics and rank come before competence. But I wouldn't argue with the basic refutation of moral equivalence between the two, given the explicit godlessness of the U.S.S.R.

Still, Clancy tips the hat to the technical and tactical capabilities of the Russians, in the characters of Ramius and Tupolev.

Clancy is a deft craftsman of the modern literary device - I don't know the technical term - of shifting from one scene or location to another with increasing rapidity, heightening the pace and drama. It's a bit of a cheap trick in my view, but for this kind of story and genre it works.

A smattering of language, including the f-bomb. Probably way less than is realistic, but still a bother to me.



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