Tom Clancy Full Force and Effect by Mark Greaney

How many decades
will Tom Clancy's Ryan-verse
remain fun to read?

Tom Clancy deserves credit for many things and the most deserving may be his creation of the characters centered around Jack Ryan. To this day, well past Clancy's death, and well beyond when the books were being co-authored, and even past some bad editing (e.g. Rainbow Six), I still love reading about these characters. To use Clancy's own word (from an interview I saw him give here in Fort Worth years ago), verisimilitude is the key.

The plot of Full Force and Effect is typical Clancy techno-thriller and really not relevant to my enjoyment of the book. It contains all the requisite elements: cool spy stuff, North Koreans, nukes, Mexican drug gangs. What important is seeing how the characters react to those scenarios in a way that makes you root for them, feel for them.

Pet peeve about the writing. It's not necessary to repeat a secondary character's title multiple times. Once is enough - I can remember who "Steve" is for a full novel. Same for spelling out acronyms; once is enough.

Nice performance, as always, by Scott Brick on the audiobook.

"Nothing can be said about writing except when it is bad. When it is good, one can only read and be grateful."

I received no compensation of any kind for this review.