Tom Clancy Under Fire (A Jack Ryan Jr. Novel)

SPOILER ALERTS SPOILER ALERTS SPOILER ALERTSTom Clancy books are always a good read - every time I read them. And this is the 2nd or 3rd time that I've read this one from front to back. The author gives very good descriptions of the surroundings. There was obvious research done for street names like the M29 highway. And you turn just before the bridge. (And yes, I know Google Maps and other apps have made it to that side of the world.) I feel like I am right there with Jack and Seth and Ysebel and all the others. And I like how the coup isn't supposed to be bloody on the good guys side. I know that idealistic but they are keeping above it all. Even the Minister mentioned that the previous people who held his post were into torture but he was not that kind of guy. And he let Jack know it in no uncertain terms!!!! And then there's the bad guys. The way they are written about- you just absolutely hate them. Of course, not everything goes the good way!!! That just not the way life is and Tom Clancy and those who write for him know that, too. To paraphrase one of the best Presidents the United States has ever had - A good yarn. (I know I don't have the quote exact, so that's why I said paraphrase.......) Hope you all enjoy the book as much as I have!!!!

I’m of two minds about this Jack Ryan Jr. novel.What’s fine about it is the freshness of the setting. Ryan is doing some non-spook financial work in, of all places, an Iran opening up under a cautiously liberalizing president. It’s refreshing for a technothriller, since Tehran usually means total tension for protagonists as they work to foil some nuke or equally horrible terror plot backed by the mullahs and the Revolutionary Guard.Not here. Ryan’s sidekick through much of it is a wealthy young Persian woman who’s a university professor and likes Scotch. And when the spy plot heats up, it has little to do with Iran.Ryan meets with an old friend living in Iran for an engineering job. Things start to go south almost immediately. The friend disappears after leaving a cryptic hint for Ryan, and when Jack investigates he’s kidnapped. Things spiral out of control from there.What I don’t like about the book is a key implausibility: that Ryan can get entangled with a bunch of spies, trying to unravel what happened to his friend and what they’re all up to, without giving up his own secret. We know, of course, that The Campus where he works as a financial wonk is a cover for a self-supporting and off-the-books spy agency operating independently of the federal government. Ryan’s father, Jack Sr., is still the president, and locked away in a safe somewhere are signed presidential pardons for The Campus spooks should they ever be blown.That Ysabel might set aside her doubts about Jack’s amazing capability at spookery - shooting, self-defense, breaking and entering, thinking through every angle of an operation, doping out the intentions of the opposition - is possible. Ysabel is a low-level informant and not that experienced herself. But as Jack runs across British and American spies, they’d have to suspect something. Jack’s story of “I’m just trying to find out what happened to my friend” would wear thin.On a larger level, I’m mildly disappointed that the Jack Ryan Jr. series doesn’t have the same pizzazz the late Tom Clancy brought to the original books on Ryan Sr. Yes, a lot of them were too long, and yes, maybe he railed a little too much against liberals. But they had an enormous amount of eye-opening background, not just about military and security related technology, but about the politics of America, its friends and adversaries. And they had Clancy’s relentless cheerleading for the American system and the American agencies as the good guys - a welcome relief after decades of cynical Le Carre-influenced spy fiction written by authors too world weary to see much difference between the opposing sides of the Iron Curtain.Plus they had lots of characters and their back stories, plenty for you the reader to enjoyably wallow in, escaping to a delightful alternative world, one we’re still reading stories about now, almost 40 years later. I never read a bad one.There was the family side, and the running development of the characters around Ryan Sr., from John Clark and Ding Chavez, who are still present in Junior’s life, but well beyond them to Robby Jackson and Mary Pat Foley and her husband Ed and Dan Murray of the FBI.The Ryan Jr. series contains little of that. These are straight ahead spy novels, much shorter, with plots seen primarily from the protagonist’s perspective. Ryan Jr. is resourceful and the spycraft seems solid and fun to read about. But none of what made the original series special, is there.I would be remiss without crediting a very good side of this, as it explores a topic I can't recall Clancy's CIA stories addressing: How do you launch a coup?

I am disappointed to say that I was underwhelmed by this latest entry in the Jack Ryan Jr. Series. There are several glaring problems with it, which irritated me immensely. However, there some good characteristics that shine through.First, the good. Blackwood's writing has substantially improved since his previous effort with Clancy. The writing style is clean and easy to read. Very straightforward, with no real surprises. About the same level as Brad Thor or a co-written Clive Cussler. The plot is actually rather intriguing, involving members of the Campus, SIS, FSB, and CIA on different sides of a coup in Dagestan. Some new characters are introduced, and a few of them are fleshed out rather well. Under Fire, overall, does not lack for excitement. There are snipers, ambushes, and fistfights, and all of them are written at a blinding-fast pace.Now, on to the bad. As in Blackwood's previous effort, Dead or Alive, Blackwood either changes or completely disregards events which happened in previous Clancy books. For instance, one of the major villains of Under Fire works for the SVR. In a previous Ryan book, the FSB and the SVR were joined together to form what was essentially a rebirth of the KGB, going by the new name of the FSB. This villain's connections to the SVR were mentioned several times in Under Fire, which is simply incorrect. Another serious problem is the fact that none of the villains are fleshed out properly. In Tom Clancy's original novels, and in Mark Greaney's continuation novels, the villains were deeply motivated, three-dimensional characters, with ambition and drive. That is simply lost here. Even worse is the anti-climatic ending, where everything the book has been building up to simply fizzles like a wet firework.And finally, the really bad. Blackwood seems to have forgotten one of the cardinal rules of writing: to show, not to tell. There is practically no detail about anything. Major character's thoughts and even dialogue are glossed over, and the descriptions of the locations are very ambiguous.Overall, while it has an interesting plot, and some good action, Under Fire is a disappointing addition to the Clancy series.

It’s Another excellent Jack Ryan Jnr book. I recommend it to anyone who has appreciated all the Jack Ryan books,

Surely the strong point of the book is the way it is written! Writing with simple terms and very fast! As for the plot, it's nice for the space / time jumps and for the connections between the characters. Written in such a way that it seemed to me, while I was reading, to be there ... like when you watch a good movie.It's a nice novel to read at a time when you need to read something light.

Aparentemente escritor novato. Estou nos 20% de leitura, e ainda não sei "porque" a historia acontece, não sei para quem o heroi age, quem e porque os coadjuvantes estão na historia. Não sei se vou terminar a leitura, se fosse possivel pensaria em pedir meu dinheiro de volta.

Not very good, missing the touch of Tom Clancy. Still nice to read but only if you read the previous books.

How close to the real truth is this story. Russian block country wanting independence, and what are they prepared to sacrifice to get it.