Patriot Games

by: Tom Clancy

I decided to read a Jack Ryan book because I really enjoyed the films I saw featuring the character. Why did I choose this one? To be honest, it was pure chance. I let fate decide and put my hands on a Clancy book and this was it. I wasn’t sure what to expect. As stated, I enjoyed the films and certainly Clancy is a celebrated author, but this wasn’t what I expected. But overall while the plot had signigicant changes in the film version, the overall result is the same. It is the book equivalent of a summer popcorn film.

The plot is fairly simple, Jack Ryan gets personally involved in a plot to kidnap the Prince’s newborn child and draws the ire of one of the top terrorists of an Irish faction dedicated to throwing British rule out the window. Due to that and the intrigue between a few Irish factions embroils Jack far more than the initial event and as you can imagine, things swirl out of control as Jack and his family are targeted for personal revenge as well as political games.

What amazed me was how good some of the characters were while how poorly drawn out others were. Jack Ryan was a phenomenally wonderful character full of flaws intrigue, doubt, and true human emotion. His antagonist Sean Miller was also well drawn on the side of villainy. Jack’s best friend Robby was another fully explored buddy who fit his role perfectly.

Then pretty much everyone else in any kind of authority just…all bled into each other. I can’t even remember the names of the CIA/Interpol/British Embassy types because frankly they were all interchangeable.

And yet finally there were some more minor characters who shone in their brief roles, like the formerly pro-IRA Boston bartender, or Sean Miller’s terrorist contact in America.

The action was top notch and the storyline was intriguing enough to carry it along even if at times some of Jack’s melodramatic scenes with himself wore a little thin. The only other slight negative is a common one in many films/books. The abrupt ending. It was all going along and then suddenly…it ends. It wasn’t necessarily bad but I was surprised that there wasn’t an even bigger ending.

Overall an above average read even if it isn’t classic literature.

B-