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A review by brents
Without Remorse by Tom Clancy
4.0
I hadn't read a Tom Clancy novel actually written by him (and not another author under his brand) since probably I was in college. I really liked them back then, but my tastes have changed and expanded somewhat so I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy Without Remorse even though it's been on my radar to read for 20 years. I recently just watched the Amazon Prime adaptation with Michael B. Jordan and honestly it sucked so I assumed the book had to be better. It was time to give it a go.
The bare bones here is that this is a revenge tale and origin story for one of Clancy's most beloved characters (and my personal favorite) John Clark. The story starts with former Navy SEAL, John Kelly, doing some maritime demolition and salvage work when his young pregnant wife is killed in a car accident. This threw me for a bit of a loop because I assumed the revenge tale would be about her murder. You find out so early on that it is not it can't really be considered a spoiler. The story starts in earnest when Kelly falls quickly in love with a woman named Pam who has problems and is clearly running away from something. This eventually leads Kelly down a very dark path seeking justice outside the law.
Of course there is a lot more too it than that which I omitted due to spoilers, but honestly the biggest flaw of this book is how much Clancy should have omitted as well. The revenge arc here is quite solid even if some things about it feel a bit weird. Kelly and Pam's relationship feels a lot like instalove. Clancy isn't a strong enough writer of relationships to make this work and base a whole revenge plot around it. That being said it's still a really fun revenge plot that carries the book. The real problem is that Clancy introduces 2 or 3 other side plots that make the book really jump around from pov to pov and location to location sometimes within the same chapter. It just makes it feel very uneven. What could have been a really focused 350 page revenge thriller turns into a 750 page revenge thriller with drug smuggling, crime investigation, Vietnam POWs and a rescue operation, and Cold War espionage.
That being said I still mostly enjoyed reading about all of those plots even though it did feel a bit jumbled. Ultimately what really shined here though is really building Mr. Clark's backstory. I've read many novels in the Ryanverse where he played a significant role, and it was fun to see how he became what he is. Also, I'm always going to have a good time when a story has someone going John Wick all over the dregs of humanity. Clancy was doing John Wick 20 years before John Wick was a thing.
All in all I really enjoyed this book. This is a book you read for the action and plot. The prose and characters are nothing to write home about. They are clinical, technical, and ultimately serviceable to tell the intended story. If you are a Clancy fan, but have been skipping this one and sticking to the Jack Ryan novels (he does not make an appearance here) I would recommend you pick this one up.
The bare bones here is that this is a revenge tale and origin story for one of Clancy's most beloved characters (and my personal favorite) John Clark. The story starts with former Navy SEAL, John Kelly, doing some maritime demolition and salvage work when his young pregnant wife is killed in a car accident. This threw me for a bit of a loop because I assumed the revenge tale would be about her murder. You find out so early on that it is not it can't really be considered a spoiler. The story starts in earnest when Kelly falls quickly in love with a woman named Pam who has problems and is clearly running away from something. This eventually leads Kelly down a very dark path seeking justice outside the law.
Of course there is a lot more too it than that which I omitted due to spoilers, but honestly the biggest flaw of this book is how much Clancy should have omitted as well. The revenge arc here is quite solid even if some things about it feel a bit weird. Kelly and Pam's relationship feels a lot like instalove. Clancy isn't a strong enough writer of relationships to make this work and base a whole revenge plot around it. That being said it's still a really fun revenge plot that carries the book. The real problem is that Clancy introduces 2 or 3 other side plots that make the book really jump around from pov to pov and location to location sometimes within the same chapter. It just makes it feel very uneven. What could have been a really focused 350 page revenge thriller turns into a 750 page revenge thriller with drug smuggling, crime investigation, Vietnam POWs and a rescue operation, and Cold War espionage.
That being said I still mostly enjoyed reading about all of those plots even though it did feel a bit jumbled. Ultimately what really shined here though is really building Mr. Clark's backstory. I've read many novels in the Ryanverse where he played a significant role, and it was fun to see how he became what he is. Also, I'm always going to have a good time when a story has someone going John Wick all over the dregs of humanity. Clancy was doing John Wick 20 years before John Wick was a thing.
All in all I really enjoyed this book. This is a book you read for the action and plot. The prose and characters are nothing to write home about. They are clinical, technical, and ultimately serviceable to tell the intended story. If you are a Clancy fan, but have been skipping this one and sticking to the Jack Ryan novels (he does not make an appearance here) I would recommend you pick this one up.