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justajailer 's review for:
Dead or Alive
by Grant Blackwood, Tom Clancy
Nobody does intelligence/spy thrillers as well as Tom Clancy. I am not sure why he has a collaborator on this book, but you cannot tell, it reads just like his other Jack Ryan novels. Unlike other spy fiction that focuses solely on the agents in the field, Clancy covers the entire intelligence community, agents, analysts and the political structure of various agencies and how they interact, or fail to interact, with each other.
The scenarios are more realistic, sometimes the intelligence is there, sometimes they miss, sometimes they are too late, and sometimes people die. While it may not be totally accurate, there is no suspension of disbelief that is sometimes involved with Hollywood-esque portrayals (primarily 007) thrillers. All the familiar faces that have survived so far, are here: John Clark and Domingo Chavez, Jack Ryan, Ed and Mary Pat Foley. There are also the new up an coming generation, Jack Jr., Brian and Dom Caruso who are all working for the super secret Campus.
Clancy is also not afraid, as is Hollywood, to portray the bad guys as who they are. Over the years, as the Cold War closed and radical Islamic terrorism took over as the new enemy of the United States, Clancy has kept pace. The bad guys are terrorists, not some disgruntled GRU or ex-KGB agent trying to relive the glory days. Or some evil capitalist hogging all the oil. His plots are deep and wide ranging, and best of all are plausible. Over the years he has been prescient too. Many times themes in his books have come to pass. Not in a Nostradamus prediction type of way, but the themes of where the country is headed in certain circumstances; if the bad guys are left unchecked, or if you have an ignoramus as president. (I wish Jack Ryan were our president).
In the overall Ryan Universe, I place this book near the top, just under Rainbow Six and Hunt for Red October, my personal favorites.
I enjoyed the audio version of this book, read by Lou Diamond Phillips. So far, the most enjoyable audiobook I haveread heard.
The scenarios are more realistic, sometimes the intelligence is there, sometimes they miss, sometimes they are too late, and sometimes people die. While it may not be totally accurate, there is no suspension of disbelief that is sometimes involved with Hollywood-esque portrayals (primarily 007) thrillers. All the familiar faces that have survived so far, are here: John Clark and Domingo Chavez, Jack Ryan, Ed and Mary Pat Foley. There are also the new up an coming generation, Jack Jr., Brian and Dom Caruso who are all working for the super secret Campus.
Clancy is also not afraid, as is Hollywood, to portray the bad guys as who they are. Over the years, as the Cold War closed and radical Islamic terrorism took over as the new enemy of the United States, Clancy has kept pace. The bad guys are terrorists, not some disgruntled GRU or ex-KGB agent trying to relive the glory days. Or some evil capitalist hogging all the oil. His plots are deep and wide ranging, and best of all are plausible. Over the years he has been prescient too. Many times themes in his books have come to pass. Not in a Nostradamus prediction type of way, but the themes of where the country is headed in certain circumstances; if the bad guys are left unchecked, or if you have an ignoramus as president. (I wish Jack Ryan were our president).
In the overall Ryan Universe, I place this book near the top, just under Rainbow Six and Hunt for Red October, my personal favorites.
I enjoyed the audio version of this book, read by Lou Diamond Phillips. So far, the most enjoyable audiobook I have