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horizon_brave 's review for:
The Hunt for Red October
by Tom Clancy
So, sort of surprised I never tried this book prior, but here we are! Mid Summer Political thriller! So yea introduced to Ramius on the launch day of Red October, nice scene of the sub being pulled out by tug from the dock and being escorted into the wider ocean. Really cool description is the "ice breaker" ship plowing the way for it through the frigid Russia icy waters.
Ramius' wife Natalia died by her doctor, who got away with it because of his status. He seems to not be happy with the state of his nation.
I love the scene of them having to wait 15 minutes out to sea before opening up their mission orders which are locked and cipher encrypted... Annnd their mission is a training, hunting mission with another Soviet sub.
So this book really starts off running.... It was hinted at..but our good captain Ramius killed in cold blood, the Political officier (and second captain) Ivan Putin. He slams his face into the desk and snaps his neck...
We're given then a tour of our main characters...We have Jack Ryan introduced as he just moved to the UK, and recently go back to Washington....he's a family man, raising a little girl, who's just in case we were't smitten enough, she worries in the cutest way about Santa not being able to find their new house.
He seems to be neck deep in paperwork and works for the CIA.
We also meet with another submarine captain, who's in charge of the V.K Konovalov, Viktor Tupalev. He's sort of second fiddle to...everyone it seems. He's had his crew and sub in this region of waters dealing with training it seems like. He's not given orders to try and spar with Red October. He wants to prove that he and his crew can..
We also get introduced (well not really, we never know his name..to a post worker, working in the Central Post Office, who's unhappy now that the Soviet work week has been extended an additional day. He's working on a Saturday, pushing mail for smug, and self absorbed people. Trivial matters with trivial words... The idea of "As long as the bosses pretend to pay us, we pretend to work". We can see a nice glimpse of the Soviet work life... He's handling a piece of mail directed to the Office of Naval Affairs, and he tosses it so that is misses the box of mail to be shipped out today....It'd be picked up tomorrow..who cares... I'm sure this won't in anyway affect the story....
We get such a good look into Soviet life during the 1970's and 80's. There's a lot of stage setting and we get a glimpse of the political landscape. Russia has 'comrades' in Cuba and see them as allies. Japan they hated and were well pleased that the US destroyed their fleet. And of course They lump all of the Capitalist together referring to them as Imperialists.
Really enjoying how much into the personal life of Ramius we're getting. I wasn't expecting it actually. Deep history of how his wife was in pain with needing of what should have been a benign surgery to remove an appendix... But unfortunately he took her to one of the Russian doctors for the upper class elite...meaning the doctors themselves were all partying, drunk and never really in any real constant training. They had cushy office jobs in the Soviet cabinet. So Marco Ramius takes his wife to get surgery and the doctor shows up drunk and it leads to a horrible mistake in surgery which he tries to fix and makes worse.....yea she gets infected and dies later... This throws Ramius so far afield.. He was prior to this, also not feeling great about the political direction of the Country. As a child he had many experiences that sort of ran counter to how he thought the system was supposed to give and reward it's citizens. His wife's death at the 'hands' of the Soviet establishment was the last straw...
We switch gears now and get Jack Ryan's story... He and his boss James Greer meet and they discuss trading information to the allied UK espionage group. We get a nice look into the political favors that one group does for the other...Not really black mail but rather trading information for favors. They have a shot of Red October and are analyzing it's form. They spot something peculiar and need to get some outside help in finding out what it is...So Jack goes to his good buddy Tyler who used to work with Jack. He shares the photos and asks him what the ports on the sub could be... Now...I'm not saying I don't trust him...but I don't trust him..
So there's a lot of tense back and forth here.. A lot of military comms officers on both the US soil secret Sonar bunker, and on the USS Dallas. Both teams are noticing some pretty unusual behavior. Lots off movement all at once in specific sectors. It's really great seeing the different teams react to the observations,s and it's really cool, because both teams aren't communicating with each other. The SONUS facility on land is picking up some odd noises, and it describes the technicians listening to and picking up on the most sublte changes and noises. Same goes for the people on the USS Dallas. It's interesting, they describe the men who work here as being a slightly different 'breed' than normal servicemen. They are described as listening to classical, listening for faults and tiny disruptions and mis-timed instruments and being able to pick up on the tiniest variations. The Dallas noticed all of this activity from a multitiude of known Russian ships. It's really neat that they have recognition on the sounds of each Russian Uboat. Each one emits a slightly unique noise and it runs, so they can 'see' it and know what ship it is...
I love how much back story we're getting with the characters...maybe not backstory but rather just character traits... Each character feels very real..
The book is getting into the thick and technical here...not a bad thing, very cool, but it's definitely a lot to take in. The back and forth between the sides is so page turning! We have the president talking and demanding information from the Russian diplomat... basically threatening him.... We have the Russian Alpha Sub basically going belly up and having to breach unexpectedly. Jack is brought into the front line on one of the battleships. I love the banter and small talk between the crew members and officers. The talk of football, and daily life is nice..
Surprising, and a great detail here is how little the CIA, Military branches and Executive branch doesn't communicate with each other.
Also I find it interesting that Jack Ryan has sort of disappeared from the narrative here. He's been the sort of 'main' for the US side of things, but we get so much POV from the front line subs, and SONOS headquarters, and military ships. It's not a bad thing actually having one guy be everywhere and do everything is a trope of action, thriller movies and books, when in reality a conflict at this scale and scope is not handled by one super secret James Bond like agent...
I'll say this....this book is a pitch perfect display of compartmentalized information. Between the US and Russia, their own inner departments spin lies to each other. The Navy, executive branches, CIA etc, they're all selectively choosing how to dispense information. So much so that each individual ship doesn't even know the full story. It's all rather cool but makes for a confusing follow.
So Red October is barreling towards the US, and we think of a way to allow us to "rescue" it, get the crew off who want to return home, pretend to blow it up, but all the while, allowing it to speed ahead. Then return the "survivors" to Russia.... Meanwhile Russia knows the ship is trying to defect etc...
Also to be noted is the sort of side stories, like the Senator and his aide, who was providing information to an informant in Russia.
Wow..so talk about subterfuge...reading this and trying to keep who knew what, and what the ultimate goal was, did get sort of confusing by the end.
There's actually some great little nuggets of humor dispersed in the book...At the end when the Soviets who were gathered up were on the ship back to the US, they were watching E.T and by the end, tears were in their eyes... It was interesting to see the reaction of the public, and the complete mind job it did on the Soviets who only knew of the US from propaganda. Amazed that black people had cars! Earlier in the book it's shown that the Soviets think that the US citizens are arrogant, loose and violent.
There's made some attempts to try to get the Russian's into a 'lose lose' scenario. In which they can either admit that one of their most decorated and celebrated officers was able to steal a boat and get off to another country.... or the other cover story that they were tricked into this situation by another country making them appear weak.
I loved that Ramius and Ryan are quickly put into a position to have to work and fight together. Felt very natural and they both were written very humanely. The constant bouncing back and forth between locations and subs was at first really really well done, and it created this fast paced, nail biting tension of each moment, having an effect directly on the next scene. One sub does something, and the next scene is like the reaction to that action in another ship, and then the reaction at fleet headquarters in Norfolk etc... The problem is that there were so many locations it got confusing as to what was were...And again as I stated before there's so many players here, some knowing a lot more and some knowing a lot less. Very hard to keep track of who's story is known by who.
The end wraps up nicely with Jack finally asking the question that I had on my mind...why did Ramius send a letter to Moscow TELLING them he was defecting..and answer is a bit mundane in that he just says "he wanted them to know"...you see the idea was that he would be far enough out to escape other Russian boats, but he didn't expect to be found by the Americans...
And speaking of which..by the end of the book it's starting to feel like reading a pamplet for BestAmerica or something. It's hammering home how much better the US is compared to Russia. I don't think it's too egregious, but it's very blunt is making Ramius this wide eye kid in awe of how amazing everything in America is. (Hey we are pretty awesome amirite)
Late novel troubles...seems like the Russians aren't just turning tail and running... One single Submarine, the Kolovolev finds this all suspicious and trails the American dispersing ships...They catch on that there's a big sub out there and start probing...I love the slow realization that this wasn't an Ohio Class ship, but one of their own. The boat they were hunting for. Also it's fitting that the character that was set up before as wanting to find and beat Ramius was the one who found it. Here we get the classic cat and mouse scene that has been now made famous. The Kolvolev has to tap dance with the Red October and the Dallas. What makes this interesting is that the US can't fire openly on the Kolvolev... And technically the Kolvalev can't fire on the Dallas.... but it can fire on the Red October, but it's their own property. So that's such a good twist that to prevent an open acknowledgement of war, the two countries can't attack each other, but the Russians because the R.O is theirs they can fire...and they do, and manage to get a shot in. The maneuvering and slow churn back and forth is really tense and well done.
The ending wraps with Ramius and the few officers with him accept their involvement in US life. They are eager to learn and even perhaps go to school in California. What's funny is after the big standoff battle at the end, the final deathblow is so quick and sudden I almost missed what actually happened...
So yea I felt the ending was a big rushed and it came off as a tad preachy towards the end... but overall what a thrill. Lots of tense, nail biting moments for sure and I love how the 'camera' cuts between the different subs, ships and buildings. It felt very much fast, quick paced. So much so that it got to be a bit hard to follow at times, and I think the overall cover stories were so deep and multilayered, you had to really keep track of who was being told what. Really had fun with this.
Ramius' wife Natalia died by her doctor, who got away with it because of his status. He seems to not be happy with the state of his nation.
I love the scene of them having to wait 15 minutes out to sea before opening up their mission orders which are locked and cipher encrypted... Annnd their mission is a training, hunting mission with another Soviet sub.
So this book really starts off running.... It was hinted at..but our good captain Ramius killed in cold blood, the Political officier (and second captain) Ivan Putin. He slams his face into the desk and snaps his neck...
We're given then a tour of our main characters...We have Jack Ryan introduced as he just moved to the UK, and recently go back to Washington....he's a family man, raising a little girl, who's just in case we were't smitten enough, she worries in the cutest way about Santa not being able to find their new house.
He seems to be neck deep in paperwork and works for the CIA.
We also meet with another submarine captain, who's in charge of the V.K Konovalov, Viktor Tupalev. He's sort of second fiddle to...everyone it seems. He's had his crew and sub in this region of waters dealing with training it seems like. He's not given orders to try and spar with Red October. He wants to prove that he and his crew can..
We also get introduced (well not really, we never know his name..to a post worker, working in the Central Post Office, who's unhappy now that the Soviet work week has been extended an additional day. He's working on a Saturday, pushing mail for smug, and self absorbed people. Trivial matters with trivial words... The idea of "As long as the bosses pretend to pay us, we pretend to work". We can see a nice glimpse of the Soviet work life... He's handling a piece of mail directed to the Office of Naval Affairs, and he tosses it so that is misses the box of mail to be shipped out today....It'd be picked up tomorrow..who cares... I'm sure this won't in anyway affect the story....
We get such a good look into Soviet life during the 1970's and 80's. There's a lot of stage setting and we get a glimpse of the political landscape. Russia has 'comrades' in Cuba and see them as allies. Japan they hated and were well pleased that the US destroyed their fleet. And of course They lump all of the Capitalist together referring to them as Imperialists.
Really enjoying how much into the personal life of Ramius we're getting. I wasn't expecting it actually. Deep history of how his wife was in pain with needing of what should have been a benign surgery to remove an appendix... But unfortunately he took her to one of the Russian doctors for the upper class elite...meaning the doctors themselves were all partying, drunk and never really in any real constant training. They had cushy office jobs in the Soviet cabinet. So Marco Ramius takes his wife to get surgery and the doctor shows up drunk and it leads to a horrible mistake in surgery which he tries to fix and makes worse.....yea she gets infected and dies later... This throws Ramius so far afield.. He was prior to this, also not feeling great about the political direction of the Country. As a child he had many experiences that sort of ran counter to how he thought the system was supposed to give and reward it's citizens. His wife's death at the 'hands' of the Soviet establishment was the last straw...
We switch gears now and get Jack Ryan's story... He and his boss James Greer meet and they discuss trading information to the allied UK espionage group. We get a nice look into the political favors that one group does for the other...Not really black mail but rather trading information for favors. They have a shot of Red October and are analyzing it's form. They spot something peculiar and need to get some outside help in finding out what it is...So Jack goes to his good buddy Tyler who used to work with Jack. He shares the photos and asks him what the ports on the sub could be... Now...I'm not saying I don't trust him...but I don't trust him..
So there's a lot of tense back and forth here.. A lot of military comms officers on both the US soil secret Sonar bunker, and on the USS Dallas. Both teams are noticing some pretty unusual behavior. Lots off movement all at once in specific sectors. It's really great seeing the different teams react to the observations,s and it's really cool, because both teams aren't communicating with each other. The SONUS facility on land is picking up some odd noises, and it describes the technicians listening to and picking up on the most sublte changes and noises. Same goes for the people on the USS Dallas. It's interesting, they describe the men who work here as being a slightly different 'breed' than normal servicemen. They are described as listening to classical, listening for faults and tiny disruptions and mis-timed instruments and being able to pick up on the tiniest variations. The Dallas noticed all of this activity from a multitiude of known Russian ships. It's really neat that they have recognition on the sounds of each Russian Uboat. Each one emits a slightly unique noise and it runs, so they can 'see' it and know what ship it is...
I love how much back story we're getting with the characters...maybe not backstory but rather just character traits... Each character feels very real..
The book is getting into the thick and technical here...not a bad thing, very cool, but it's definitely a lot to take in. The back and forth between the sides is so page turning! We have the president talking and demanding information from the Russian diplomat... basically threatening him.... We have the Russian Alpha Sub basically going belly up and having to breach unexpectedly. Jack is brought into the front line on one of the battleships. I love the banter and small talk between the crew members and officers. The talk of football, and daily life is nice..
Surprising, and a great detail here is how little the CIA, Military branches and Executive branch doesn't communicate with each other.
Also I find it interesting that Jack Ryan has sort of disappeared from the narrative here. He's been the sort of 'main' for the US side of things, but we get so much POV from the front line subs, and SONOS headquarters, and military ships. It's not a bad thing actually having one guy be everywhere and do everything is a trope of action, thriller movies and books, when in reality a conflict at this scale and scope is not handled by one super secret James Bond like agent...
I'll say this....this book is a pitch perfect display of compartmentalized information. Between the US and Russia, their own inner departments spin lies to each other. The Navy, executive branches, CIA etc, they're all selectively choosing how to dispense information. So much so that each individual ship doesn't even know the full story. It's all rather cool but makes for a confusing follow.
So Red October is barreling towards the US, and we think of a way to allow us to "rescue" it, get the crew off who want to return home, pretend to blow it up, but all the while, allowing it to speed ahead. Then return the "survivors" to Russia.... Meanwhile Russia knows the ship is trying to defect etc...
Also to be noted is the sort of side stories, like the Senator and his aide, who was providing information to an informant in Russia.
Wow..so talk about subterfuge...reading this and trying to keep who knew what, and what the ultimate goal was, did get sort of confusing by the end.
There's actually some great little nuggets of humor dispersed in the book...At the end when the Soviets who were gathered up were on the ship back to the US, they were watching E.T and by the end, tears were in their eyes... It was interesting to see the reaction of the public, and the complete mind job it did on the Soviets who only knew of the US from propaganda. Amazed that black people had cars! Earlier in the book it's shown that the Soviets think that the US citizens are arrogant, loose and violent.
There's made some attempts to try to get the Russian's into a 'lose lose' scenario. In which they can either admit that one of their most decorated and celebrated officers was able to steal a boat and get off to another country.... or the other cover story that they were tricked into this situation by another country making them appear weak.
I loved that Ramius and Ryan are quickly put into a position to have to work and fight together. Felt very natural and they both were written very humanely. The constant bouncing back and forth between locations and subs was at first really really well done, and it created this fast paced, nail biting tension of each moment, having an effect directly on the next scene. One sub does something, and the next scene is like the reaction to that action in another ship, and then the reaction at fleet headquarters in Norfolk etc... The problem is that there were so many locations it got confusing as to what was were...And again as I stated before there's so many players here, some knowing a lot more and some knowing a lot less. Very hard to keep track of who's story is known by who.
The end wraps up nicely with Jack finally asking the question that I had on my mind...why did Ramius send a letter to Moscow TELLING them he was defecting..and answer is a bit mundane in that he just says "he wanted them to know"...you see the idea was that he would be far enough out to escape other Russian boats, but he didn't expect to be found by the Americans...
And speaking of which..by the end of the book it's starting to feel like reading a pamplet for BestAmerica or something. It's hammering home how much better the US is compared to Russia. I don't think it's too egregious, but it's very blunt is making Ramius this wide eye kid in awe of how amazing everything in America is. (Hey we are pretty awesome amirite)
Late novel troubles...seems like the Russians aren't just turning tail and running... One single Submarine, the Kolovolev finds this all suspicious and trails the American dispersing ships...They catch on that there's a big sub out there and start probing...I love the slow realization that this wasn't an Ohio Class ship, but one of their own. The boat they were hunting for. Also it's fitting that the character that was set up before as wanting to find and beat Ramius was the one who found it. Here we get the classic cat and mouse scene that has been now made famous. The Kolvolev has to tap dance with the Red October and the Dallas. What makes this interesting is that the US can't fire openly on the Kolvolev... And technically the Kolvalev can't fire on the Dallas.... but it can fire on the Red October, but it's their own property. So that's such a good twist that to prevent an open acknowledgement of war, the two countries can't attack each other, but the Russians because the R.O is theirs they can fire...and they do, and manage to get a shot in. The maneuvering and slow churn back and forth is really tense and well done.
The ending wraps with Ramius and the few officers with him accept their involvement in US life. They are eager to learn and even perhaps go to school in California. What's funny is after the big standoff battle at the end, the final deathblow is so quick and sudden I almost missed what actually happened...
So yea I felt the ending was a big rushed and it came off as a tad preachy towards the end... but overall what a thrill. Lots of tense, nail biting moments for sure and I love how the 'camera' cuts between the different subs, ships and buildings. It felt very much fast, quick paced. So much so that it got to be a bit hard to follow at times, and I think the overall cover stories were so deep and multilayered, you had to really keep track of who was being told what. Really had fun with this.