The stuff that Tom Clancy writes in his book are down right scary. In some of his books, he wrote about a plane crashing into the White House, an anthrax attack, and a dirty bomb. He has real close ties with the Military and has written a bush of other senarios. If you watched the movie "Sum of all Fears", it is not completely like the book. In the movie, the Nazi were blamed for the bomb not the Muslem extremist. The producers did this so the Muslem nation wouldn't be offened. Too bad, the book is still better than the movie.

I've read all the novels Tom Clancy has published under his name alone. Good stuff. You might also enjoy W.E.B. Griffin, Stephen Coontz, and Dale Brown.
Try to get your hands on a first edition "Hunt for Red October" by Clancy. The hardbacks were published by the Naval Institute Press, and were required reading by midshipmen at Annapolis.

I like the ones with Jack Ryan the best. Its too bad that they didn't cast Harrison Ford as Jack in "The Sum of all Fears". He would have made a more believable President in the next installment of movies. I did have "The Hunt for Red October" book and computer game at one time but i lost it all in a flood. Oh well, it was a very good book. I just started "The Bear and the Dragon". It seems good so far.

Tom Clancy is the king of his particular genre. Its amazing how his books tend to be long, yet there are hardly ever dull moments in them. He really knows how to build the tension.

I must agree with you on that. Clancey is my favorite author. I bet a nickle that when the Penatgon was asking Hollywood to draw up terrorist scenarios, he was the first one on their list.

I have read a couple of the Power Plays

I've only read three of his books so far (Dept of Honor, Clear And Present Danger, and Op-Center) but I do like his writing. :)

I read quite a few of his books. Red Storm Rising was definitely my favorite. But they do have a certain cheesy quality to them. Definitely nothing highbrow about them.

Someone told me that he barely wrote most of his books anyway - he had some lackeys do it for them. I have absolutely no idea if that's true or not.

I agree with Lionel here. Clancy, Stephen King, John Grisham, and Daniel Steel are all massive producers of decent quality, but usually formulaic stories in their specific genres. They publish a lot of books that are usually on similar topics, use very plain story-telling language, (King and Clancy are regularly criticized for overwriting, which I tend to agree) and because they understand the psychology of the mass, their books tend to be page-turners without real aesthetics or important message.

They are still the best at their respective genres, but they are not ever going to win literary prize. They write to make money, and are damn good at it. ;)

Just started my first John Clancy book yesterday. I'm reading Rainbow Six. Love it so far. Think it would make a great movie. By the way I heard that they are working on a new Clancy movie and it won't have Ben Affleck in it.