Re: Reading Request.

On Fri, 29 Mar 2002 08:43:32 +1100, Derek Fulton
<derekfulton@bigpond.com>
wrote:

>I have to admit his later books lack something, especially since he
wiped 
>out the American government to make Jack Ryan king of the world, may he

>should learn to put his characters out to pasture :)

I have a friend who's a librarian (head librarian of a Toronto branch,
and
also sci-fi, fantasy, and horror acquisition head for Toronto). She
tells me
that the inside scoop is that he's sufficiently popular that he can get
almost
anything he demands. This is pretty typical at the Clancy/Stephen
King/etc.
level. Apparently he doesn't feel he needs a full editor, pretty much
just
needs someone to proof it for glaring mistakes. This has led to a
bloating of
his stories.

>One there isn't a direst flight from Sydney to Alice Springs, 
>ok it's just a story but Clancy has made his rep on attention to detail
so 
>this was a detail that could have be cleared up via a phone call or a
surf 
>on the net and let's not mention the heros going armed on the domestic 
>flight, kidnapping a person to bring before the US Justice System while

>they are members of a INTERNATIONAL anti-terrorist force ... yeah right
;)

Well, Clancy is also known for being pretty sloppy in areas that aren't
his
area of "expertise" (i.e. anything outside of the US military). His
stock
market manipulations in that Ryan book about Japan (the one everyone
mentioned
as being "prescient" after 9/11) is nowhere near accurate. I listened to
the
unabridged version on book tape (Clancy is good for long drives as it
isn't
hard to pay attention) with a good friend who is an ecommerce expert. We
had a
lot of fun picking holes in his stock market plot. Even I, who hasn't
done too
much studying in business, saw that his plot wasn't feasible.

His female characters really bother me. He hasn't written one that isn't
a
"straw man" (to use the literary term; not being sexist) or a spear
carrier.

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@hyperbear.com
http://www.hyperbear.com

"At long last, the earthy soil of the typical, 
unimaginable mortician was revealed!"