The Sum of All Fears
by Tom Clancy
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tom ClancyEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-05-07
ISBN: 0425184226
Number of pages: 928
Publisher: Berkley
Book Reviews of The Sum of All Fears
Book Review: Someone should make a movie based on this book
Summary: 5 Stars
Yes, I know, there is a movie called "The Sum of All Fears," but whatever it was based on, it wasn't this book. Now they even have two characters from the movie on the cover of the book, but that's misleading, because those characters don't exist in the book. One is a young rookie CIA operative named Jack Ryan; the other is his mentor, Morgan Freeman - well, he has another name in the movie, but it's the same character Freeman always plays, the all-wise, all-knowing elder statesman with no character flaws and never a lapse in judgment.
The book's main character is also named Jack Ryan, but he is a veteran analyst who has worked his way up to number two in the CIA. The top guy, who happens to have the same name as the Morgan Freeman character in the movie, is a stuffed shirt who is content to bask in the perks of his position and let Ryan run the agency, and is little more than a bit player in the book. The centerpiece of both book and movie is the bad guys setting off a nuke at the Super Bowl. But the events leading up to and following the nuclear detonation are what make the book the riveting thriller that it is, and none of that found its way into the movie.
In the book, Ryan has managed to get on the bad side of the president's girlfriend/National Security Advisor. That doesn't really figure significantly in the action until after the bomb, but along the way, in a comic-relief scene I find myself pulling the book off the shelf and rereading repeatedly over the years, we get to see the mysterious and sinister Mr. Clark morph into a marriage counselor and save the Ryans' marriage. I'd love to see a movie depiction of Clark and Chavez escorting Cathy Ryan through a bad neighborhood to a restaurant ("We can't go out, the neighborhood isn't..." "Um, safe, ma'am?") and Clark laying out the facts for her as only Clark can, but it's not to be.
Meanwhile we watch as Arab/Muslim terrorists develop a nuke from a leftover Israeli bomb from 1973 and deploy it in the U.S. Clancy was way ahead of his time: Ten years before 9/11, he depicted Muslim zealots attaching the U.S. on our soil. After 9/11, it would make a gripping and socially relevant movie. But nobody made that movie. Instead, we get a movie where the bad guys are European right-wing extemists. I guess that post-9/11 Hollywood has decided that the real danger to the U.S. lies not with Muslim zealotry but right-wing extremism. It's a shame, because Clancy provides a balanced treatment of both the sinister and positive sides in middle eastern Islam. Most of the Muslims in the book, from the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia down to the old farmer who finds the Israeli bomb in his yard, are noble and peace-loving, and even the terrorists are presented not as cold-hearted automatons or wild-eyed fanatics but as caring and principled men with a misguided sense of religious duty. But I guess that's not good enough for Hollywood; we can't present the slightest hint of negativity in a Muslim character.
After the bomb goes off is when the book really kicks into gear and becomes a can't-put-down page-turner. Most of this has to do with Ryan's efforts to stop the president and his girlfriend/NSA from overreacting and kicking off mutually assured destruction with the Soviets, and Ryan draws on his wits, his experience, his extensive knowledge of our government and military operations, and his personal relationship with a thinly disguised Gorbachev to stop the countdown at the last moment. I don't even remember what Boy Ryan is up to at that stage of the movie, but by that point it's not even the same story.
My only complaint about the book is that it's too long, with too many subplots woven in. For example, near the end, a U.S. submarine gets a huge log caught in its propeller. That in itself is crucial to the plot. But to get to that point, we have interspersed through the book the cutting down of the tree, the discussion of what it will be used for, the cutting of the tree into logs, the trucking of the logs to a seaport, their loading onto a ship, the approaching storm at sea, and finally the logs getting washed overboard. But it's not enough to lose the reader's interest.
Summary of The Sum of All Fears
A NEW WORLD ORDER...ON THE BRINK OF DESTRUCTION
Peace may finally be at hand in the Middle East -- as Jack Ryan lays the groundwork for a plan that could end centuries of conflict. But ruthless terrorists have a final, desperate card to play; with one terrible act, distrust mounts,forces collide, and the floundering U.S. president seems unable to copewith the crisis.
With the world on the verge of nuclear disaster, Ryan must frantically seek a solution -- before the chiefs of state lose control of themselves and the world.
Once again, Tom Clancy manages to add new twists to the alternate U.S. history he initiated in The Hunt for Red October. In The Sum of All Fears, the center of conflict is the perpetual hot spot the Mideast, where a nuclear weapon falls into the hands of terrorists just as peace seems possible. Clancy realistically paints an almost unthinkable scenario--the bomb is planted on American soil in the midst of an escalation in tension with the Soviet Union; the terrorists hope to rekindle cold war animosity and prevent reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.
Despite such a dramatic story line, Clancy doesn't neglect the individuals who drive his tale. Jack Ryan's problems are as much domestic as they are part of the international crisis that is the ostensible narrative: National Security Director Elizabeth Elliot has the president's ear, and she has convinced him that Ryan's ethics are questionable. She hints at marital infidelity and an insider-trading scandal. Of course, both accusations are false, but her arguments have enough evidence behind them (e.g. some photographs of an innocent embrace with a friend) to cause a strain in the Ryans' marriage and a flurry of media attention. While "Mr. Clark" tracks the terrorists, he also provides some needed intelligence to heal the Ryan family.
The Sum of All Fears is the stuff of nightmares but contains enough verisimilitude to terrify sober minds. Ryan has matured into a complex protagonist as Clancy's writing, too, has matured. Ryan is plagued by stress and self-doubts that test even his dauntless moral compass and make him a more interesting subject for readers' attention. Those fascinated by military hardware, from nuclear submarines to atomic weapons, will find almost enough here to start their own army. And Clancy's understanding of international politics seems chillingly correct. --Patrick O'Kelley
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