Feb 16, 2005 03:55 PM
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(Updated Feb 16, 2005 04:17 PM)
For all the Tom Clancy fans , especially the followers of Jack Ryan series of books, The Teeth Of The Tiger book holds some future promises. But this book by itself is disappointing, a letdown not expected of Tom Clancy.
It seems Tom Clancy has written this book in a hurry just to keep up his word to the publisher or to complete his annual quota, while he is working on 2 more sequels that are sure to follow this book.
The legendary Ryan has since retired, and his son Jack Jr has come of age and is itching for action. Ryan?s contemporary and close friend Caruso?s two sons , twins have grown up and one is a FBI agent and another a marine, both are excelling in their fields.
Ryan before he stepped down from Presidency, created a secret organization known by the staffers as The Campus to undertake such tasks in the national security interests which other government agencies like NSA, CIA, FBI, Homeland Security and others cannot and will not undertake since they are bound by various rules, regulations, procedures and bureaucracies. The organization is being run by an old friend of Ryan, Ex-Senator Hendley.
Most of the first half of the 600 plus page book goes into describing the Campus trying to select and recruit the twin Caruso brothers. Jack Jr walks in as a volunteer. Simultaneously an Arab terrorist organization is trying to put together a series of terror attacks on various targets deep inside US of A. Rest of the book is about how the Campus boys take on the terrorists. The plot is interesting, but the story is disappointing.
The characters don?t develop. Jack Jr we hardly come to know him. This is unpardonable since it looks like we are going to get many more books featuring this trio and Jack Jr is going to overtake his father.
Ryan Sr is writing his memoirs and that holds a promise of couple of more books from Clancy.
Tom Clancy has wasted 625 pages in dragging the story (like any of our Saas Bahu serials)whereas he could have made it into a 200 page crisp action filled thriller with some better editing. Is Tom tryingto be a writer for for Balaji Telefilms? He has to changehis name to Ktom Kklancy first!
A super-secret, omnipotent organization reporting directly to the President has become quite an ?in? thing. Ludlum created ? Covert-one?, Tom Clancy created Op Centre, Rainbow Six and now Hendley Associates, Dan Brown has similar one in Digital Fortress.
Even for a hardcore Tom Clancy fan like me, this book has come as a disappointment.
