Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Command Authority by Tom Clancy

I finished reading Command Authority by Tom Clancy in January. This is continuation of Clancy's Jack Ryan novels. It is the fifteenth book set in the same universe and essentially a sequel to Threat Vector that I read last year.

The plot revolves around the resurgence of the Cold War between United States and Russia. Key plot elements include the KGB, the Soviet Mafia and the politics of the Eastern European Countries. Command Authority has an interesting twist. It flashes back to a young Jack Ryan in a time after Patriot Games, but before Red Rabbit.

The book paints a picture of the internal political and economic structure of Russia that includes a blend of organized crime and the secret police. I am curious if any of this is based on reality. I brought a book on Vladimir Putin in the last year that I need to move up in my stack of books to read.

Although slower paced than the last three Jack Ryan books, I thought that this was a better book. I think that it is the best of the four written in the last four years. Of the previous three books, I graded Threat Vector [2102] a weak "B", Locked On [2011] a "C" and Dead or Alive [2010] a "B-." I would grade this book as a strong "B."

The last four books have been written in conduction with another author. It is hard to know how much of the story is really Clancy's. From my perspective, this book felt more like some of the older Jack Ryan books. With Clancy's death in October of 2013, it will be interesting to see what the estate does with the series. As I have said before, it is a little hard for me to be objective; I have so much history invested in the characters over the last thirty years. I am sure that I would read a continuation of the series written by anyone…

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