Background Info
on novels

First published	28 August 2002
ISBN	0 718 14501 1
Page Count	618 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

1982. Polands ship workers are becoming politically active, and starting to question the control exercised over them by Moscow.
A new Pope has come to the throne, and he is of Polish birth, and offers his support to the shipworkers of Solidarity.

In Moscow a dying Brezhnez still controls what the west believes to be a still powerful nation. The unrest in Poland and the apparent support of the Pope creates tensions within the Politbureau. One that finally leads to the decision. Kill the Pope.

Jack Ryan, now officially with CIA has been stationed to the UK where he is being groomed for greater things in Century House home to MI6. The knowledge that a threat is likely on the Pope remains unsubstantiated. However it is left on the backburner whilst other sources try to verify the threat.

In Moscow, meanwhile the Foleys' are getting adjusted to life behind the Iron curtain. Ed now head of station, is intent on running the best covert operation he can, when a chance encounter on the Russian underground gives him the opportunity of a lifetime, when a KGB communications Officer decides that he cannot permit his Motherland to kill an innocently man.

Having got the Russian out of the Soviet Union with the help of the British. Ryan is sent to Rome to try and prevent the assasination of the Pope, although only partially successful, he manages to capture the assassin, who is later dealt with in a most un-British fashion, but very effective manner.

Review

The story returns to the basics, which Clancy is good at, espionage, political analysis and technical detail, it contains no sex, which was pretty badly done in The Bear and the Dragon (TBATD). The book is much shorter and has definitely benefited from the reduced length, although some parts of the book do still flag. It also introduces retrospectively some of the characters who have moved on to much higher things in the later books. Clancy has also managed to introduce elements which are concluded in the Cardinal of the Kremlin which was written around 1988.

The book does suffer slightly from being written in hindsight. It would be most interesting to consider what the story would have been like before the fall of the Soviet Empire. Did the Americans really think that the economy was in danger of failing, that the Russian military for all its show was incapable of carrying out a major invasion. This last point may be valid,as the whole world watched in facination as the Afghans gradually wore the Russians down with far inferior weapons.

For all of its good points, the book does have some faults, some of which appeared in (TBATD). One of the worst instances is the fascination that he thinks that the British have with titles. I can assure you that no taxi driver I have ever met would ever bother with calling some-one 'Sir'. Other niggles are the colloquial English used, his repetition about how good/bad various products are. Whilst this is good technique for scene setting and 'introducing' Ryan to the UK and the Foleys to Moscow after about a third of the book it should be dropped, as it just slows the pace and does little else. The concentration on 'Little Eddie' - Foleys 4 year old son, is another irritation, which shows laziness rather than skill. If he had used different phrases to describe the boy then it may have been more interesting, but Clancy doesn't, it is just the same old quotes repeated time after time.

Clancy also has the strange habit of quoting the Russian forms of names rather than sticking to the Anglicized versions. This may be an attempt to say how clever am I, but I don't think that it is a device that works very well, as the reader is forced to try and remember which Russian is being described. When in the past I used to read the books in great chunks at a time it didn't really matter, but when a reader doesn't get a chance to read it over a short space of time it severely hinders the readers ability to remember both plots and characters.

Clancy's over indulgence also expends to the description of the children, and the number of times that it is mentioned that perhaps both Russians and Americans loved children doesn't bear contemplation.

Clancy's brief examination of the laid back approach to the NHS is quite amusing, although with one instance a tad far fetched. In fact so far fetched it is totally unbelievable, yet I'll let him get away with it as I could imagine such goings on, such is the appalling state of the NHS!! Again we run into the problem of his repeated description of Kathy Ryan as an eye cutter, rather than just a doctor.

Perhaps the above is just nit- picking, but I believe that with tighter editing the book could have been 50 pages shorter and much better. As it is, the book does not compare to The Sum of All Fears, which was perhaps his tour-de force. It is however far better than his previous books The Bear and The Dragon and Rainbow Six. Rainbow Six is possibly his worst to date, whilst TBATD suffers from being over long, with the best part of the book crammed into the last 200 pages of a 600 page book.

To conclude, not his best, but he does seem to be on an upward swing, after his last two books. Let us hope he is again going to produce the type of book that made his name!

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