books 2011 // # 18 - The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
Title: The Hunt for Red October
Author: Tom Clancy (* 1947)
Publication Date: 1984.
Genre: Techno-Thriller. Suspense.
Series: Jack Ryan (chronologically by publishing date - book #01).
Page Count: 493.
Summary: The Soviet's most valuable ship -- a new ballistic-missile submarine with their most trusted and skilled naval officer at the helm -- is attempting to defect to the United States. It is high treason on an unprecedented scale, and the Soviet's mission is to seek and destroy her at any cost.
If the U.S. fleet can locate the Red October and get her safely to port, it will be the intelligence coup of all time. But the submarine has a million square miles in which to hide and the deadly game of hide-and-seek is on. [Source].
Review in 5 words or less: Focuses on technology and action / pacing rather than characterization or political statements | entertaining read |amusing amount of "retro-techno-babble" |
Personal Rating: ◊ ◊ ◊ of 5.
Review:
The essential Clancy. The book that started the hype.
Reading The Hunt for Red October is a bit like reading Jules Verne. Just like his predecessor Clancy gives us ample information about state of the art technology - but of a time gone by. There's a lot of "retro-techno-babble" - smart and informative, but from a modern perspective it does serve to make one grin whenever cassettes or diskettes are referred to as top notch technology.
In fact, while there are a lot of characters in the book, it's still obvious that the real star of the show is technology.
Next to that, there's a heavy tendency to depict the USA as the stereotypical good guys and the Russians as the bad guys but overall there are fortunately enough likable and admirable Russians thrown in, so that the effect is evened out a bit. This whole manner of referring to the different countries also doesn't exactly come as a surprise considering when and where the book was written.
Overall The Hunt for Red October is about technology and focuses more on pacing and action (both excellent, by the way) than characterization or making a political statement. Read under this aspect of looking for a well-paced action story, it's a great book.
Links: official website, @ wikipedia
Other books I've read by this author: Clear and Present Danger (1989).