Does this man owe us a Debt of Honor?
Written: Apr 12 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: good writer, great stories, defined the 'techno-thriller' (whatever that is :-)
Cons: declining quality, questionable editing, too busy?
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| baylink's Full Review: Clancy, Tom |
I've been a fan from in front.
I've read every one of Clancy's novels at least 3 times (did I mention that I belong to the Book of the Day<tm> club? :-) -- including his latest, Rainbow Six.
But I had to force myself this time.
I was substantially less impressed by both the plotting and the characterization of this latest entry in the Ryaniverse -- while the level of background detail was (mostly) up to his usual standards, the *people* weren't.
Unlike in his earlier novels, there were characters in R6 that appeared to me to have been pieced together merely to advance the the story; there were holes in their backgrounds you could drive a truck though, in a fashion that can't be said of his earlier books. Worse yet, there were almost no throwaway characters -- no cameos of people (like Trooper, the legless vet excised from the rewrites of Harlan Ellison's Star Trek script "City on the Edge of Forever") who were there *solely* to make one point -- does anyone remember the old black man on the wall outside the hospital who gave President Ryan a cigarette in _Executive_Orders_?
Those observations may sound contradictory; they're not, really. I believe that if you're going to write a 'full-time' character, you should do the job -- even minor characters like Skip Tyler from _Red_October_ were better written than some of the Rainbow troopers, who seemed to me merely to be cardboard cutouts, designed to fill the uniforms.
I also believe the walk-ons are important; they serve as an alternative form of exposition, allowing the author to avoid sounding preachy.
But if you're going to start the trip, let's try to make it all the way...
Most importantly, to me, I see a steady decline in the quality of Clancy's editing, both for content and copy. The number of copy editing mistakes increases steadily as the series grows... And, as a fan, I regularly spot inconsistencies between the various books. They bug me; ok, so I guess anal-retentive *does* have a hyphen -- do we not pay the man enough to keep track of his own bible? Or is Clancy 'too big to edit' these days?
Perhaps he's just too busy overseeing the "invaluable contributions to the manuscripts" (ie: _writing them_) of the other 4 -- or is it 5 -- series of books with his name on them? The consistency of those vary, I've rather liked the Politika books I've read, but have no time for the others -- but that's ok; I treat them as Other People's Novels.
But the Franchise is another story. If it says Tom Clancy above the title -- no apostrophe S -- I have a whole different set of expectations.
And Rainbow Six didn't meet them.
You get one more chance, Tom. Quit buying football teams, and *write*, 'k?
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
baylink
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Member: Jay R. Ashworth
Location: St Petersburg, FL USA
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 4 members
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