One of my best friends, looking at our bookshelves last night, asked me to recommend five Tom Clancy Books.<BR><BR>He's read <I>The Hunt for Red October</I> already, and enjoyed it.<BR><BR>I immediately came up with <I>Red Storm Rising</I>. Upon further thought, another I'd be inclined to recommend is <I>Rainbow Six</I>.<BR><BR>For the other three I'm not certain, so I thought I'd poll the collective <img src="http://sigforum.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif" alt="Smile" width="15" height="15"><!--graemlin::)--><BR><BR>I know one I would <B>not</B> recommend, and that's <I>The Teeth of the Tiger</I>. I cared neither for the premise nor the story line. I felt Clancy kind of jumped the shark with that one. (Thus it's been left out of the poll.)Other than those I've mentioned, which Tom Clancy book would you most recommend?Patriot GamesClear and Present DangerThe Sum of All FearsWithout RemorseThe Cardinal of the KremlinDebt of HonorExecutive OrdersThe Bear and The DragonDead Or AliveRed Rabbit

I have all of the "original" Clancy novels (the last being Red Rabbit) and have read them all, some of them many times.

My favorite of them all is The Cardinal of the Kremlin. There's just something in the way he portrays the character of Mikhail "Misha" Filitov that I find very enjoyable. I like the story of the Russian outpost for scientific research, and the Afghan characters.

To me it is a great story and brings out the "humanness" in characters that we might not always think of as human.

Without Remorse of the ones I've read.
I recall Sum of all Fears getting extremely tedious midway through.

Clear and present danger was my first and it set the tone for me.

I thought I read all the books Clancy wrote, but Teeth of the Tiger was a new one on me.

With hesitation, Without Remorse, I think it illustrates why Clark is such a difficult role to cast in a movie. I know Willem Dafoe didn’t get it. Liev Schreiber came closer.

I am not a Clancy expert. I have read better than half of Without Remorse and Rainbow Six; neither of them I dropped because I disliked them. Is there a reason Rainbow Six doesn't get more of a mention? I recall the action being awesome, but the parts between being a bit dry and slow. Without Remorse was much more enjoyable. I need to read Clear and Present Danger, as the movie is one of my favorite movies of all time.

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I know Willem Dafoe didn’t get it. Liev Schreiber came closer.

Because of my limited exposure to the books, and due to the fact I saw CaPD before I ever read any of the books, I always loved Dafoe as Clark. When I read what I read of Remorse and Rainbow, I couldn't help but imagine him as Clark.

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Originally posted by KSGM:
I am not a Clancy expert. I have read better than half of Without Remorse and Rainbow Six; neither of them I dropped because I disliked them. Is there a reason Rainbow Six doesn't get more of a mention? I recall the action being awesome, but the parts between being a bit dry and slow. Without Remorse was much more enjoyable. I need to read Clear and Present Danger, as the movie is one of my favorite movies of all time.

I knew one was missing. I enjoyed Rainbow Six as well.
Hoping Amazon can do it justice, if it's next up after the finale of Jack Ryan.

If he's enjoying the Jack Ryan world, than read them in order, go with Red Storm Rising, then Patriot Games and Cardinal and the Kremlin

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Originally posted by KSGM:
Is there a reason Rainbow Six doesn't get more of a mention?

Because, as I noted in the OP, Rainbow Six is already one of the two I'll recommend.

I'm looking for votes on those other than the two I've already decided to recommend.

Damn! How the hell did I miss that. I read the OP, and specifically looked for mention of Rainbow. Oh well. My apologies. My vote is for Without Remorse.

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Hoping Amazon can do it justice

Man, I about felt sick, when I saw the first trailer for the Without Remorse movie. Boy did they mess that up. Par for the course, for Hollywood nitwits. I have been dreaming of a Rainbow Six movie since I was first exposed to the video games, which was before I knew of any books or movies (an effect of my age and my parents being 0% into anything guns or military). They shit all over that, when they made that dambass fricken movie. No, I haven't actually seen it; I refuse.

I haven't seen the Jack Ryan series. If folks say it's good, then I suppose there's hope; just so long as they don't affiliate it at all with the Remorse film.

Sorry for the digression. This thread is about the books.

Without Remorse of the ones listed, Rainbow Six would be the other I would recommend.

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Originally posted by KSGM:
Damn! How the hell did I miss that. I read the OP, and specifically looked for mention of Rainbow. Oh well. My apologies. My vote is for Without Remorse.

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Hoping Amazon can do it justice

Man, I about felt sick, when I saw the first trailer for the Without Remorse movie. Boy did they mess that up. Par for the course, for Hollywood nitwits. I have been dreaming of a Rainbow Six movie since I was first exposed to the video games, which was before I knew of any books or movies (an effect of my age and my parents being 0% into anything guns or military). They shit all over that, when they made that dambass fricken movie. No, I haven't actually seen it; I refuse.

I haven't seen the Jack Ryan series. If folks say it's good, then I suppose there's hope; just so long as they don't affiliate it at all with the Remorse film.

Sorry for the digression. This thread is about the books.

To drift a bit more, I think Michael Pena was a good pick for Chavez in the last season of Jack Ryan. If they keep the direction the JR series went, I feel pretty confident in R6 being good.
I, too, didn't watch the Without Remorse movie, after the reviews I read here.

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Michael Pena was a good pick for Chavez in the last season of Jack Ryan.

I could see that being alright. I thought Raymond Cruz was perfect, but he's too old now (same with Dafoe).

I agree with your initial three picks as the top 3. While Red Storm Rising isn't a Jack Ryan book, it's an absolutely epic read and possibly my favorite. After those three I'd go with Clear and Present Danger and Without Remorse.

FWIW, I gave up on the Ryan series after Clancy died and the ghost writers took over. I recently gave some of the newer ones by Marc Cameron a shot, and they're actually pretty decent. Not original Clancy, but I've been enjoying them.

really he should just read them in order.

but my Clancy favorites are in order Red Storm Rising (as noted not a Jack Ryan book), Cardinal of the Kremlin and Hunt for Red October (which he already read).

I'd like to remind everybody to please register your votes in the poll. Thanks

Red Storm Rising then Rainbow

It would be a tossup between Without Remorse and Bear and the Dragon.

Yeah, read them in order. That will keep you busy for a while. The post-Clancy Clancy books are not bad. I really liked a few of them. I doubt I'll ever go any movie they make in the future that's based on any of the original Clancy books. The ones with Harrison Ford were pretty good, but the books were still far better.

For some reason I always see Kono from the original Hawaii Five-0 as Clark. And I know this sounds silly, but I always pictured Jack Jr. to be Peter Doocy from Fox News.

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Originally posted by ensigmatic:
I'd like to remind everybody to please register your votes in the poll. Thanks

The post asks for three suggestions, but the poll only allows one selection...