.com Tom Clancy goes to the White House in this thriller of political terror and global disaster. The American political situation takes a disturbing turn as the President, Congress, and Supreme Court are obliterated when a Japanese terrorist lands a 747 on the Capitol. Meanwhile the Iranians are unleashing an Ebola virus threat on the country. Jack Ryan, CIA agent, is cast in the middle of this maelstrom. Because of a recent sex scandal, Ryan was appointed vice president, a slot he doesn't hold for long when he lands in the Chief Executive's chair. He goes after the Iranians and then tries to piece together the country and his life the only way he knows how--with a fury that we've grown accustomed to in Clancy's intricate, detailed, and accurate stories of warfare and intrigue.From Library JournalJack Ryan, Clancy's amazing upwardly mobile series hero, must put together a government from the wreckage left at the end of Debt of Honor (Putnam, 1994). While Jack, who assumed the U.S. presidency after the shocking deaths of the president and many congresspeople, attends to affairs of state, selecting a new Cabinet and arranging for special Congressional elections, enemies far and near continue to create nefarious plots against the United States. Political enemies prove themselves equally relentless, attacking the very legitimacy of Ryan's presidential role. While Clancy is, as always, chillingly up-to-date, he telegraphs too many plotlines here. Worse, Ryan has become something of a whiner, complaining at length about the miseries of living a political life. At almost 900 pages, the book includes too much minutiae and dwells overlong on Ryan's earlier adventures. However, with a two-million-copy first printing, Ryan's presence?at least for now?is assured in most public libraries.?Elsa Pendleton, Boeing Information Services, Inc., Ridgecrest, Cal.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. Early in his famous novel, Flaubert writes that Emma Bovary "turned away from the calm life for excitement. She loved the sea only for its storms..." An interesting question posed by Tom Clancy's thrillers is whether their bookstore and box-office appeal suggests merely a Bovary-like search for excitement, or whether his readers actually share his view of the world. In all his novels, Clancy skillfully juggles several themes at once. But his most obvious talent lies in offering intelligible descriptions of contemporary machinery: a nuclear weapon, the electronic innards of securities trading, the basics of biological warfare. The reader of Executive Orders, in particular, is treated to a graphic description of the effects of the Ebola virus on the human body, from the initial flu-like symptoms to the vomiting, delirium, gross distention of organs, disintegration of vascular-system tissue, and eventual massive internal bleeding that ends in death. An equally explicit recipe follows for collecting the virus from a decedent's infected tissue and preserving it alive for travel and dissemination. As always, Clancy uses this book, too, as a forum for stating his beliefs. Principal among them is that the United States--a decent nation confronted from time to time by states with immoral men at the helm--requires a vigorous defense, but may soon lack enough military power for the job. Unfortunately, Executive Orders, like its predecessors, does not afford much insight into the people who would be called upon to do the fighting, or into the moral issues raised by military action and diplomacy alike. --Commentary Magazine, Seth Cropsey is it profitable to sell on Executive Orders (A Jack Ryan Novel)
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Jack Ryan, POTUS, rebuilds our countryBy Glenn ChambersThis book has a lot of interesting discussion of what it takes to make our country work and, in particular, what our President has to deal with. The setup for addressing those questions is Jack Ryan suddenly becoming President after the capitol - and most of our national elected leaders - are killed. To find out how that happened, read the preceding book in the series, Debt of Honor. In fact, I have greatly enjoyed reading the series, of which this book is the ninth, from the beginning, Without Remorse. Although I do recommend reading the series in sequence, this book can easily stand alone on its own merits, as allusions to earlier events add color, but remembering them is not necessary for enjoyment of this one. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the books in Tom Clancy's "Jack Ryan universe". I might mention along those lines that not all of the books in the "universe" star Jack Ryan. Several star John Clark, who is more of an intelligence operator (sometimes a spy, sometimes a paramilitary, sometimes a Presidential bodyguard), while Jack Ryan is more of an intelligence analyst. Jack does get into a lot of action, though, so don't be misled. Some of the later books in the series, say from seventeen on, were even written by other authors. I haven't read them yet, so I can't comment on their quality.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. It was typical Clancy with excellent technical detail and multipleBy Dan'lI have read just about all of Clancy's directly-authored novels, and most of his collaborations, had somehow missed this one. It was typical Clancy with excellent technical detail and multiple, parallel plots. This is a looong book - 1,300+ pages. An argument could be made that some judicious editing might trim a few hundred pages from it without damage, particularly from the detailed sections on biological warfare. But for Clancy fans, more is better, so maybe this observation is moot. The technology is dated, as this was written in 1996, but is not too distracting. I would recommend not being in a hurry when you read this - just kick back and enjoy.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. One of Clancy's bestBy J. D. KennedyOK, the plot is outrageously unrealistic.But like a good movie, if you can suspend disbelief, and let yourself go into the Ryanverse, this book is well written and gripping.One of Tom Clancy's great talents was to weave interesting observations about human motivation into his writing, and this book has lots of those insights.