Locked On: A Jack Ryan Novel

Riveting book. I did not like the open ending with Melanie. She should be exposed. Page Turner. Very complex. Mark Greaney is a great author.

Let's start with basics. This is not a Tom Clancy novel, in the traditional sense. By which I mean The Hunt for Red October thru The Bear and the Dragon. Some hallmarks of that style include long, slow buildups, introducing characters, or, in one memorable case in The Sum of All Fears, a set of logs that he follows for almost NINE HUNDRED PAGES, checking in every few chapters to remind us of them, keep us apprised of their progress, until they reach their moment of importance.That's Clancy. He's technical, detailed, and if there's going to be a terrorist attack on page 1500, you'll meet the people that are going to execute it by page 30. I felt that his last book, Dead or Alive (which was also coauthored by someone else) captured that style a little better. But this book is good.In fact, in my opinion, this book is really good. Yeah, if you're looking for a traditional Clancy novel, you might be disappointed with the technical detail and slow build, because this book has action scattered throughout. I would say the detail was of a similar level when it came to describing a lot of the technical aspects, but as a reader that side of his books never interested me all that much, so I'm not the ideal reviewer to talk about that.Quickly wanted to address one of the complaints I've seen in other reviews - liberal bashing. This book wears its political colors on its sleeve. It has a point of view, it's definitely a right-of-center point of view, and it's expressed frequently throughout. I think, if written differently, it might have been avoided, but the way it as relates to the presidential election going on through the book makes it somewhat integral to the plot. Does it come off as sermonizing? More than a little.But I can't recall a Clancy book where he didn't make a political point, for example, once again in The Sum of All Fears, wherein the president is modeled after Michael Dukakis (according to Clancy in the commentary for the movie) and Debt of Honor, where Edward Kealty is essentially a roman a clef for Teddy Kennedy. Liberals have rarely been heroes in Clancy's novels, with the exception of the gay congressman who leads the democrats in the house whose name escapes me, or the former president Roger Durling, who was referred to as a moderate. I'm a little confused why, if someone's read the Ryanverse up to now, they'd be now suddenly upset. It's been there all along and if you were offended, why keep reading?What I liked: The prose is adequate, workmanlike and gets you from plot point to plot point with relative smoothness. The book is filled with action, and it's well-written action that kept me turning the pages. I liked seeing the familiar characters and enjoyed the plot, which once more centers around modern-day threats and hotspots.The bad? It's not vintage Clancy. I have my doubts we'll ever see another book like his old ones. I think the last one he truly authored was The Teeth Of The Tiger (which followed up the appalling Red Rabbit) and it felt like an unfinished book, like he just kind of came to a stop in the middle and said, "I think I'm done with these characters" and had to have someone else pick up and bring back some enthusiasm for them. I liked Teeth of the Tiger, I thought it was a good start after he may have written himself into a corner with The Bear and the Dragon, and enjoyed the semi-rebooted Ryanverse he started there. I enjoyed the last book, Dead or Alive and have to say this one was pleasant as well.The ugly - (Referring here to the Kindle Edition) Some very unprofessional formatting errors leaped out at me, some so bad they killed the illusion of the book. At least one place I can remember a large gap between words in the middle of a line, with a remnant of what I think was some misplaced HTML. As another example, the book ends on something of a cliffhanger, and because of the formatting, the next page of text runs right into the last paragraph. It's a simple thing to fix (speaking as someone who writes books) but it'd be as if someone ran the "About the Author" page into the last paragraph in the print edition. It's an ugly little blemish that distracts from the ending.Bottom line: If you liked Dead or Alive, you'll probably like this. If you didn't, you won't. Quibbles aside, I enjoyed the book. It was a page turner for me. It's not pure Clancy, but in the world of thrillers, it's still pretty damned good.

Locked On by Tom Clancy and Mark Greaney is the sequel to the novel Dead or Alive (reviewed here). It is the third novel in the Campus series, which deals with the wildly implausible off-the-books assassination squad assembled by Jack Ryan when he's President that employs his son. The Campus doesn't answer to its liberal President, Ed Kealty (boo!), but their own sense of justice (yay!), while doing all manner of illegal things which would technically qualify them as terrorists under international law. But which doesn't matter because this is not a series with a trace of either awareness or moral ambiguity. And it's awesome for it. No, seriously, I highly recommend the Campus books for fans of Tom Clancy and newcomers to his writing alike despite how incredibly bad it is in many places. No, seriously, there's some genuinely camp stuff in this book. We have ultra-liberal lawyers wanting to get the stand-in for Osama Bin Ladin transferred to a minimum security prison and a member of an illegal death squad not pursued by public charges because the President might lose Mexican votes. Locked On takes place in a ridiculously over-the-top universe which is closer and closer to a Republican James Bond's every day but which insists its more or less realistic. Speaking as the flaming liberal anarchist that I am, Locked On was enjoyable from start to finish even if it was propagandist at times. I've heard far worse from my father, though, and the book is framed so much in black and white terms it's hard to take any of the areas I disagree with seriously. Readers who are more easily offended by such things should bear this in mind that Tom Clancy, or his co-author, is very prone to wearing his politics on his sleeve. The premise of the novel is the Emir is still imprisoned by the United States government but is working through sympathetic liberal lawyers in order to pass information onto his allies about the Campus. This information leads directly to a warrant being issued for multiple world-saver John Clark as well as threatens to reveal his clandestine activities. Meanwhile, a terrorist leader plans to begin a military coupl in Afghanistan by "disappearing" one of the country's nukes to be used against a terrorist organization's target-of-choice. Jack Ryan Senior, through all of this, is trying to get elected President as he sees Ed Kealty as a fool unable to navigate these complicated political waters. And, being a Jack Ryan book, he's right. This is a fun-fun example of spy fiction if you have a high tolerance for Clancy's right-wing preaching. There's several great action sequences, lots of spy melodrama, and even an interesting romance subplot. I really like the new character of Melanie Kraft, a CIA analyst who is doing her best to deal with the politically charged atmosphere of the current administration, and hope to see her more in future books. There's plenty of characters, both old and new, getting to do outrageous bits of fun. It's a book which I can't take seriously as political fiction or a hard spy fiction but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Tom Clancy does his usual techno-thriller accuracy but, as with Dead or Alive, the Campus defies all manner of assumptions about the realities of both law as well as technology. Someone in the FBI, CIA, or NSA would pick up on their existence, especially since they're data-mining all three for their crusade against terrorists. It's an escapist fantasy, though, so I'm more willing to let it slide this time. Likewise, I enjoy the fact John Clark is still running around various countries doing wetwork despite the fact he's sixty-five years old. The "good" characters are all likable and fun while the "bad" guys are all despicable and hateable--which is really what you want from this sort of book. In conclusion, Locked On is far from Clancy's best work but it's still entertaining as hell. You won't find any great insights into how spywork is done in the real world, you should read the earlier Tom Clancy novels for that sort of insight (or do your own research), but if you're looking for an entertaining literary action movie then this is the place to look. I look forward to picking up more entries in the series to see where Jack Ryan Junior's story goes and I'm saddened by the fact Tom Clancy didn't get to finish it before his death.8/10

The author's books never disappoint a reader. The topic is very well researched and facts are even skillfully in the fiction. Notably, while reading his books one gains.

This is my very first time reading Tom Clancy book; for this reason I cannot say I am a fan of Mr. Clancy's books. I took this one because of all the good reviews I read and thought well; maybe I should give it a try!Locked on is basically standard terrorism thriller with a very complex plot. Let me first warn you if you have never read Tom Clancy's book, please don't start with this one as most the characters are introduced without background and from what I understood most of them come from Clancy previous books.The book has several plots and subplots, there's a plot by a rogue Pakistani general to destroy the Pakistani civilian government so he can take control; there's a plot to destroy Moscow with a nuclear weapon; and there's a plot by a weakened Democratic president named Kealty to undermine Jack Sr.'s campaign in the last weeks before the election because of these many plots, the book began a little slowly. It was a bit hard to understand the connection between different characters at the beginning.There's even a romance plotline that portrays Jack Ryan Jr. showing some interest towards a smart, beautiful CIA operative named Melanie. Each plotline contains several pages where various actions, scene are described. All characters are scattered on different mission in different parts of the world. One or two characters are based in Pakistan, some in Russia, some in Germany, some in France. There is so much going on at the same time.For you to enjoy it will really depend on how you come to it: if you are a committed Clancy/Ryan's fan, you'll probably be keen on reading it but slightly wary given the recent books. If you are new to Clancy, and thinking of starting (and I encourage you to do), this is not the place to start, read them in publications order. If you are interested in a modern techno-thriller, this is OK but there are better in the genre.I have been told that this book is a typical Clancy, multi-layered, densely plotted style.In overall Locked On is well written and structured book. I do recommend it for Clancy's fans and to those who like complex and action driven books.

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Another excellent book by Mark Greaney and Tom Clancy! Great read. Also relatable to current times.

Une nette préférence pour le style de Greaney auquel s'est conformé Blackwood dans le dernier sorti. Bien que parfois perdue dans les sigles et noms j'arrive à suivre le train, disons plutôt le supersonique. Heureusement que le timing est toujours en faveur des gentils sinon il y aurait davantage de trous dans les rangs... OK j'ai parfois souri mais c'est dans la règle du jeu de ce genre de roman : il ne faut pas se poser de question vu la densité des informations déjà fournies.Comme j'ai déjà fait connaissance avec des personnages, ayant lu les romans suivants, je reconnais avoir cherché les passages concernant l'un d'eux pour savoir comment il allait s'en sortir. Ensuite j'ai repris le cours de la lecture, relisant donc ces passages sans aucun ennui.On retrouve Melanie dans le suivant bien que le Campus parte sur un autre continent pour des aventures aussi époustouflantes.Soyez en Paix M Clancy, on ne peut vous oublier.