The Hunt for Red October (A Jack Ryan Novel Book 1) by Tom Clancy (Epub)

Description

Somewhere under the freezing Atlantic, a Soviet sub commander has just made a fateful decision. The Red October is heading west. The Americans want her. The Russians want her back. The chase for the highly advanced nuclear submarine is on—and there’s only one man who can find her…

Brilliant CIA analyst Jack Ryan has little interest in fieldwork, but when covert photographs of Red October land on his desk, Ryan soon finds himself in the middle of a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek played by two world powers—a game that could end in all-out war.

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Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ One of my favorite all-time books. Picked up the e-book version to give it a re-read, and am shocked at the poor quality. The book is littered with conversion errors – every page is marred with words that run together without spaces, and there are missing partial and complete sentences in many chapters. A *simple spellcheck* would have caught most of these errors! This is a major blockbuster title that started what I assume is a very lucrative franchise, with a new Amazon TV series for the book’s protagonist, and they can’t even bother to proofread the e-copy of the book that started it all?! Words fail me (but not nearly as badly as Penguin Group failed!).

⭐ I was fully prepared not to be particularly impressed with this book, even though I have enjoyed watching the movie numerous times over the years. After all, when Clancy wrote it he was still selling insurance in Owings, Maryland. What could he possibly know about submarines?I was very pleasantly surprised. The Hunt for Red October is a superbly crafted novel. The characters are well drawn and credible, plot is satisfyingly convoluted, and the density of technical detail provides the authenticity that one expects in a top rank technothriller.For my taste, technothrillers don’t get any better than this (and it was Clancy’s first!). Engaging characters, great plot, well-realized setting, heart-pounding suspense all the way to the last few pages.Highly recommended.

⭐ I have read every Jack Ryan novel Tom Clancy ever wrote. At least I thought I had until I decided to re-read The Hunt for Red October. It turns out I had confused the movie with the book, so my re-read turned into a first read.In the story, a Russian nuclear submarine—the titular Red October—goes missing, the motive of Marko Ramius (its captain) unclear. The Soviet Navy launches every ship it has in its Atlantic feet, on the surface or under it, with orders to find and destroy the sub. But why?That massive deployment catches the attention of Washington DC, for the Soviet boats are headed toward American coastal waters. CIA analyst Jack Ryan thinks he knows the reason why. Together with his bosses, he sets up an audacious plan to intervene and … well, if you haven’t seen the movie or read the book, I don’t want to give away the ending.As is almost always the case, the book is better than the movie. Like later Clancy novels, the plot is labyrinthine. It is told by an omniscient narrator who jumps in and out scenes, unfolding the mystery one turn at a time. No wonder the movie simplified some of the plot lines, characters, and actions.The Hunt for Red October established Clancy’s reputation as a master of the suspense drama. His novels combine large-scale global forces as the background for individual heroic action. I may not have read Clancy’s first novel back in the day, but looking through his catalogue, I know I read all the others. Clancy’s reputation—not to mention Alec Baldwin’s brilliant performance in the movie—gave me good reasons to do so.This book is long, but it is nevertheless a page turner, which is my first rule of thumb when evaluating a suspense or mystery novel. Also, it didn’t push the limits of my willing suspension of disbelief, which is my second rule. Despite the wheels-within-wheels plotlines, the book’s main action felt plausible. (If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, you’ll know what I mean when you read it.)So, five stars to The Hunt for Red October, which celebrates its 37th anniversary this year. It’s a great read, and a fantastic start to a series of novels well worth reading, for a second or third time … or even the first!

⭐ I purchased a copy of The Hunt for Red October because it got good reviews from readers and because it was made into a successful movie with Sean Connery. As I read the novel, I was overwhelmed with all the technical detail about submarine operations. I felt as though the author had to establish his credentials as someone who knew about all this stuff, but I just didn’t care about all that technical detail. I kept looking for a good story to emerge, but the story was always secondary to the technical detail. It felt like Clancy was showing off…..”Look how much I know about all this military stuff…” The book became a chore to read, and halfway through I just chucked it aside and found another book with a plot that wasn’t so convoluted. Read this book if you must; I found it boring.

⭐ There is a good story inside this book. However, the plot is buried deep under wave after wave of unnecessary technical explanation that does not enhance any plot or character development. I get the impression that Clancy spent a lot of time researching this book to make it accurate, but along the way he forgot to research how to pace a decent plot. Also, the main characters are great, but too many minor characters have inexplicably long back stories that also detract from the story. Overall, the underlying story is great, but you have to work your way through too much technical mumbo jumbo and pointless character details to get there. If you want to read a book about technical specifications on things like submarines and super computers from the early 1980s then there’s still probably better books than this one. I was very excited to read this book, but was generally disappointed in it.

⭐ The movie version of The Hunt for Red October is one of my favorite movies. I never read the book till now when Amazon offered the kindle version for a good price. So I thought I’d give it a try and see how the original novel was changed when converted into a movie. The pace was slower since you have to fit a movie into 90-120 minutes. The movie combined some of the action again to compress it all so I was taken by surprise when certain things didn’t happen as in the movie. The book presents much more in terms of things like how Russian submarine crews differed from the American ones which I appreciated. It also provided info on the difference in the technology of the American vs Russian subs. If you never read the book and only saw the movie, it’s worth a read. (It was interesting how in the movie they changed Ryan’s daughter age from 6 to 5 and she wanted her dad to bring home a ‘brother’ for her teddy bear Stanley instead of a Barbie doll (in the novel). Visually in the movie it worked better in the end when Jack finally was able to sleep on a plane with the teddy bear sitting in the seat next to him. )

⭐ I have to say I saw the movie, Hunt for Red October first. My husband purchased the book for me on a whim. The paperback edition was very thick with small type. Since we were traveling to Florida I decided to purchase the Kindle edition, good choice. At first I thought the book was a mirror of the movie, but after awhile I realized it was much better than the movie. Tom Clancy is a wonderful writer and he puts you right into the action. With a good imagination you can view the entire book in 3D! The depth (no pun intended) of the details was astounding. Only one statement the movie added at the end I would have loved to have read, “Mr. Ambassador, you’ve lost another submarine”.

⭐ It took me a few tries to read this book, as it’s written in a different fashion to what I’m accustomed: namely, Clancy threads his narrative through multiple POV characters with clear third person omniscient narration. While expecting this to be a “Jack Ryan novel,” as was advertised, here Ryan is simply one of many significant characters. With the expectation that I’d be reading something hero-centric, like Jack Reacher, I was disappointed, which threw me off initially. Another challenge is Clancy’s flair for didactic writing, often devoting huge sections to explaining the technical working of some machine. This is educational indeed, and I commend Clancy’s knowledge, but if I’m not in the mood for this kind of writing it can make the book rather dry.I finally developed the momentum to read the book all the way through, and it is intricately plotted with very well-developed characters. The scale of Clancy’s story is immense, and he creates a compelling geopolitical drama that feels as realistic as a season of 24 (a compliment, mind you). From the confines of a Russian submarine to intrigue in the oval office, Clancy effectively evokes all of these diverse environments with skill and authority, as if he were actually a participant in all of the places he uses as his settings (and I’m sure he hasn’t been in all of them).The result is a book that exudes authority. Clancy is a wise narrator with keen insight into the nature of men and states, and it’s he who is truly the star of the book, rather than Jack Ryan. In that way it’s a “Tom Clancy novel.” Upon finishing this one I immediately ordered the next.A book is only as good as its author, and Clancy seems to know his stuff. Now that I’m used to his style of writing, I confess that I like it, and eagerly look forward to reading Red Storm Rising.

⭐ This book is credited with having created the technothriller genre. Having first read it more than 30 years ago I indulged myself with a rereading. The classic tale of a Soviet sub captain’s defection with his state-of-the-art boat is as riveting now as it was then.Sure, it’s dated some. Clancy’s detail about how Jack Ryan types on a personal computer is laughably old hat. The weapons systems no longer amaze. The Soviet Bloc is gone, and with it ships whose operations political commissars interfere as they spout party ideology.Some of the ways in which it’s dated are refreshing. Wars are fought by humans, not by robots. The technology making nations powerful is still under the military’s control, not yet too complex for people to operate. The Navy isn’t yet obsessed with diversity questions. Clancy has his own unique take on diversity: most of his characters are Catholic, religious to varying extents, believe in God and have kids. People still smoke, they mull about quitting and no one else cares.Clancy’s grappling with morality is welcome. If a ship gets ensnared in a sensitive spy mission, is it acceptable to kill the crew to keep the secret? That’s dealt with not once, not twice, but three times here. That Ryan balks is one reason we like him. That top spy and military officers must consider such a dire measure if the mission is important enough, is realistic. That Americans would hesitate while the Soviets probably wouldn’t – that’s the difference between the two systems. It was Stalin who said a single death is a tragedy, but a million deaths is a statistic.Refreshing too is Clancy’s patriotism. It’s important to remember that when this was published in 1984, the nation was only a decade past the Vietnam debacle. An anti-American activism had taken hold with many people. Spy writers like John Le Carre, who saw little difference between capitalist and Communist systems, served up the acceptable cynical attitude. Clancy here reminds us that Americans took things like cars, houses and bountiful supermarket shelves for granted that Russians could only dream about.The CIA had been dirtied by exposure of various Cold War excesses exposed in the 1970s. That Clancy was willing to portray those in our security apparatus, military and espionage, as clean-cut good guys, whose sins didn’t go much past drinking, smoking and swearing, was a bold stroke indeed. The nation was hungry for it, judging by Clancy’s success.I’ve read hundreds of action novels since this first came out. One thing Clancy does tremendously well is to use technology to make the stories lifelike, while still making it clear enough you don’t get bogged down.A Russian sub’s reactor failure is laid out in detail over several pages, but you can follow it well enough. Clancy rarely lapses into impenetrable jargon, something not all comparable writers manage to avoid. I enjoy, say, both David Poyer naval novels and Dale Brown’s air force stories, but each contains passages that might delight knowledgeable veterans while remaining incomprehensible to anyone else. Clancy doesn’t do that.A tense battle sequence near the end, with points of view rotating between characters on four different submarines, remains quite lucid despite writing about multiple characters on each boat, participants who can’t see each other, location data and sonar findings being shouted around, various weapons and decoy systems, and so on.We’re introduced to Jack Ryan here. It’s fun watching the seeds planted for later books in the series, as characters like Robby Jackson are introduced. Ryan already enjoys a good relationship with the British stemming from his quick thinking and action against IRA terrorists; it becomes the plot of the sequel “Patriot Games”.

⭐ I read this book years ago. It was my introduction to Tom Clancy and I’ve been a devoted fan ever since. I decided to go back and read the entire Jack Ryan saga in chronological order starting with Patriot Games and then Red Rabbit and so on. It’s great to see Jack, Clark, Chavez and all of the characters be developed and grown as only Tom Clancy can do. The Hunt for Red October is simply a great read. And while the cold war is over, the story is still timeless and relevant. Tom Clancy gives the reader insight into strategic and tactical thinking in such a way that you can’t put the book down until it’s done. He leaves you hungry for the next chapter in the saga. I miss him terribly and will eagerly await the efforts to carry on his work that will be made by the many talented writers Tom touched with his passion for telling a compelling and exciting story. If you’ve read this book, go back and read it again, if you’ve never read it then do so and you too will become hooked on the life of John Patrick Ryan.

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