Noted thriller author Tom Clancy died Wednesday at the age of 66 in Baltimore. Clancy, whose works could reliably double as paperweights and/or doorstops in a pinch was launched to fame with 1984's The Hunt For Red October- which President Reagen dubbed 'a perfect yarn.' He followed that up with Patriot Games, The Sum of All Fears, Clear and Present Danger- all of which were made into movies, starring his central character Jack Ryan. I didn't know this but apparently Clancy, along with JK Rowling and John Grisham was one of only three authors to hit a million copies in a first printing in the 1990s. 1989's Clear and Present Danger sold 1,625,544 copies making it (per Wikipedia) the best selling novel of the 1980s.
While I devoured his books, it's also worth noting that he made an impact on the world of gaming as well, with several series of games including Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six. But I think it's Popular Mechanics that does him justice the best, pointing out that Clancy brought military tactics, accuracy and realism to his writing and that level of detail and knowledge has had a huge impact on entertainment and the techno-thriller genre since. (This from Buzzfeed and this from VodkaPundit are also worth reading.) Things I didn't know about Tom Clancy: he was part owner of the Baltimore Orioles and tried to buy the Minnesota Vikings at one point, except it turned out he didn't have the money he thought he did.
His writing, however, has had a huge impact on me not only a reader but as a writer as well. His characters are well drawn and relatable and the man could tell a story like few others. If he had a fault it was that sometimes, his attention to detail went from the fantastic and well-researched into the level of just plain unnecessary. There's an infamous chapter in The Sum of All Fears in which he takes about thirty to forty pages to explain on a molecular level exactly how a nuclear weapon blows up.
While his main character, Jack Ryan is probably the one he's most well known for- as the star of most of his books, it's a myriad supporting cast of characters that produced standouts as well. CIA Agents John Clark and Domingo Chavez were interesting to watch develop and gain back stories of their own over the course of several books- though one of the more remarkable of Clancy's achievements was an ability to keep more plot threads and plot points going than any writer I've read before or since and to do so on a global scale and in the end, all of them got tied up into gripping stories that readers could and did lose themselves in frequently.
While many might dismiss his abilities as a writer, I would argue that would be a mistake. Without Remorse and The Cardinal of the Kremlin are probably my favorite Clancy books, hands down and the former proves that Clancy could write and write well pushing the boundaries of genre, while the latter just proves what so many readers already know: Tom Clancy was the man.
In the meantime, I might just have to sit down tonight and watch The Hunt for Red October- or maybe I'll sneak over to the Cigar Parentals place and snag Without Remorse to read again, but either way, a great writer was lost on Wednesday. He will be missed.
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