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Tom Clancy Pressure Depth
Not yet published
Expected 1 Sep 26Jack Ryan Jr leads a team of divers in a race to beat the Chinese Navy to a weapon of terrible destructive power in the latest entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.
Jack Ryan Jr. is on Guam to work on a project for Hendley Associates. It's a perfectly ordinary insurance matter, but trouble finds the Ryans wherever they go. So it's no surprise when Jack's interest is piqued by a US Navy dive team working off the coast of the island.
For years rumors have persisted that the Soviets had placed a device for tracking American submarines on the sea floor. By now the technology should be outdated, but the Americans are still interested in recovering it. It's a seemingly routine mission until a team of Chinese special forces arrive. They are determined to get their hands on the aging tech even if they have to kill to do it. They're sure they can handle the Americans, but they don't know Jack.
Jack Ryan Jr. is on Guam to work on a project for Hendley Associates. It's a perfectly ordinary insurance matter, but trouble finds the Ryans wherever they go. So it's no surprise when Jack's interest is piqued by a US Navy dive team working off the coast of the island.
For years rumors have persisted that the Soviets had placed a device for tracking American submarines on the sea floor. By now the technology should be outdated, but the Americans are still interested in recovering it. It's a seemingly routine mission until a team of Chinese special forces arrive. They are determined to get their hands on the aging tech even if they have to kill to do it. They're sure they can handle the Americans, but they don't know Jack.
409 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication September 1, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 1, 2026
This review was originally published at FanFiAddict.
After a pair of misfires from Grant Blackwood and an increasing series of missteps and frustrations with the series under Mike Maden, I had all but written off the Jack Ryan, Jr. series. Since spinning-off into his own series from the mainline Jack Ryan books, little effort was made to really establish Junior as somebody worth reading about, never mind rooting for. Past efforts did little to convince me that Junior was nothing more than a cash grab by the Tom Clancy Estate as they attempted to put their own spin on Mitch Rapp and Jack Bauer. The cardboard-thin Junior oscillated between being a rich nepo baby looking for action who survives each adventure due only to the durability of plot armor, and a heavily plot armored rich, whiny nepo baby with a teenager’s maturity that hates such liberal conceits as free speech, climate change, masking up, and protesting fascism, and who consistently ignored his boss’s orders in favor of going rogue but was somehow able to still hold down a job as a secret agent for an off the books black ops org known as The Campus because, again, rich nepo baby plot armor.
Being the product of a dead author’s literary estate means that there’s a high turnover in house writers. In Michigan we joke that if you don’t like the weather, wait an hour or two and it’ll be different. A similar concept applies to the Jack Ryan Universe and its stable of authors. Don’t like the current run? Give it a year or two and somebody new will be at the helm soon enough. After DNF’ing Maden’s Enemy Contact, I sat out the Don Bentley and M.P. Woodward books, but decided to give Jack Stewart and his Pressure Depth a try.
Admittedly, I wasn’t intending on ever picking up another Jack Jack book. I figured him for an irredeemable lost cause after Maden’s nuttery, but larks are gonna lark, I suppose. Stewart’s hook revolving around Junior getting involved with a dive team and having underwater adventures reeled me in. I’m a sucker for big, action-packed sea stories like this.
Junior’s working a white side case for Hendley Associates, the venture capital front for The Campus, in Guam to determine if a sunken ship fits the bill for an insurance claim. He’s really there for the black side of the op, though, to determine if the ship’s haul of radioactive material was stolen and by whom. Nearby, a Naval research ship is conducting tests of an unmanned underwater drone when Chief Carla Bennet discovers Cold War-era Russian tech on the sea floor. Jack is tasked with recovering it, but lo and behold, the Chinese get wind of things and are themselves hellbent on taking control. Jack and Stewart decide to forego any further explorations about the sunken ship, leaving that plot line and plenty of hay made over insurance fraud to resolve only somewhat as they strike out in favor of richer and more compelling plot points hidden in Davey Jones’s locker.
Stewart pulls on some threads from previous Jack Ryan, Sr. books, primarily Andrews & Wilson’s Defense Protocol and Ward Larsen’s Rules of Engagement, both of which feature Junior’s far more interesting, smart, and quirky sister, Katie, the real heir apparent of Jack Ryan, Sr. Seriously, retire both Jack Ryans and let her take center stage, I’m begging you. Neither of these aforementioned books are required reading here, but they do make Pressure Depth’s Chinese plotline feel redundant, particularly after being handled so neatly in Defense Protocol.
Junior doesn’t exactly escape accusations of being Temu James Bond, either, with a storyline that recalls, at times, Thunderball and The Spy Who Loves Me. Thankfully, his relationship with Bennet is kept mostly professional, aside from his lame attempts at flirting, which she promptly and correctly shuts down. This is for the better, as neither character is particularly well-developed beyond being cardboard stock characters. Should they ever find themselves in a romantic entanglement that bears them offspring, I fear their children risk being born with all the dimensionality of a flatfish.
But I guess nobody’s reading these books because the characters are so memorable, keenly defined, charming, and sharply written. When given the inglorious task of writing for a fundamentally uninteresting character like Jack Ryan, Jr., Stewart does the smart thing by putting that character into interesting situations. Action scenes are well staged and exciting, both on land and off. Plunging Junior and his retinue of soldiers to the bottom of the ocean floor makes for a welcome change of pace, not to mention scenery. Typically, such underwater adventures would be aboard a submarine, but not here. Stewart spends a good amount of time tackling the science required for deep sea dives and getting his characters properly pressurized before putting them under different kinds of extreme pressures required to save the world. Where Stewart really shines is in tackling the sense of claustrophobia and overwhelming panic that comes with being trapped underwater and alone in the dark. There’s a horrifying peril to it all, and the sea can be deadly in severely awful ways, like rapid depressurization of the human body, that being trapped on land can’t even fathom.
I greatly enjoyed Stewart’s layman explanations about dive prep and the warnings about what could possibly go wrong, as it provided enough real-world grit to make the more outlandish elements a bit more forgivable. One error I couldn’t ignore, and it’s possible it’s just an artifact particular to this advance copy that will see itself fixed in the final published work, is the references to President Jack Ryan’s cabinet member, Robert Burgess, as the Secretary of War, rather than his proper title of Secretary of Defense. As far as I know, Congress has not passed any laws whatsoever allowing for the change in title, in either the Jack Ryan Universe or here in our real world. “Secretary of War” and the “War Department” are nothing more than silly affectations of our current sadly real-world administration that will hopefully read as incredibly outdated sooner rather than later, bestowed by a 34-time convicted felon, rapist, insurrectionist, and dementia-addled pedophile currently hellbent on poisoning America’s food supplies upon another debauched sex pest Christofascist who can’t bench press properly. Jack Ryan’s better than that, and I would certainly hope that former Navy fighter pilot Stewart is, too.
Pressure Depth doesn’t reinvent the wheel, nor does it miraculously turn Jack Ryan, Jr. into a hero suddenly worthy of his own series, but it’s mostly a decent read, aside from a few minor plot threads. I’ll be curious to check out Stewart’s follow-up. Hopefully he doesn’t drop the ball as badly as Maden did during his tenure, but that feels like a low bar to clear, even in an America currently defined by the lowest bars of them all.
After a pair of misfires from Grant Blackwood and an increasing series of missteps and frustrations with the series under Mike Maden, I had all but written off the Jack Ryan, Jr. series. Since spinning-off into his own series from the mainline Jack Ryan books, little effort was made to really establish Junior as somebody worth reading about, never mind rooting for. Past efforts did little to convince me that Junior was nothing more than a cash grab by the Tom Clancy Estate as they attempted to put their own spin on Mitch Rapp and Jack Bauer. The cardboard-thin Junior oscillated between being a rich nepo baby looking for action who survives each adventure due only to the durability of plot armor, and a heavily plot armored rich, whiny nepo baby with a teenager’s maturity that hates such liberal conceits as free speech, climate change, masking up, and protesting fascism, and who consistently ignored his boss’s orders in favor of going rogue but was somehow able to still hold down a job as a secret agent for an off the books black ops org known as The Campus because, again, rich nepo baby plot armor.
Being the product of a dead author’s literary estate means that there’s a high turnover in house writers. In Michigan we joke that if you don’t like the weather, wait an hour or two and it’ll be different. A similar concept applies to the Jack Ryan Universe and its stable of authors. Don’t like the current run? Give it a year or two and somebody new will be at the helm soon enough. After DNF’ing Maden’s Enemy Contact, I sat out the Don Bentley and M.P. Woodward books, but decided to give Jack Stewart and his Pressure Depth a try.
Admittedly, I wasn’t intending on ever picking up another Jack Jack book. I figured him for an irredeemable lost cause after Maden’s nuttery, but larks are gonna lark, I suppose. Stewart’s hook revolving around Junior getting involved with a dive team and having underwater adventures reeled me in. I’m a sucker for big, action-packed sea stories like this.
Junior’s working a white side case for Hendley Associates, the venture capital front for The Campus, in Guam to determine if a sunken ship fits the bill for an insurance claim. He’s really there for the black side of the op, though, to determine if the ship’s haul of radioactive material was stolen and by whom. Nearby, a Naval research ship is conducting tests of an unmanned underwater drone when Chief Carla Bennet discovers Cold War-era Russian tech on the sea floor. Jack is tasked with recovering it, but lo and behold, the Chinese get wind of things and are themselves hellbent on taking control. Jack and Stewart decide to forego any further explorations about the sunken ship, leaving that plot line and plenty of hay made over insurance fraud to resolve only somewhat as they strike out in favor of richer and more compelling plot points hidden in Davey Jones’s locker.
Stewart pulls on some threads from previous Jack Ryan, Sr. books, primarily Andrews & Wilson’s Defense Protocol and Ward Larsen’s Rules of Engagement, both of which feature Junior’s far more interesting, smart, and quirky sister, Katie, the real heir apparent of Jack Ryan, Sr. Seriously, retire both Jack Ryans and let her take center stage, I’m begging you. Neither of these aforementioned books are required reading here, but they do make Pressure Depth’s Chinese plotline feel redundant, particularly after being handled so neatly in Defense Protocol.
Junior doesn’t exactly escape accusations of being Temu James Bond, either, with a storyline that recalls, at times, Thunderball and The Spy Who Loves Me. Thankfully, his relationship with Bennet is kept mostly professional, aside from his lame attempts at flirting, which she promptly and correctly shuts down. This is for the better, as neither character is particularly well-developed beyond being cardboard stock characters. Should they ever find themselves in a romantic entanglement that bears them offspring, I fear their children risk being born with all the dimensionality of a flatfish.
But I guess nobody’s reading these books because the characters are so memorable, keenly defined, charming, and sharply written. When given the inglorious task of writing for a fundamentally uninteresting character like Jack Ryan, Jr., Stewart does the smart thing by putting that character into interesting situations. Action scenes are well staged and exciting, both on land and off. Plunging Junior and his retinue of soldiers to the bottom of the ocean floor makes for a welcome change of pace, not to mention scenery. Typically, such underwater adventures would be aboard a submarine, but not here. Stewart spends a good amount of time tackling the science required for deep sea dives and getting his characters properly pressurized before putting them under different kinds of extreme pressures required to save the world. Where Stewart really shines is in tackling the sense of claustrophobia and overwhelming panic that comes with being trapped underwater and alone in the dark. There’s a horrifying peril to it all, and the sea can be deadly in severely awful ways, like rapid depressurization of the human body, that being trapped on land can’t even fathom.
I greatly enjoyed Stewart’s layman explanations about dive prep and the warnings about what could possibly go wrong, as it provided enough real-world grit to make the more outlandish elements a bit more forgivable. One error I couldn’t ignore, and it’s possible it’s just an artifact particular to this advance copy that will see itself fixed in the final published work, is the references to President Jack Ryan’s cabinet member, Robert Burgess, as the Secretary of War, rather than his proper title of Secretary of Defense. As far as I know, Congress has not passed any laws whatsoever allowing for the change in title, in either the Jack Ryan Universe or here in our real world. “Secretary of War” and the “War Department” are nothing more than silly affectations of our current sadly real-world administration that will hopefully read as incredibly outdated sooner rather than later, bestowed by a 34-time convicted felon, rapist, insurrectionist, and dementia-addled pedophile currently hellbent on poisoning America’s food supplies upon another debauched sex pest Christofascist who can’t bench press properly. Jack Ryan’s better than that, and I would certainly hope that former Navy fighter pilot Stewart is, too.
Pressure Depth doesn’t reinvent the wheel, nor does it miraculously turn Jack Ryan, Jr. into a hero suddenly worthy of his own series, but it’s mostly a decent read, aside from a few minor plot threads. I’ll be curious to check out Stewart’s follow-up. Hopefully he doesn’t drop the ball as badly as Maden did during his tenure, but that feels like a low bar to clear, even in an America currently defined by the lowest bars of them all.
May 27, 2026
This is absolutely fantastic! It’s an underwater adventure that’s so different from anything else I’ve read. It’s truly a remarkable feat, giving off vibes of a hunt for Red October. This one is a real page turner and another great addition to the Jack Jr. story.
April 21, 2026
Another new Jack Ryan Jr book, another banger. Regardless of who is writing the book, they always hit. I have never read Jack Stewart but definitely want to now. An exciting and fast paced narrative to add to the Ryanverse. Highly recommend!
I received a free advanced copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received a free advanced copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Read
April 9, 2026Tom Clancy’s Pressure Depth is another entry in the Tom Clancy universe, following Jack Ryan as he works to keep the U.S. safe from emerging threats. This time, the conflict centers on a high-stakes race against China to locate a lost Russian nuclear launch facility from the Cold War, hidden deep in the Pacific near Guam. Working alongside the White House Situation Room, the Office of National Intelligence, the U.S. Navy, and Hendley Associates, Ryan and his team try to stop the Chinese from reaching—and potentially activating—the submerged nuclear site. The story is packed with action and tension, with plenty of moving parts and side plots that keep things interesting without feeling overwhelming. From underwater missions to global political maneuvering, there’s always something happening.
Overall, it’s an engaging, well-written thriller that delivers exactly what you’d expect from a Tom Clancy-style story: fast pacing, big stakes, and nonstop intrigue. Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s sons publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
Overall, it’s an engaging, well-written thriller that delivers exactly what you’d expect from a Tom Clancy-style story: fast pacing, big stakes, and nonstop intrigue. Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s sons publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I suppose it sounds strange to give a book a 5-star rating when there were chunks of it I totally skimmed, but let me explain. Once when I visited a top-of-the-water submarine in downtown Cleveland and had the chance to venture down the tube that led to the guts of the beast, I took one look and ran the other way. Yep, I’m definitely on the claustrophobic side, so being seriously enclosed like that, even if it’s not under water is pretty terrifying. Well, guess what this book is all about?
Mind you, I wasn’t too fearful that the hero of the story, Jack Ryan Jr., son of U.S. President Jack Ryan (he of The Hunt for Red October, an all-time favorite book), would meet a watery, highly pressurized demise. But over the series, I’ve come to know and love several of his friends and cohorts at Hendley Associates, where he fills roles on both the “legitimate” and clandestine sides of the company, so I WAS worried about them. And as can be deduced by my earlier comments, I can’t think of a worse way to go than on the sea floor mere feet from the Mariana Trench – the deepest oceanic trench on Earth.
This time out, Jack – whose fiancé and co-worker Lisanne Robertson are no longer an item – is planning a dive with co-worker Doug Park to inspect a sunken ship in the Philippine Sea near Guam thought to be carrying illicit and potentially dangerous cargo. Meantime, on another ship, captain Carla Bennett has spotted an object dangerously near the Mariana Trench that shouldn’t be there – it appears to be about the length of a submarine and has a corroded hull. More importantly, perhaps, is that it has a logo that looks suspiciously Russian. So what is it and how did it get where it is now? Further research finds it just may be one thought to have been surreptitiously placed by the Russians long ago for nefarious purposes. To get to the truth, Jack and his dive team will need to sink to all new levels. Problem is, someone else is determined to get there before they do and stop them from learning the truth.
For sure, it’s a mission fraught with danger - the details of which, of course, will be revealed as the story unfolds (I’m certainly not doing to be a wet blanket and spill the beans). I will say, though, that I learned way more than I ever wanted to about deep sea diving (a lot of it so technical it went way over my head, actually). And if I weren’t already certain I’d never want any part of deep sea diving, trust me, I’d be convinced after finishing the book. Parts, in fact, I had to skim over or else face having nightmares for weeks to come.
All that said, though, it’s a riveting, well-written story – and I’m already looking forward to the next adventure (though I’m hoping most of it will take place on dry land). Meantime, I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy of this one.
Mind you, I wasn’t too fearful that the hero of the story, Jack Ryan Jr., son of U.S. President Jack Ryan (he of The Hunt for Red October, an all-time favorite book), would meet a watery, highly pressurized demise. But over the series, I’ve come to know and love several of his friends and cohorts at Hendley Associates, where he fills roles on both the “legitimate” and clandestine sides of the company, so I WAS worried about them. And as can be deduced by my earlier comments, I can’t think of a worse way to go than on the sea floor mere feet from the Mariana Trench – the deepest oceanic trench on Earth.
This time out, Jack – whose fiancé and co-worker Lisanne Robertson are no longer an item – is planning a dive with co-worker Doug Park to inspect a sunken ship in the Philippine Sea near Guam thought to be carrying illicit and potentially dangerous cargo. Meantime, on another ship, captain Carla Bennett has spotted an object dangerously near the Mariana Trench that shouldn’t be there – it appears to be about the length of a submarine and has a corroded hull. More importantly, perhaps, is that it has a logo that looks suspiciously Russian. So what is it and how did it get where it is now? Further research finds it just may be one thought to have been surreptitiously placed by the Russians long ago for nefarious purposes. To get to the truth, Jack and his dive team will need to sink to all new levels. Problem is, someone else is determined to get there before they do and stop them from learning the truth.
For sure, it’s a mission fraught with danger - the details of which, of course, will be revealed as the story unfolds (I’m certainly not doing to be a wet blanket and spill the beans). I will say, though, that I learned way more than I ever wanted to about deep sea diving (a lot of it so technical it went way over my head, actually). And if I weren’t already certain I’d never want any part of deep sea diving, trust me, I’d be convinced after finishing the book. Parts, in fact, I had to skim over or else face having nightmares for weeks to come.
All that said, though, it’s a riveting, well-written story – and I’m already looking forward to the next adventure (though I’m hoping most of it will take place on dry land). Meantime, I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy of this one.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Jack Ryan Jr. is near Guam, preparing to dive to a shipwreck containing material that could help China develop a devastating chemical weapon. When a U.S. Navy dive team discovers a mysterious Soviet-era secret weapon resting on the ocean floor, Jack Jr. is brought in to uncover its true purpose and potential danger.
As the team prepares its mission, a Chinese operation closes in on the same target. What follows is a high-stakes race to reach the weapon first and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. With the future security of the United States hanging in the balance, Jack and his allies must stay one step ahead of a determined adversary.
This book was an absolute page-turner. Jack Stewart crushed it with his first contribution to the Jack Ryan Universe. The story builds steadily before exploding into a tense and action-packed second half. The final 10 percent of the novel elevates the suspense even further, making it nearly impossible to put down.
I thoroughly enjoyed this entry and hope it is the first of many Jack Ryan novels from Stewart. He has proven he can capture the spirit of the Ryan Universe while delivering a thrilling story of his own.
As the team prepares its mission, a Chinese operation closes in on the same target. What follows is a high-stakes race to reach the weapon first and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. With the future security of the United States hanging in the balance, Jack and his allies must stay one step ahead of a determined adversary.
This book was an absolute page-turner. Jack Stewart crushed it with his first contribution to the Jack Ryan Universe. The story builds steadily before exploding into a tense and action-packed second half. The final 10 percent of the novel elevates the suspense even further, making it nearly impossible to put down.
I thoroughly enjoyed this entry and hope it is the first of many Jack Ryan novels from Stewart. He has proven he can capture the spirit of the Ryan Universe while delivering a thrilling story of his own.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Jack Stewart handles the writing for the continuation of the Jack Ryan Jr series. He keeps the story tight and exciting from the very beginning. Jack Jr. is a magnet for trouble that his father, the original Jack Ryan, never was. He has every intention of being good and doing the right thing, but bad guys and enemies continue to find him. This time, we find Jack facing nuclear weapons, Chinese bad guys and doing it all underwater. Our author does Tom Clancy proud by throwing us curve balls to keep us on our toes. This is a really good thriller for those who love espionage and doomsday scenarios.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I don't know or have never heard of Jack Stewart before, but he sure can write an engaging thriller. An exciting and fast paced thrill ride that will have you hanging by a diving tether. Jack Jr. is in Guam, investigating a white side project only to be turned to the black side, Chinese bad guys show up and it's a race to stop them from their nefarious plan. Thanks to G.P. Putnam’s Sons and NetGalley for the ARC of this fantastic ride. Pressure Depth will be available on Sept. 1, 2026. Highly recommend!!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This latest entry in the Jack Ryan Jr series was VERY exciting. The book's subject matter was certainly intriguing and felt very Clancy-like from the start. Once I got past the halfway mark, I really found it difficult to put this one down! The final 50 pages or so are truly riveting. The only reason I didn't give 5 stars were some minor plot-points I had some issues with, but that may just be a me thing. Overall, this is a fantastic entry to the series and Mr. Stewart carries on the Clancy-legacy very well!
Thanks to Net Galley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for this ARC! #TomClancyPressureDepth #NetGalley
Thanks to Net Galley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for this ARC! #TomClancyPressureDepth #NetGalley
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
600 feet below the surface in the southwest pacific ocean. A long forgotten underwater nuclear weapon. Enemy combatants under water wanting activate the device and American combatants under water at the same time attempting to disable the device. What could go wrong? This book is one of the most intense books I've read, a heart pounding fast paced story that will make you sweat and gasp for air. The entire book is the climax. Can't wait for Jack Stewart's next episode starring Jack Ryan Jr.
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