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Jack Ryan, Jr. #4
Cílená hrozba
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Mystery & Thriller (2013)Prezident USA má problém.
Nejmocnější čínský generál se totiž rozhodl, že vyhlásí Americe válku.
Je možné ještě odvrátit otevřený střet dvou supervelmocí?
Agenti Univerzity mají pouhých pár hodin na zažehnání konfliktu, který ohrožuje celý svět…
Spojené státy se ze dne na den ocitají na pokraji válečného konfliktu. Agresorem není nikdo menší než komunistická Čína.
Dokáže někdo zastavit kybernetické útoky na nejdůležitější strategické cíle na území USA? Podaří se zabránit výbuchu nejvýkonnějšího amerického jaderného reaktoru? Existuje vůbec účinná obrana proti neviditelné armádě všehoschopných hackerů?
Příslušníci supertajné agentury zvané Univerzita, podléhající přímo prezidentu Ryanovi, jsou vystaveni doslova zkoušce ohněm. A o nic lépe na tom není ani prezident sám. Jejich čínští protivníci však brzy zjistí, že se přepočítali…
Nejmocnější čínský generál se totiž rozhodl, že vyhlásí Americe válku.
Je možné ještě odvrátit otevřený střet dvou supervelmocí?
Agenti Univerzity mají pouhých pár hodin na zažehnání konfliktu, který ohrožuje celý svět…
Spojené státy se ze dne na den ocitají na pokraji válečného konfliktu. Agresorem není nikdo menší než komunistická Čína.
Dokáže někdo zastavit kybernetické útoky na nejdůležitější strategické cíle na území USA? Podaří se zabránit výbuchu nejvýkonnějšího amerického jaderného reaktoru? Existuje vůbec účinná obrana proti neviditelné armádě všehoschopných hackerů?
Příslušníci supertajné agentury zvané Univerzita, podléhající přímo prezidentu Ryanovi, jsou vystaveni doslova zkoušce ohněm. A o nic lépe na tom není ani prezident sám. Jejich čínští protivníci však brzy zjistí, že se přepočítali…
Kindle Edition
First published December 4, 2012
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About the author
Tom Clancy
977 books9,066 followersThomas Leo Clancy Jr. was an American novelist and military-political thriller pioneer. Raised in a middle-class Irish-American family, he developed an early fascination with military history. Despite initially studying physics at Loyola College, he switched to English literature, graduating in 1969 with a modest GPA. His aspirations of serving in the military were dashed due to severe myopia, leading him instead to a career in the insurance business.
While working at a small insurance agency, Clancy spent his spare time writing what would become The Hunt for Red October (1984). Published by the Naval Institute Press for an advance of $5,000, the book received an unexpected boost when President Ronald Reagan praised it as “the best yarn.” This propelled Clancy to national fame, selling millions of copies and establishing his reputation for technical accuracy in military and intelligence matters. His meticulous research and storytelling ability granted him access to high-ranking U.S. military officials, further enriching his novels.
Clancy’s works often featured heroic protagonists such as Jack Ryan and John Clark, emphasizing themes of patriotism, military expertise, and political intrigue. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, he became one of the best-selling authors in America, with titles like Red Storm Rising (1986), Patriot Games (1987), Clear and Present Danger (1989), and The Sum of All Fears (1991) dominating bestseller lists. Several of these were adapted into commercially successful films.
In addition to novels, Clancy co-authored nonfiction works on military topics and lent his name to numerous book series and video game franchises, including Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell. His influence extended beyond literature, as he became a part-owner of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team and was involved in various business ventures, including a failed attempt to purchase the Minnesota Vikings.
Politically, Clancy was a staunch conservative, often weaving his views into his books and publicly criticizing left-leaning policies. He gained further attention after the September 11 attacks, discussing intelligence failures and counterterrorism strategies on news platforms.
Clancy’s financial success was immense. By the late 1990s, his publishing deals were worth tens of millions of dollars. He lived on an expansive Maryland estate featuring a World War II Sherman tank and later purchased a luxury penthouse in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
He was married twice, first to Wanda Thomas King, with whom he had four children, and later to journalist Alexandra Marie Llewellyn, with whom he had one daughter.
Tom Clancy passed away on October 1, 2013, at the age of 66 due to heart failure. His legacy endures through his novels, their adaptations, and the continuation of the Jack Ryan series by other writers.
While working at a small insurance agency, Clancy spent his spare time writing what would become The Hunt for Red October (1984). Published by the Naval Institute Press for an advance of $5,000, the book received an unexpected boost when President Ronald Reagan praised it as “the best yarn.” This propelled Clancy to national fame, selling millions of copies and establishing his reputation for technical accuracy in military and intelligence matters. His meticulous research and storytelling ability granted him access to high-ranking U.S. military officials, further enriching his novels.
Clancy’s works often featured heroic protagonists such as Jack Ryan and John Clark, emphasizing themes of patriotism, military expertise, and political intrigue. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, he became one of the best-selling authors in America, with titles like Red Storm Rising (1986), Patriot Games (1987), Clear and Present Danger (1989), and The Sum of All Fears (1991) dominating bestseller lists. Several of these were adapted into commercially successful films.
In addition to novels, Clancy co-authored nonfiction works on military topics and lent his name to numerous book series and video game franchises, including Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell. His influence extended beyond literature, as he became a part-owner of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team and was involved in various business ventures, including a failed attempt to purchase the Minnesota Vikings.
Politically, Clancy was a staunch conservative, often weaving his views into his books and publicly criticizing left-leaning policies. He gained further attention after the September 11 attacks, discussing intelligence failures and counterterrorism strategies on news platforms.
Clancy’s financial success was immense. By the late 1990s, his publishing deals were worth tens of millions of dollars. He lived on an expansive Maryland estate featuring a World War II Sherman tank and later purchased a luxury penthouse in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
He was married twice, first to Wanda Thomas King, with whom he had four children, and later to journalist Alexandra Marie Llewellyn, with whom he had one daughter.
Tom Clancy passed away on October 1, 2013, at the age of 66 due to heart failure. His legacy endures through his novels, their adaptations, and the continuation of the Jack Ryan series by other writers.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 993 reviews
December 17, 2012
Why did I give it 3 stars? 835 pages for a story that could have been told in 300! The book is filled with details for every weapon, air plane, naval ship(US and foreign)tank, car, bike and strategy that was used. And then details of every character from where and when they were born to when they took their first steps, when they were potty trained and when they started to work for or against their countries. The story was good the usual Tom Clancy fair, every one hates america and then they come close to destroying it(this time through cyber war fare) and of course, John Clark and Jack Ryan (Senior or Junior) save the day.
January 26, 2022
I’m not sure I fully understand why a successful author publishes a book “with” another writer, but I enjoy the Jack Ryan series so much, I happily read it. I’m so glad I did. Domingo Chavez, Jack Ryan Jr, and even John Clark, are back in action again! Also, the team’s computer wizard, is a nice, humorous, addition to the characters.
It was very interesting to read about – and now better understand – computer hackers as they relate to nation security. (Apparently, you don’t need a Mata Hari for espionage anymore.) The events in this book could, indeed, happen – and probably more likely than a conventional war. This is a scenario for the start of World War III!
There’s a lengthy dogfight sequence that’s tremendous! It is VERY exciting! OMG! I read it quickly and then, because it was so good, I went back and reread it slowly to savor it. (It was certainly better than any sequence from “Top Gun”.) It was written so precisely, it was easy to visualize.
As always, Clancy’s combat action is amazing – and VERY authentic sounding. It is less “superhero-ish” than Thor, Coes or even Flynn. (In my opinion, Clancy is the creator of this genre.)
Even if it seems farfetched that the President of the United States' son is a covert operative, with a father like Jack Ryan Sr, one wouldn’t have expected anything less.
I can’t wait until the next book.
It was very interesting to read about – and now better understand – computer hackers as they relate to nation security. (Apparently, you don’t need a Mata Hari for espionage anymore.) The events in this book could, indeed, happen – and probably more likely than a conventional war. This is a scenario for the start of World War III!
There’s a lengthy dogfight sequence that’s tremendous! It is VERY exciting! OMG! I read it quickly and then, because it was so good, I went back and reread it slowly to savor it. (It was certainly better than any sequence from “Top Gun”.) It was written so precisely, it was easy to visualize.
As always, Clancy’s combat action is amazing – and VERY authentic sounding. It is less “superhero-ish” than Thor, Coes or even Flynn. (In my opinion, Clancy is the creator of this genre.)
Even if it seems farfetched that the President of the United States' son is a covert operative, with a father like Jack Ryan Sr, one wouldn’t have expected anything less.
I can’t wait until the next book.
October 10, 2013
Tom Clancy has left the building. The “old” Tom Clancy, who turned geopolitical situations into War and Peace like doorstoppers, and brought Uncle Sam victory against the Russians, Columbians, terrorists, Japanese, Iranians and Chinese has been off his game in the last decade, with duds such as Teeth of the Tiger and Dead Or Alive. So as a result, he’s turned to a rising talent, Mark Greaney of the successful “Grey Man” series to help collaborate on future books. Hard core fans of the pre-2000 books may howl in agony at the “new” Tom Clancy’s writing style but it’s for the best. The excesses of the previous books, notorious for their overwhelming technical descriptions have been removed. And the books are all the better for it. But don’t worry, the Clancy hallmarks of a relevant geopolitical issue and technology are present in the Greaney-Clancy partnership and Threat Vector is no exception. It’s a techno thriller for the chaotic age of Obama.
The sprawling story begins in Istanbul where a group of former Libyan Intelligence officers are eliminated in a series of unfortunate events, instigated by “The Campus”, an independent American intelligence agency. From hit and runs to stabbings, the string of killings are pulled off with a professional elegance. However, one of the campus agents, Jack Ryan Junior, son of THE Jack Ryan, notices that the team were under surveillance by an unknown entity from the start of the operation and puts The Campus on war footing. In Beijing, the premier is facing discontent from subpar economic performance and is forced to make a deal with an ultra-nationalistic general to quash a coup. In Hong Kong, the director of China’s cyberwarfare efforts is busy building up a network of agents through a effective cocktail of hacking, blackmail and gunfire. And in Russia, a washed up SVR spymaster makes a deal with an unknown devil to give him a new lease of life. All these plot threads combine to make a sumptuous yet highly relevant geopolitical treat and the best Tom Clancy novel since Rainbow Six.
Plot wise, Threat Vector is timely and epic. Focusing on a China whose winning streak is about to end and the love hate relationship between it and America, along with the CRITICAL importance of the South China Sea in current geopolitics, Threat Vector also gives us humble readers a basic crash course on cyberwarfare that’s easy to understand. From the Chinese governments sea side resort to a running gunfight through the Hong Kong waterfront and an unprecedented cyberwarfare campaign designed to rip apart the infrastructure of the USA, Threat Vector delivers the classic Tom Clancy globe-trotting experience we’ve all come to know and love. The themes the thriller explores are the internal power struggles between the ultranationalists and moderates of the Chinese leadership and the crucial importance of the South China Sea relatively well. Recently, China has gotten into a series of disputes between the members of the ASEAN bloc, using a map which gives it control of the majority of the South China Sea to help justify its claims. Threat Vector shows the worst case scenario where a ultra-nationalistic general decides to lay down the law with a campaign of sophisticated asymmetric warfare to force the US navy out of Asia and turn the South China Sea China’s back yard.
With Characters, Threat Vector is…..alright. The all-star Ryanverse heroes are back, and are easy to root for such as the great John Clark who can still out shoot younger men, even with semi-retirement beckoning and a broken hand, Jack Ryan Jr who’s become a competent killer under the guidance of Ding Chavez and a extremely clever CIA officer in Hong Kong who’s help tilts the balance of power in favour of the Americans when things start going to hell near the climax. The villains are alright, being relatively realistic but not compelling. However, the Chinese premier outclasses them all. A well-meaning, if tragic figure, his fall into hell as he gets sucked up in a war he knows is insane and wrong, will make you feel sorry for him, being a little more sympathetic than even the protagonists of Threat Vector. However, one of the characters, Jack Ryan Jr’s girlfriend, Melanie drags the novel down a notch and is highly unsympathetic. Her interactions with the other characters made me cringe when she appeared and I’m relieved Clancy/Greaney put her on a bus to a better place in the end.
Apart from Junior’s girlfriend, the only other problem I had with Threat Vector is the depiction of Hong Kong’s Triad’s who turn the city into a war zone at one point and pack an unrealistic amount of firepower which can decimate an American special operations team in seconds. I know its fiction and the triad’s firepower is plot relevant, but from multiple trips to Hong Kong, I know for a fact that in the real world, the Hong Kong criminals don’t like to shoot up streets like 90’s LA gang bangers and if they have the kind of firepower described in the novel, they keep it well under wraps, away from the vastly, superior equipped HKPD. Personally, a team of MSS officers or even soldiers from the Hong Kong PLA garrison would have been a little more realistic. This instance of “jumping the shark” detracts from the sense of realism the Tom Clancy name is supposed to evoke, but in no way whatsoever, detracts from the story.
Overall, Threat Vector is a triumph, showing that even with age and a brilliant collaborator doing the heavy lifting, Tom Clancy can still hold his own amongst the new talents such as Brad Taylor and Dalton Furry, in contrast to other old masters such as Fredrick Forsyth who have started to decline in terms of quality. With its engrossing, yet realistic depiction of cyberwarfare to a plausible worst case geopolitical scenario, Threat Vector shows that an old dog has learned some new tricks and demonstrates the capable writing abilities of a fantastic new author. I highly recommend this geopolitical masterpiece, you won’t regret it.
The sprawling story begins in Istanbul where a group of former Libyan Intelligence officers are eliminated in a series of unfortunate events, instigated by “The Campus”, an independent American intelligence agency. From hit and runs to stabbings, the string of killings are pulled off with a professional elegance. However, one of the campus agents, Jack Ryan Junior, son of THE Jack Ryan, notices that the team were under surveillance by an unknown entity from the start of the operation and puts The Campus on war footing. In Beijing, the premier is facing discontent from subpar economic performance and is forced to make a deal with an ultra-nationalistic general to quash a coup. In Hong Kong, the director of China’s cyberwarfare efforts is busy building up a network of agents through a effective cocktail of hacking, blackmail and gunfire. And in Russia, a washed up SVR spymaster makes a deal with an unknown devil to give him a new lease of life. All these plot threads combine to make a sumptuous yet highly relevant geopolitical treat and the best Tom Clancy novel since Rainbow Six.
Plot wise, Threat Vector is timely and epic. Focusing on a China whose winning streak is about to end and the love hate relationship between it and America, along with the CRITICAL importance of the South China Sea in current geopolitics, Threat Vector also gives us humble readers a basic crash course on cyberwarfare that’s easy to understand. From the Chinese governments sea side resort to a running gunfight through the Hong Kong waterfront and an unprecedented cyberwarfare campaign designed to rip apart the infrastructure of the USA, Threat Vector delivers the classic Tom Clancy globe-trotting experience we’ve all come to know and love. The themes the thriller explores are the internal power struggles between the ultranationalists and moderates of the Chinese leadership and the crucial importance of the South China Sea relatively well. Recently, China has gotten into a series of disputes between the members of the ASEAN bloc, using a map which gives it control of the majority of the South China Sea to help justify its claims. Threat Vector shows the worst case scenario where a ultra-nationalistic general decides to lay down the law with a campaign of sophisticated asymmetric warfare to force the US navy out of Asia and turn the South China Sea China’s back yard.
With Characters, Threat Vector is…..alright. The all-star Ryanverse heroes are back, and are easy to root for such as the great John Clark who can still out shoot younger men, even with semi-retirement beckoning and a broken hand, Jack Ryan Jr who’s become a competent killer under the guidance of Ding Chavez and a extremely clever CIA officer in Hong Kong who’s help tilts the balance of power in favour of the Americans when things start going to hell near the climax. The villains are alright, being relatively realistic but not compelling. However, the Chinese premier outclasses them all. A well-meaning, if tragic figure, his fall into hell as he gets sucked up in a war he knows is insane and wrong, will make you feel sorry for him, being a little more sympathetic than even the protagonists of Threat Vector. However, one of the characters, Jack Ryan Jr’s girlfriend, Melanie drags the novel down a notch and is highly unsympathetic. Her interactions with the other characters made me cringe when she appeared and I’m relieved Clancy/Greaney put her on a bus to a better place in the end.
Apart from Junior’s girlfriend, the only other problem I had with Threat Vector is the depiction of Hong Kong’s Triad’s who turn the city into a war zone at one point and pack an unrealistic amount of firepower which can decimate an American special operations team in seconds. I know its fiction and the triad’s firepower is plot relevant, but from multiple trips to Hong Kong, I know for a fact that in the real world, the Hong Kong criminals don’t like to shoot up streets like 90’s LA gang bangers and if they have the kind of firepower described in the novel, they keep it well under wraps, away from the vastly, superior equipped HKPD. Personally, a team of MSS officers or even soldiers from the Hong Kong PLA garrison would have been a little more realistic. This instance of “jumping the shark” detracts from the sense of realism the Tom Clancy name is supposed to evoke, but in no way whatsoever, detracts from the story.
Overall, Threat Vector is a triumph, showing that even with age and a brilliant collaborator doing the heavy lifting, Tom Clancy can still hold his own amongst the new talents such as Brad Taylor and Dalton Furry, in contrast to other old masters such as Fredrick Forsyth who have started to decline in terms of quality. With its engrossing, yet realistic depiction of cyberwarfare to a plausible worst case geopolitical scenario, Threat Vector shows that an old dog has learned some new tricks and demonstrates the capable writing abilities of a fantastic new author. I highly recommend this geopolitical masterpiece, you won’t regret it.
February 17, 2015
There are mixed opinions about this book from many GoodReads reviewers; some take the position that Clancy’s books have slipped in quality since he has taken on co-authors. Personally, I found Threat Vector to be a very exciting, fast-paced novel with lots of action reflective of today’s world. The usual cast of characters of Henley Associates is present. For those not familiar with recent Clancy novels, Henley Associates is a “private, under-the-table” intelligence organization. It is self-funded from it supposed actual function of being a financial management organization. It was Jack Ryan, Senior’s idea, set up during his first term as president, and is headed by his friend, ex-Senator Gerry Henley. In Threat Vector Jack has returned to the presidency following the disastrous term of Ken Kealty, who all but dismantled the U.S. military.
Jack Ryan, Junior began working for Henley Associates, ostensibly as a financial manager but in actuality as a extremely effective intelligence analyst. In the immediately prior Clancy novel - Locked On - Jack, Junior got a taste of field work as an intelligence operative. This increases dramatically in Threat Vector, when the legendary John Clark has to retire after his limited recovery from the severe injuries inflicted by the Russians in Locked On.
The primary threat in this novel is posed by the renegade head of the Chinese military Chairman Su, supported by a shadowy figure known as “Center.” Su is determined to completely take over control of the entire South China Sea as well as Taiwan and will stop at nothing, including direct orders from the President of China. Center’s specialty is cyber warfare. In these efforts he is supported by 100+ hackers and a band of goons who do his bidding. There seem to be no boundaries that Center is unable to breach. He takes over control of multiple U.S. drone aircraft, using their munitions wherever he wants to use them. He also is able to control the cooling-water system for nuclear power plants within the U.S. illustrating the potential he has for causing calamitous results.
In light of the cyber-attacks, which preclude a conventional military response by President Ryan, Jack, Junior and the other operatives at Henley Associates are kept busy in various parts of the world in an effort to thwart the plans of Su & Center.
I VERY MUCH enjoyed this latest Clancy novel and do recommend it to others who enjoy an exciting tale full of danger, suspense, and intrigue on a global scale.
[Book 2 of 2013 Target 50 (Jan-2)]
Jack Ryan, Junior began working for Henley Associates, ostensibly as a financial manager but in actuality as a extremely effective intelligence analyst. In the immediately prior Clancy novel - Locked On - Jack, Junior got a taste of field work as an intelligence operative. This increases dramatically in Threat Vector, when the legendary John Clark has to retire after his limited recovery from the severe injuries inflicted by the Russians in Locked On.
The primary threat in this novel is posed by the renegade head of the Chinese military Chairman Su, supported by a shadowy figure known as “Center.” Su is determined to completely take over control of the entire South China Sea as well as Taiwan and will stop at nothing, including direct orders from the President of China. Center’s specialty is cyber warfare. In these efforts he is supported by 100+ hackers and a band of goons who do his bidding. There seem to be no boundaries that Center is unable to breach. He takes over control of multiple U.S. drone aircraft, using their munitions wherever he wants to use them. He also is able to control the cooling-water system for nuclear power plants within the U.S. illustrating the potential he has for causing calamitous results.
In light of the cyber-attacks, which preclude a conventional military response by President Ryan, Jack, Junior and the other operatives at Henley Associates are kept busy in various parts of the world in an effort to thwart the plans of Su & Center.
I VERY MUCH enjoyed this latest Clancy novel and do recommend it to others who enjoy an exciting tale full of danger, suspense, and intrigue on a global scale.
[Book 2 of 2013 Target 50 (Jan-2)]
December 27, 2012
Yet another disappointing Tom Clancy and company novel, all the more so because his older work was compelling. Jack Ryan Sr. is back in the White House again, confronting a crisis with an aggressive China trying to assert itself. Its tactics include military, economic, and cyber warfare, and the situation brings his son Jack Jr. and colleagues at the off the book group known as the Campus into the crossfire. Clancy continues to ignore his own continuity, something that he's been doing ever since Red Rabbit and Teeth of the Tiger. There are glitches and errors suggesting he and his co-writer don't care much about preserving that continuity, and instead put their emphasis into Clancy's new political stances, which have plagued the last few books. As usual, the book is too tech-heavy, with long descriptions of how things work, an obsession Clancy has always had. All in all, the new characters Clancy has developed in the last few books just aren't as interesting as those from older books, and his disregard for maintaining continuity is frustrating. He hasn't had a worthwhile book since The Bear And The Dragon, and that shows no sign of changing anytime soon.
October 8, 2024
Mark Greaney's second effort in writing Tom Clancy's books for him. And this is an improvement on the excellent Locked On. While it is a shame that Clancy no longer writes 'his' books, in Mark Greaney they have found a very good writer who is able to take the Clancy style and give it his own voice.
In Threat Vector the Chinese are the bad guys, advancing a shooting war over the South China Sea with cyber warfare to weaken and confuse the US. So while Jack Ryan sr does things at a Presidential level, son Jack Jr is involved with "The Campus" an off the books intelligence and assassination organisation. So both Jacks follow their own paths to the same conclusion, the US is under attack and even The Campus might be exposed....
It's the Clancy style of old (before he...er..'lost it') with the blend of geo-politics and human agents and intelligence on the ground. And both Jacks have more logical characters this time, Senior shows leadership while Junior is less of an action hero and more considered and logical. And it works.
Once the action hots up, the pages started to fly by in a very enjoyable thriller.
If Clancy and his advisors have any sense, they will be begging Greaney to write another.
In Threat Vector the Chinese are the bad guys, advancing a shooting war over the South China Sea with cyber warfare to weaken and confuse the US. So while Jack Ryan sr does things at a Presidential level, son Jack Jr is involved with "The Campus" an off the books intelligence and assassination organisation. So both Jacks follow their own paths to the same conclusion, the US is under attack and even The Campus might be exposed....
It's the Clancy style of old (before he...er..'lost it') with the blend of geo-politics and human agents and intelligence on the ground. And both Jacks have more logical characters this time, Senior shows leadership while Junior is less of an action hero and more considered and logical. And it works.
Once the action hots up, the pages started to fly by in a very enjoyable thriller.
If Clancy and his advisors have any sense, they will be begging Greaney to write another.
December 7, 2012
President Jack Ryan is back in the White House and right
off the bat he is faced with an international threat. An
aborted coup in China has left President Wei Zhen Lin with
no choice but to agree to the policies of General Su Ke Qiang
which means China will be moving into the South China Sea
and planning an invasion of Taiwan. The Ryan Administration
is determined to thwart China's plans but the stakes are high
The Chinese Navy has a new breed of missles which endangers
the Navy's plans to protect the island. Meanwhile Chinese
cyber warfare experts have launched a devestating attack on
Ameican infrastructures. It's a brand new combat arena but
every bit as deadly as anything that has been tried before.
Jack Jr and his colleagues may be just the thing that Jack Sr
needs but someone knows about the off the book agency and
threatens to blow their cover.I Have to say here that Tom
Clancy is one of the best. Anyone who can take an 835 page
book and turn it into a cover to cover page turner is truly a
master.I am truly glad that he gave up on insurance and took up
writing because he has entertained me on many a night
off the bat he is faced with an international threat. An
aborted coup in China has left President Wei Zhen Lin with
no choice but to agree to the policies of General Su Ke Qiang
which means China will be moving into the South China Sea
and planning an invasion of Taiwan. The Ryan Administration
is determined to thwart China's plans but the stakes are high
The Chinese Navy has a new breed of missles which endangers
the Navy's plans to protect the island. Meanwhile Chinese
cyber warfare experts have launched a devestating attack on
Ameican infrastructures. It's a brand new combat arena but
every bit as deadly as anything that has been tried before.
Jack Jr and his colleagues may be just the thing that Jack Sr
needs but someone knows about the off the book agency and
threatens to blow their cover.I Have to say here that Tom
Clancy is one of the best. Anyone who can take an 835 page
book and turn it into a cover to cover page turner is truly a
master.I am truly glad that he gave up on insurance and took up
writing because he has entertained me on many a night
March 5, 2013
It's like most of Clancy's work. There are technical details for almost every weapon even mentioned in passing, filled with opinionated political points of view common to the current Republican members of congress, evil, dastardly villains bent on successfully destroying America, and only foiled at great trouble and expense by good people willing to risk everything to stop them. He's gotten good over the years at bringing back characters he created in past novels who were supposed to have gotten put away for the long term. Also like all Clancy novels, once you get past the politics and weapon details, it's a well-paced, character driven story.
January 6, 2025
Tom Clancy verliet de wereld van het schrijven toen hij stierf op 1 oktober 2013. Hij was een Amerikaanse auteur die voornamelijk politieke thrillers schreef met zaken die hij ontleende aan inlichtingendiensten en militaire wetenschappen. Spionage neemt meestal wel een belangrijke rol op zich in zijn boeken. Hij wou eigenlijk zelf in het leger maar een erg oogprobleem stak daar een stokje voor.
Samen met Mark Greaney schreef Clancy het boek Dubbele Dreiging.
Het verhaal
Jack Ryan wordt geconfronteerd met een internationale crisis. Een mislukte staatgreep in de volksrepubliek China dwingt de Chinese president Wei Zhen Lin om in te stemmen met de plannen van generaal Su. Die wil een expansie politiek voeren en de Zuid-Chinese zee claimen en Taiwan inlijven. Ryan is vastbesloten om China te stoppen maar China heeft een nieuwe generatie raketten ontwikkeld die ze kunnen gebruiken tegen de Amerikaanse marine.
Tegelijkertijd wordt Amerika getroffen door meedogenloze cyberaanvallen. Een nieuw soort oorlogsvoering die zeer moeilijk te bestrijden is en zeer gevaarlijk is voor de Amerikaanse infrastructuur. Jack Ryan kan enkel maar een zeer geheime dienst raadplegen maar het probleem is dat iemand hun identiteit weet en dreigt om alles te onthullen.
Mijn gedacht
Dit is een typische Clancy. Niet de makkelijkste schrijfstijl omdat hij gebruik maakt van technische woorden en omschrijvingen. Ze dragen bij aan het begrijpbaar maken van de acties maar vertragen wel een beetje de leessnelheid.
De spanningsboog is altijd aanwezig in dit verhaal. Er gebeurt zeer veel en op verschillende fronten waar er dan nog eens genoeg twists de revue passeren om echt wel moeiteloos de aandacht van de lezer vast te houden.
De personages zijn zeer goed uitgewerkt. Wanneer je deze boeken op volgorde leest, de reeks rond Jack Ryan, zul je ze echt wel zien groeien in hun rol. Maar indien je ze niet gelezen hebt kun je nog steeds het verhaal goed volgen. Met nu en dan een flashback naar het verleden ben je vlug weer mee met het verhaal.
Het slot
Wanneer we bij het slot aankomen, schiet de spanningsboog naar ongekende hoogtes. Hier en daar nog een twist te verwerken en de nodige schietpartijen en voor je het weet ben je aan het einde van het boek. Van de meeste lijnen krijgen we alle antwoorden terwijl er nog steeds zijn die niet volledig afgesloten worden, hoogstwaarschijnlijk ten voordele van de volgende delen in de reeks.
Conclusie
Een rasechte Clancy vol met cybercrime, schietpartijen, ontvoeringen en noem maar op. Spanning van begin tot einde met zelfs op het einde nog een verhoging van de snelheid van het verhaal met nog een extra laag spanning erop. Soms technische uitleg maar wie reeds andere boeken van Clancy gelezen heeft zal dit wel herkennen.
Samen met Mark Greaney schreef Clancy het boek Dubbele Dreiging.
Het verhaal
Jack Ryan wordt geconfronteerd met een internationale crisis. Een mislukte staatgreep in de volksrepubliek China dwingt de Chinese president Wei Zhen Lin om in te stemmen met de plannen van generaal Su. Die wil een expansie politiek voeren en de Zuid-Chinese zee claimen en Taiwan inlijven. Ryan is vastbesloten om China te stoppen maar China heeft een nieuwe generatie raketten ontwikkeld die ze kunnen gebruiken tegen de Amerikaanse marine.
Tegelijkertijd wordt Amerika getroffen door meedogenloze cyberaanvallen. Een nieuw soort oorlogsvoering die zeer moeilijk te bestrijden is en zeer gevaarlijk is voor de Amerikaanse infrastructuur. Jack Ryan kan enkel maar een zeer geheime dienst raadplegen maar het probleem is dat iemand hun identiteit weet en dreigt om alles te onthullen.
Mijn gedacht
Dit is een typische Clancy. Niet de makkelijkste schrijfstijl omdat hij gebruik maakt van technische woorden en omschrijvingen. Ze dragen bij aan het begrijpbaar maken van de acties maar vertragen wel een beetje de leessnelheid.
De spanningsboog is altijd aanwezig in dit verhaal. Er gebeurt zeer veel en op verschillende fronten waar er dan nog eens genoeg twists de revue passeren om echt wel moeiteloos de aandacht van de lezer vast te houden.
De personages zijn zeer goed uitgewerkt. Wanneer je deze boeken op volgorde leest, de reeks rond Jack Ryan, zul je ze echt wel zien groeien in hun rol. Maar indien je ze niet gelezen hebt kun je nog steeds het verhaal goed volgen. Met nu en dan een flashback naar het verleden ben je vlug weer mee met het verhaal.
Het slot
Wanneer we bij het slot aankomen, schiet de spanningsboog naar ongekende hoogtes. Hier en daar nog een twist te verwerken en de nodige schietpartijen en voor je het weet ben je aan het einde van het boek. Van de meeste lijnen krijgen we alle antwoorden terwijl er nog steeds zijn die niet volledig afgesloten worden, hoogstwaarschijnlijk ten voordele van de volgende delen in de reeks.
Conclusie
Een rasechte Clancy vol met cybercrime, schietpartijen, ontvoeringen en noem maar op. Spanning van begin tot einde met zelfs op het einde nog een verhoging van de snelheid van het verhaal met nog een extra laag spanning erop. Soms technische uitleg maar wie reeds andere boeken van Clancy gelezen heeft zal dit wel herkennen.
September 6, 2013
I do enjoy a book that will take me away for a good while! In this case, the 800+ pages kept me occupied for a couple of days and each time I put it down, I looked forward to going back for more. What fun!
I can only image how much research goes into creating a story that includes governmental intrigue, political pressures, bureaucratic input, military procedures, weapons systems, and so on. I sincerely appreciate all the effort that it takes.
I’ve not read any of the other books in this series, but I quite enjoyed Clancy’s taking me on this espionage/spy thriller adventure. There are so many parallels in the story to things in the headlines (or perhaps hidden in the interior pages) on a daily basis. The story really made me think about those entrusted with keeping us safe—their history, ideology, integrity—or lack thereof, experience—or lack thereof, qualifications—or lack thereof, and so on, and so on. . . . So, in the end, while I don’t generally tend toward horror stories, this one had a way of dishing up a bit of that as well.
I can only image how much research goes into creating a story that includes governmental intrigue, political pressures, bureaucratic input, military procedures, weapons systems, and so on. I sincerely appreciate all the effort that it takes.
I’ve not read any of the other books in this series, but I quite enjoyed Clancy’s taking me on this espionage/spy thriller adventure. There are so many parallels in the story to things in the headlines (or perhaps hidden in the interior pages) on a daily basis. The story really made me think about those entrusted with keeping us safe—their history, ideology, integrity—or lack thereof, experience—or lack thereof, qualifications—or lack thereof, and so on, and so on. . . . So, in the end, while I don’t generally tend toward horror stories, this one had a way of dishing up a bit of that as well.
June 2, 2024
I keep saying "I won't read another Tom Clancy book". It's usually when I'm about 150 pages into it and the book just slogs along. Characters and subplots are still being introduced, the main plot seems to be languishing, and the world of the story seems to keep getting worse and worse. "I've had it!" I cry and set the book down for several days at a time (notice how long it took for me to get through this one- about 1.5 months). Yet it sits there- calling to me. After several days I pick it up again. I keep slogging.
Finally, about 3/4 the way in the plot picks up and things start moving. All the back stories begin to make sense. It's still getting worse and worse- nut suddenly a crack in the novel opens up and I begin to see hope- maybe the good guys WILL triumph. The story then hurdles toward the end in a frenzy of activity and I can't put the book down.
That's the pattern for me and a Clancy novel. His books have ballooned in size and page count since his world breaking first novel "Hunt for Red October".
In this novel, John Clark's hand injury has sidelined his career into retirement. Jack Jr and the Campus boys find themselves fighting a mysterious foe- named Center. China goes back on the warpath- attempting to own not only Taiwan but the entire South China Sea. Wei and Su band together as leaders of the Chicoms to make this goal happen. How will it end??
Finally, about 3/4 the way in the plot picks up and things start moving. All the back stories begin to make sense. It's still getting worse and worse- nut suddenly a crack in the novel opens up and I begin to see hope- maybe the good guys WILL triumph. The story then hurdles toward the end in a frenzy of activity and I can't put the book down.
That's the pattern for me and a Clancy novel. His books have ballooned in size and page count since his world breaking first novel "Hunt for Red October".
In this novel, John Clark's hand injury has sidelined his career into retirement. Jack Jr and the Campus boys find themselves fighting a mysterious foe- named Center. China goes back on the warpath- attempting to own not only Taiwan but the entire South China Sea. Wei and Su band together as leaders of the Chicoms to make this goal happen. How will it end??
February 19, 2016
Ever since Tom Clancy moved his storyline from Jack Ryan, Sr. to Jack Ryan, Jr. and The Campus, his books have turned away from lots of military hardware and more towards cloak and dagger activities. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but there definitely has been a shift in the narrative.
Once again, John Clark, Domingo "Ding" Chavez, Jack Ryan, Jr., Dominic Caruso and the other members of The Campus get involved in a crisis which has global implications. I would say this is predominantly a spy v. spy novel, so don't let the aircraft silhouette on the cover fool you. The action comes quickly and continues right on until the end...although the ending seemed a little abrupt. Personally, I think a few of the storylines could have been stretched out for a few more pages, but that's just me nitpicking. Once I started reading this one, I found it very hard to put down--hope you feel the same way.
Once again, John Clark, Domingo "Ding" Chavez, Jack Ryan, Jr., Dominic Caruso and the other members of The Campus get involved in a crisis which has global implications. I would say this is predominantly a spy v. spy novel, so don't let the aircraft silhouette on the cover fool you. The action comes quickly and continues right on until the end...although the ending seemed a little abrupt. Personally, I think a few of the storylines could have been stretched out for a few more pages, but that's just me nitpicking. Once I started reading this one, I found it very hard to put down--hope you feel the same way.
May 13, 2022
Pretty good read, but 835 pages was too much!!
June 8, 2020
Today's News has relevance to the storyline:
https://news.yahoo.com/south-china-se...
https://news.yahoo.com/south-china-se...
February 2, 2013
I thoroughly enjoyed “Threat Vector” by Tom Clancy with Mark Greaney. This was one of the most enjoyable Tom Clancy novels I've read in a long time. While I enjoyed the getting back to the characters I'd come to like when “Dead or Alive” and “Locked On” came out, I felt this continuing story from those two was even more suspenseful, action packed and well paced. It started out with a bang and continued right to the very end. The 835 page novel could have gone on like it did for another 800 pages and I wouldn't have minded.
The story picks up not long after the events of “Locked On,” and all of the major players are back. President Jack Ryan, Jack Ryan, Jr. and the rest of the campus regulars John Clark, Domingo Chavez, Sam Driscoll and Dominic Caruso are all accounted for. Other familiar faces and of course new ones show up too.
There are twists, turns and surprises, and a technological threat that almost makes one not want to be connected to the world wide web any longer. I liked the mix of technology and old fashioned spy tactics and military action.
Some have criticized Tom Clancy and his newer novels that have been co-written with others, but I found “Threat Vector” to be up to speed and as enjoyable as many of his earlier works. Bottom line, it was a fun action tale. After reading this one, I'm hoping it is not the last we see of these characters we have enjoyed reading about for several decades now.
The story picks up not long after the events of “Locked On,” and all of the major players are back. President Jack Ryan, Jack Ryan, Jr. and the rest of the campus regulars John Clark, Domingo Chavez, Sam Driscoll and Dominic Caruso are all accounted for. Other familiar faces and of course new ones show up too.
There are twists, turns and surprises, and a technological threat that almost makes one not want to be connected to the world wide web any longer. I liked the mix of technology and old fashioned spy tactics and military action.
Some have criticized Tom Clancy and his newer novels that have been co-written with others, but I found “Threat Vector” to be up to speed and as enjoyable as many of his earlier works. Bottom line, it was a fun action tale. After reading this one, I'm hoping it is not the last we see of these characters we have enjoyed reading about for several decades now.
May 21, 2018
Threat Vector seemed to bring back some of Clancy's classic feel to it, as far as the writing style, whilst reading the descriptions of weapons and aircraft and yada yada, it felt like classic Tom Clancy all over again!!
The story picks up not long after the events in Locked On. Jack Ryan Sr. has just been sworn back into the Oval Office as President of the United States, and he and the US are already facing a new world threat. The Campus has been exposed and discovered, by an unknown enemy. At the same time, in China, President Wei Zhen Lin is facing political issues due to China's economy and being faced with being a political scrapegoat. He turns to his associate and colleague General Su Ke Qiang, commander of the Central Military Commission of China. Qiang is ordered to retake control of the South China Sea by military force and also retaking Hong Kong, Macau, and then Taiwan.
Now with The US and China on the brink of war, Ryan turns to the Campus. It is up to Jack Ryan Jr. John Clark, Ding Chavez, Dominic Caruso, and the rest of The Campus to face their most dangerous enemy yet, an enemy that knows about The Campus, and knows they can be destroyed.
Non-stop thrills and plenty of action throughout, great plot, and great setting! Awesome page-turner!!
The story picks up not long after the events in Locked On. Jack Ryan Sr. has just been sworn back into the Oval Office as President of the United States, and he and the US are already facing a new world threat. The Campus has been exposed and discovered, by an unknown enemy. At the same time, in China, President Wei Zhen Lin is facing political issues due to China's economy and being faced with being a political scrapegoat. He turns to his associate and colleague General Su Ke Qiang, commander of the Central Military Commission of China. Qiang is ordered to retake control of the South China Sea by military force and also retaking Hong Kong, Macau, and then Taiwan.
Now with The US and China on the brink of war, Ryan turns to the Campus. It is up to Jack Ryan Jr. John Clark, Ding Chavez, Dominic Caruso, and the rest of The Campus to face their most dangerous enemy yet, an enemy that knows about The Campus, and knows they can be destroyed.
Non-stop thrills and plenty of action throughout, great plot, and great setting! Awesome page-turner!!
December 8, 2012
This is really quite an engrossing read by Tom Clancy which focuses on international cyber infiltration and espionage promoted by China, a country bent on hacking into industrial and governmental computer systems for profit and power. China's desire to bring the South China Sea (SCS) under its control presents a real threat to Jack Ryan, now President of the United States. His son, Jack Jr., now 27, has followed in his father's footsteps and is an analyst and operations agent in a para-CIA organziation. On the trail of the "black hat hackers", Jr. proves every bit as adept as his father in keeping our great nation safe from foreign intrusion. Clancy never ceases to amaze at his apparent familiarity of sci-technical terminology (in this novel, computers and hacking). While at times the plot is bit convenient, still it is plausible and the book for me was great fun. Beward of some rough language.
December 10, 2012
Tom Clancy and his assistant writer Mark Greaney have delivered a whopping 700 plus pages of a modern good guys as in USA and bad guys as in China political thriller which is as engaging as usual. Clancy has been consistently landing thrillers like Threat Vector into our laps for a couple of decades now and this one doesn't miss a beat. His longtime character now President Jack Ryan takes a bit of a back seat this time as Jack Junior in his role as a roving agent for the "private" organisation called Campus. Junior's feet don't often touch the ground as their missions become more and more critical with the US on the brink of all out war from China. Cue in the other Campus sleuths Domingo Chavez, Sam Caruso and the supposedly retired John Clark fighting a mysterious high calibre cyber-terrorist known as Centre. The stakes are high and so is the body count and the pace that Clancy's storyline generates. Yes, its punch drunk easy reading but it does the trick for me.
December 12, 2012
An outstanding book. I learned alot about China and cyber warfare.
March 1, 2013
Enjoyed very much! A real page turner! Good thing because there are a lot of pages to turn.
April 22, 2022
the story line wasn’t bad, once you got into it. so around chapter 30 (out of 80). what’s disappointing is that it took so long to get into it because there were SO MANY unnecessary details. if given the opportunity to edit this book, i could probably cut it in half.
June 20, 2025
This was a tough one to get through.
At 835 pages, 'Threat Vector' is a brick of a book that rivals other Clancy novels like 'Rainbow Six', 'Executive Orders', and 'The Bear and The Dragon'. And with its exorbitant length, it begs the question; does any book really require such a high page count? My purely subjective answer is no.
In 'Threat Vector', economics and politics combine to push China's leadership to take desperate action. The People's Republic wants hegemony over the South China Sea and the island nation of Taiwan (shades of 'Tempest of Fire'). President Jack Ryan and the sub rosa group he's set up—The Campus—must pull out all the stops to ensure the peace and squelch the nefarious goals of a host of bad actors that include a black hat computer espionage cell, a bloodthirsty Chinese military officer and the armed forces of the People's Republic of China.
Given the technological capabilities of Beijing, the task is daunting.
All the elements of a Tom Clancy novel are there, but for me 'Threat Vector' just doesn't deliver. Clancy's name is stacked on two lines atop the cover, but it's clear that thriller author Mark Greaney (The Gray Man) shoulders the writing chores in this installment of the Jack Ryan series. Clancy died in 2013; 'Threat Vector' was published in 2012. In recent years, a flurry of various names have popped up in association with established authors like Clive Cussler, Vince Flynn, and, of course, Tom Clancy (I suspect that this trend has more to do with continuing the stream of revenue for publishers than satisfying the demand of readers).
That being said, Clancy' signature style is absent. This book didn't draw me in the same way 'The Hunt for Red October' or 'Without Remorse' did. The fluid prose I've come to expect from a Clancy novel is replaced by a more clunky flow that never fully engaged my interest, and devoting the time necessary to finish the book left me disappointed.
That's not to say that Greaney doesn't have skill; clearly anyone who can spin a yarn of this length and keep multiple characters and sub-plots straight has great ability as a writer. Mark Greaney has degrees in international relations and political science and has done his research. But filling Clancy's considerable shoes is tough, and if you're attempting to carry on his legacy you've definitely got your work cut out for you. In that circumstance a writer is faced with a couple of choices; mimic the original author's style (difficult but not impossible); improve on that author's style (again, a tough role); or simply stay true to your own mode of expression. In my own humble opinion, Greaney has done the latter, and for this Tom Clancy fan, that just wasn't enough.
For complexity I give it three stars; for the enjoyment factor I rate 'Threat Vector' at two, and maybe give author Mark Greaney another look; next time, one of his novels outside the Jack Ryan universe.
At 835 pages, 'Threat Vector' is a brick of a book that rivals other Clancy novels like 'Rainbow Six', 'Executive Orders', and 'The Bear and The Dragon'. And with its exorbitant length, it begs the question; does any book really require such a high page count? My purely subjective answer is no.
In 'Threat Vector', economics and politics combine to push China's leadership to take desperate action. The People's Republic wants hegemony over the South China Sea and the island nation of Taiwan (shades of 'Tempest of Fire'). President Jack Ryan and the sub rosa group he's set up—The Campus—must pull out all the stops to ensure the peace and squelch the nefarious goals of a host of bad actors that include a black hat computer espionage cell, a bloodthirsty Chinese military officer and the armed forces of the People's Republic of China.
Given the technological capabilities of Beijing, the task is daunting.
All the elements of a Tom Clancy novel are there, but for me 'Threat Vector' just doesn't deliver. Clancy's name is stacked on two lines atop the cover, but it's clear that thriller author Mark Greaney (The Gray Man) shoulders the writing chores in this installment of the Jack Ryan series. Clancy died in 2013; 'Threat Vector' was published in 2012. In recent years, a flurry of various names have popped up in association with established authors like Clive Cussler, Vince Flynn, and, of course, Tom Clancy (I suspect that this trend has more to do with continuing the stream of revenue for publishers than satisfying the demand of readers).
That being said, Clancy' signature style is absent. This book didn't draw me in the same way 'The Hunt for Red October' or 'Without Remorse' did. The fluid prose I've come to expect from a Clancy novel is replaced by a more clunky flow that never fully engaged my interest, and devoting the time necessary to finish the book left me disappointed.
That's not to say that Greaney doesn't have skill; clearly anyone who can spin a yarn of this length and keep multiple characters and sub-plots straight has great ability as a writer. Mark Greaney has degrees in international relations and political science and has done his research. But filling Clancy's considerable shoes is tough, and if you're attempting to carry on his legacy you've definitely got your work cut out for you. In that circumstance a writer is faced with a couple of choices; mimic the original author's style (difficult but not impossible); improve on that author's style (again, a tough role); or simply stay true to your own mode of expression. In my own humble opinion, Greaney has done the latter, and for this Tom Clancy fan, that just wasn't enough.
For complexity I give it three stars; for the enjoyment factor I rate 'Threat Vector' at two, and maybe give author Mark Greaney another look; next time, one of his novels outside the Jack Ryan universe.
May 17, 2017
This is the first Clancy book I've read that had a co-author, in this case Mark Greaney.
I thought many aspects of the plot were implausible and unrealistic. There are basic technical/factual errors regarding different weapons systems and tactics, which is surprising given that Clancy wouldn't make those kinds of errors. It makes me wonder if his involvement was minimal. My comments will probably include spoilers, so...
An organization like Center could not be as pervasive and powerful as depicted. It takes time to process camera feeds and other information. They wouldn't be able to know where someone was at all times, and they wouldn't be able to hack any municipal camera system they wanted. Moreover, the video quality would be too hazy or distant to track people reliably -- a person would only occasionally be close enough to be clear.
The premise that the son of the President of the United States would be an assassin / special ops person is ridiculous. Can you imagine the consequences of the President's son being arrested for murder/contract killing in a foreign city? And operations like the Istanbul operation are dumb -- why would they take so many risks just for vengeance? There's no way they'd be able to kill several people at the same time -- reality doesn't work like that, things go wrong, it's a complicated and unpredictable place. For the President's son to take that risk, to assassinate people in an allied country, when those people are just minor nobodies left over from Libyan intelligence -- that's just insane. It's almost as though he just likes to go around killing people.
Also, Navy SEALs, in this case DEVGRU, do not conduct civilian snatch operations in Hong Kong. They would never send a SEAL team to go in undercover dressed as civilians in HK, getting involved in firefights in the middle of a major, peaceful, allied city, to apprehend an escaped computer hacker. Are you kidding me? SEALs? When's the last time you heard of SEALs getting bogged down in a firefight in Tokyo, Singapore, or Paris?
On the attack on the Chinese target was very odd. They would never, ever send a bunch of aging F/A-18Cs on an attack into mainland China. It's the most confusing aspect of the book. We have stealth aircraft. We have the B-2, the F-22, and other aircraft. If you're going to attack a target in well-defended airspace, you simply couldn't use F/A-18s. That would be a decision to fail to hit the target and to just kill the pilots, because they would all be shot down. None of this made any sense.
I thought many aspects of the plot were implausible and unrealistic. There are basic technical/factual errors regarding different weapons systems and tactics, which is surprising given that Clancy wouldn't make those kinds of errors. It makes me wonder if his involvement was minimal. My comments will probably include spoilers, so...
An organization like Center could not be as pervasive and powerful as depicted. It takes time to process camera feeds and other information. They wouldn't be able to know where someone was at all times, and they wouldn't be able to hack any municipal camera system they wanted. Moreover, the video quality would be too hazy or distant to track people reliably -- a person would only occasionally be close enough to be clear.
The premise that the son of the President of the United States would be an assassin / special ops person is ridiculous. Can you imagine the consequences of the President's son being arrested for murder/contract killing in a foreign city? And operations like the Istanbul operation are dumb -- why would they take so many risks just for vengeance? There's no way they'd be able to kill several people at the same time -- reality doesn't work like that, things go wrong, it's a complicated and unpredictable place. For the President's son to take that risk, to assassinate people in an allied country, when those people are just minor nobodies left over from Libyan intelligence -- that's just insane. It's almost as though he just likes to go around killing people.
Also, Navy SEALs, in this case DEVGRU, do not conduct civilian snatch operations in Hong Kong. They would never send a SEAL team to go in undercover dressed as civilians in HK, getting involved in firefights in the middle of a major, peaceful, allied city, to apprehend an escaped computer hacker. Are you kidding me? SEALs? When's the last time you heard of SEALs getting bogged down in a firefight in Tokyo, Singapore, or Paris?
On the attack on the Chinese target was very odd. They would never, ever send a bunch of aging F/A-18Cs on an attack into mainland China. It's the most confusing aspect of the book. We have stealth aircraft. We have the B-2, the F-22, and other aircraft. If you're going to attack a target in well-defended airspace, you simply couldn't use F/A-18s. That would be a decision to fail to hit the target and to just kill the pilots, because they would all be shot down. None of this made any sense.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 29, 2020
Following the superb "Locked On," the all-time high point of the Tom Clancy literary universe continues with Threat Vector, once more written with Mark Greaney. This is also, to date, the best cyberwarfare thriller and one of the best thrillers centered around China.
Most notably, the book also features The Campus's most dangerous and lethal adversary, an extremely proficient and capable Chinese espionage cell code named the Ghost Ship. Consisting of the country's best hackers and backed up by a team of special ops assassins who run the kinetic ops, with connections to the Triads and Russian Mafiya, the Ghost Ship is ostensibly a private organization like The Campus that has no official connection to the Chinese government. When a politically weak Chinese president is forced to go along with a warmongering general's plan to seize Taiwan and the South China Sea, the Ghost Ship is at the front of efforts to sabotage the US response through a series of non-attributable cyber attacks.
The book revolves mostly around The Campus's covert battle against the Ghost Ship, waged from Turkey to Hong Kong and China and inside the US, but also includes subplots with President Ryan and the White House confronting the Chinese diplomatically and responding to the growing crisis, and air and naval battles in the South China Sea, most notably involving US Marine pilots flying Taiwanese fighter jets.
As one would expect, the book gets very technical with details about computers, hacking, and cyber attacks, but not overly so. The subject matter is put into layman's terms and really simple to follow. Certainly not nearly as technical as earlier Clancy descriptions of nuclear bomb production or Ebola.
Complex and tightly plotted, the 800 pages are engrossing and fly by quickly. Definitely superior in so many ways to Clancy's very dated "The Bear and the Dragon."
One thing that stood out, though. The Ghost Ship has compromised The Campus and identifies Jack Ryan JR as a Campus operative and the President's son, but the Chinese do nothing with this information and do not leak it to cause political chaos and scandal inside the US or to blackmail President Ryan? Ahh who cares. Clancy's books are supremely realistic in certain aspects, but let's be real, in glaring aspects, they also stretch credulity a lot, and when a series centers around a sitting POTUS's son working for a covert, black ops intelligence organization, suspension of disbelief is a given.
Most notably, the book also features The Campus's most dangerous and lethal adversary, an extremely proficient and capable Chinese espionage cell code named the Ghost Ship. Consisting of the country's best hackers and backed up by a team of special ops assassins who run the kinetic ops, with connections to the Triads and Russian Mafiya, the Ghost Ship is ostensibly a private organization like The Campus that has no official connection to the Chinese government. When a politically weak Chinese president is forced to go along with a warmongering general's plan to seize Taiwan and the South China Sea, the Ghost Ship is at the front of efforts to sabotage the US response through a series of non-attributable cyber attacks.
The book revolves mostly around The Campus's covert battle against the Ghost Ship, waged from Turkey to Hong Kong and China and inside the US, but also includes subplots with President Ryan and the White House confronting the Chinese diplomatically and responding to the growing crisis, and air and naval battles in the South China Sea, most notably involving US Marine pilots flying Taiwanese fighter jets.
As one would expect, the book gets very technical with details about computers, hacking, and cyber attacks, but not overly so. The subject matter is put into layman's terms and really simple to follow. Certainly not nearly as technical as earlier Clancy descriptions of nuclear bomb production or Ebola.
Complex and tightly plotted, the 800 pages are engrossing and fly by quickly. Definitely superior in so many ways to Clancy's very dated "The Bear and the Dragon."
One thing that stood out, though. The Ghost Ship has compromised The Campus and identifies Jack Ryan JR as a Campus operative and the President's son, but the Chinese do nothing with this information and do not leak it to cause political chaos and scandal inside the US or to blackmail President Ryan? Ahh who cares. Clancy's books are supremely realistic in certain aspects, but let's be real, in glaring aspects, they also stretch credulity a lot, and when a series centers around a sitting POTUS's son working for a covert, black ops intelligence organization, suspension of disbelief is a given.
March 19, 2013
Clancy remains the king of 'Murica prose. Anything our heroes do, even if explicitly prohibited by the Constitution, laws, and common sense, is fine if it done in our Nation's Best Interest.
Here's how he (or his ghost writer) must write a book:
- gather lots of acronyms.
- assemble many scary facts about how our enemies can hurt us.
- get lists of darned huge guns and warships
- list out almost-all-male character "types" and assign them to a team - big jawed beefs are 'Murican, skinny little drunks go on the other team. Have two or three people that could go on either team for tension.
- push the first domino and watch them react in present time to each crisis. And the Ryans always win.
I have only headline-knowledge about China vs. Taiwan and a fairly good (but outdated) understanding of computer security, so I won't give my opinions about these subjects. However, I do know a lot about being a woman and once again Tom Clancy proves his ignorance about us. He gives us several chapters about how Jr's girlfriend is easily compromised into putting tracking software on Jr's phone. She is a CIA agent with an excellent working relationship to her powerful boss. I doubt someone so psychologically weak would be hired by the CIA. Look to "Covert Affairs" for some female agents who can manage the bad guys without breaking a nail. Annie would be in Joan's office figuring out how to take out the agents trying to turn her within the same afternoon.
The second female character flaw is with the wife of the 65-year-old Clark who just retired because his injured hand can no longer pull a trigger. Chapters about how he will do physical therapy, learn to shoot left handed, and how he was giving up his life-long (only) career and daily contact with friends to live on a FARM with his family. As a long time wife of a spy, would you let him go practice shooting alone, feeling obviously depressed? Heck no. She'd know she was about to become a widow and demand he go with someone or lock up the weapons.
So the book is your basic rollicking romp. All loose ends sewn up tidy. 'Murica continues baking apple pies and playing football (in this case baseball).
Meh.
Here's how he (or his ghost writer) must write a book:
- gather lots of acronyms.
- assemble many scary facts about how our enemies can hurt us.
- get lists of darned huge guns and warships
- list out almost-all-male character "types" and assign them to a team - big jawed beefs are 'Murican, skinny little drunks go on the other team. Have two or three people that could go on either team for tension.
- push the first domino and watch them react in present time to each crisis. And the Ryans always win.
I have only headline-knowledge about China vs. Taiwan and a fairly good (but outdated) understanding of computer security, so I won't give my opinions about these subjects. However, I do know a lot about being a woman and once again Tom Clancy proves his ignorance about us. He gives us several chapters about how Jr's girlfriend is easily compromised into putting tracking software on Jr's phone. She is a CIA agent with an excellent working relationship to her powerful boss. I doubt someone so psychologically weak would be hired by the CIA. Look to "Covert Affairs" for some female agents who can manage the bad guys without breaking a nail. Annie would be in Joan's office figuring out how to take out the agents trying to turn her within the same afternoon.
The second female character flaw is with the wife of the 65-year-old Clark who just retired because his injured hand can no longer pull a trigger. Chapters about how he will do physical therapy, learn to shoot left handed, and how he was giving up his life-long (only) career and daily contact with friends to live on a FARM with his family. As a long time wife of a spy, would you let him go practice shooting alone, feeling obviously depressed? Heck no. She'd know she was about to become a widow and demand he go with someone or lock up the weapons.
So the book is your basic rollicking romp. All loose ends sewn up tidy. 'Murica continues baking apple pies and playing football (in this case baseball).
Meh.
September 15, 2014
This is (as noted parenthetically beside the title) a Jack Ryan Jr. book. I began reading Tom Clancy's books years (and years) ago. I remember President Reagan carrying one under his arm as he got off Air Force 1 and a reporter calling out to him to ask how he liked it. He said it was, "a pretty good yarn".
Tom Clancy passed away in 2013. This book was written in 2012 as a collaboration between Mr. Clancy and another of my favorite authors Mark Greaney. I don't know how much of the writing each did. That said this is a good read, or as President Reagan might have said..."a good yarn".
I noticed that the later of Mr. Clancy's novels tended to get longer. they had more detail and took a lot longer building up their story and getting started. I don't know exactly why this happens, I've seen it in the works of other successful authors. Whatever the cause it continues at least to a certain extend here. With a continuing subplot that reaches into the personal lives of our participants and then effects how they perform in the world shaking matters they seem to deal with on a regular basis...well there are people you'll like, people you'll dislike (or frankly detest) and people you'll feel sorry for.
Here again we're in T.Clancy's alternate universe where Jack Ryan Sr. is president and his son (J.R.Jr. cute huh?) works for The Campus a "secret, off the books, black ops, non-government controlled super spy/paramilitary agency that of course routinely saves us all as we sleep innocent and unknowing in our beds...
You get the idea. Fun for all.
And it is. While as I say the book takes a while to get up to speed, when it does we get the thrill ride, the suspense and the action. I can recommend this one as I can the other books by both authors. Enjoy.
Tom Clancy passed away in 2013. This book was written in 2012 as a collaboration between Mr. Clancy and another of my favorite authors Mark Greaney. I don't know how much of the writing each did. That said this is a good read, or as President Reagan might have said..."a good yarn".
I noticed that the later of Mr. Clancy's novels tended to get longer. they had more detail and took a lot longer building up their story and getting started. I don't know exactly why this happens, I've seen it in the works of other successful authors. Whatever the cause it continues at least to a certain extend here. With a continuing subplot that reaches into the personal lives of our participants and then effects how they perform in the world shaking matters they seem to deal with on a regular basis...well there are people you'll like, people you'll dislike (or frankly detest) and people you'll feel sorry for.
Here again we're in T.Clancy's alternate universe where Jack Ryan Sr. is president and his son (J.R.Jr. cute huh?) works for The Campus a "secret, off the books, black ops, non-government controlled super spy/paramilitary agency that of course routinely saves us all as we sleep innocent and unknowing in our beds...
You get the idea. Fun for all.
And it is. While as I say the book takes a while to get up to speed, when it does we get the thrill ride, the suspense and the action. I can recommend this one as I can the other books by both authors. Enjoy.
August 25, 2025
4.5 stars
Tom Clancy has never really done it for me. His books are historically impressive, sure, but the guy could write three pages on a light switch and still not make me care. Mark Greaney, on the other hand is an absolute legend as far as I’m concerned. His Gray Man series is one of my all-time favorites, and I’ve torn through everything else he’s published. After finishing two of the other Clancy/Greaney team-ups, Threat Vector was the obvious next move.
And yes—this book is pure proof of why Greaney was the perfect partner for Clancy. While the core idea screams classic Clancy (geopolitics, cyber warfare, Jack Ryan’s world hanging by a thread), Greaney’s fingerprints are all over this thing. The writing is tighter, the pacing smoother, and the over-descriptive fluff Clancy was notorious is whittled down to a much more tolerable level. It’s still a big book, but it actually feels readable instead of like homework.
The characters—Jack Ryan, Ding, and the rest of the gang—are still the same names Clancy fans know, but Greaney injects life into them. They feel human, not just chess pieces in some global strategy game. And the action? Pure Greaney magic. We’re talking dogfights over the streets of Taiwan, motorcade ambushes, a shootout in a strip club, and plenty of smaller, punchy moments scattered throughout. It’s the kind of sharp, kinetic action Greaney excels at. If you’ve read even one of the Gray Man books, you know exactly what I mean.
So Why not a full 5 stars? Length. My large print edition clocked in at 973 pages. That’s insane. Greaney did his best to trim the fat, but there were still stretches where I thought, “This could have been 150-200 pages shorter and lost nothing”. It never fully dragged, but it flirted with bloated territory a few times…enough so that I did stop to read a few graphic novels inbetween starting and finishing.
All that said, this was a fantastic read; it’s thrilling, immersive, and a perfect blend of Clancy’s high-stakes worldbuilding and Greaney’s punchy, modern style. If you’re like me and waiting for the next Gray Man in 2026, the Jack Ryan series under Greaney’s pen is the perfect fix
Tom Clancy has never really done it for me. His books are historically impressive, sure, but the guy could write three pages on a light switch and still not make me care. Mark Greaney, on the other hand is an absolute legend as far as I’m concerned. His Gray Man series is one of my all-time favorites, and I’ve torn through everything else he’s published. After finishing two of the other Clancy/Greaney team-ups, Threat Vector was the obvious next move.
And yes—this book is pure proof of why Greaney was the perfect partner for Clancy. While the core idea screams classic Clancy (geopolitics, cyber warfare, Jack Ryan’s world hanging by a thread), Greaney’s fingerprints are all over this thing. The writing is tighter, the pacing smoother, and the over-descriptive fluff Clancy was notorious is whittled down to a much more tolerable level. It’s still a big book, but it actually feels readable instead of like homework.
The characters—Jack Ryan, Ding, and the rest of the gang—are still the same names Clancy fans know, but Greaney injects life into them. They feel human, not just chess pieces in some global strategy game. And the action? Pure Greaney magic. We’re talking dogfights over the streets of Taiwan, motorcade ambushes, a shootout in a strip club, and plenty of smaller, punchy moments scattered throughout. It’s the kind of sharp, kinetic action Greaney excels at. If you’ve read even one of the Gray Man books, you know exactly what I mean.
So Why not a full 5 stars? Length. My large print edition clocked in at 973 pages. That’s insane. Greaney did his best to trim the fat, but there were still stretches where I thought, “This could have been 150-200 pages shorter and lost nothing”. It never fully dragged, but it flirted with bloated territory a few times…enough so that I did stop to read a few graphic novels inbetween starting and finishing.
All that said, this was a fantastic read; it’s thrilling, immersive, and a perfect blend of Clancy’s high-stakes worldbuilding and Greaney’s punchy, modern style. If you’re like me and waiting for the next Gray Man in 2026, the Jack Ryan series under Greaney’s pen is the perfect fix
July 13, 2023
Solid bok, stark början som sätter allt i spel och eftersom i boken börjar fler och fler bitar falla på plats. Karaktärerna är väldigt trovärdiga, (dock han som läser upp på storytel fucking slaktar kinesiskt uttal).
Ändå mycket som händer inom Jack Ryan universumet i och med att John Clark går i pension ur fältet eftersom hans hand blev milkshake i förra boken och att Granger typ dog. Värt att nämna att mycket händer eftersom i de senare böckerna är det inte ett garanterat faktum.
Nice att Gavin Beary faktiskt har en roll tack vare cyberkrigsföring så han inte bara är IT killen som är ursäkten till att kollegiet kan göra IT grejer
Center och hans operation störtades dock lite skumt, han blir alltså doxxad till kollegiet, vet om att han blivit det och stannar då kvar över 12 timmar på det stället?? Knas
Avslutet var nästan lite fort gjort, sa flickan. De dödar den onda kinesen, sticker hem och så var det klart. Epilogen reder ut lite saker som inte avslutades på de 850 sidor delade in i 76 kapitel.
Bra bok dock, äkta Clancy vara
Ändå mycket som händer inom Jack Ryan universumet i och med att John Clark går i pension ur fältet eftersom hans hand blev milkshake i förra boken och att Granger typ dog. Värt att nämna att mycket händer eftersom i de senare böckerna är det inte ett garanterat faktum.
Nice att Gavin Beary faktiskt har en roll tack vare cyberkrigsföring så han inte bara är IT killen som är ursäkten till att kollegiet kan göra IT grejer
Center och hans operation störtades dock lite skumt, han blir alltså doxxad till kollegiet, vet om att han blivit det och stannar då kvar över 12 timmar på det stället?? Knas
Avslutet var nästan lite fort gjort, sa flickan. De dödar den onda kinesen, sticker hem och så var det klart. Epilogen reder ut lite saker som inte avslutades på de 850 sidor delade in i 76 kapitel.
Bra bok dock, äkta Clancy vara
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 15, 2020
Another good Tom Clancy novel... but not as good as the immediate preceding book "Locked On".
WHY IT APPEALED TO MY SENSIBILITIES:
1) China is the main antagonist
2) China carries out fatal attacks on Indian Navy ships (the real aircraft carrier INS Viraat is named) and threatens India, but India does not back off
3) CIA, NSA, US Navy and US Marine Corps are involved
THE NEGATIVES:
1) The novel is too long, like Locked On
2) Too many characters, many with similar names, so it is often confusing
3) Author uses first name and last name (or vice versa) of the same character in consecutive sentences very often
4) Two of the three main antagonists (villains) are killed too easily
WHY IT APPEALED TO MY SENSIBILITIES:
1) China is the main antagonist
2) China carries out fatal attacks on Indian Navy ships (the real aircraft carrier INS Viraat is named) and threatens India, but India does not back off
3) CIA, NSA, US Navy and US Marine Corps are involved
THE NEGATIVES:
1) The novel is too long, like Locked On
2) Too many characters, many with similar names, so it is often confusing
3) Author uses first name and last name (or vice versa) of the same character in consecutive sentences very often
4) Two of the three main antagonists (villains) are killed too easily
September 17, 2015
Threat Vector is the fourth book in the Campus books starring Jack Ryan Junior. For those unfamiliar with the series, the series takes place in the same universe as the majority of Tom Clancy's work, starring the son of his CIA-analyst-turned-President hero, Jack Ryan (Senior). Masquerading as a member of an innocuous brokerage firm, Jack Ryan (Junior) conducts assassinations of terrorists and other off-the-books missions with his cousins as well as several friends of his dad. This is all made legal by the power of a number of blank pardons issued by his father before he left office during his first term as President.
*pause*
Remember when Tom Clancy's books were paragons of accuracy and realism?
Yeah.
All kidding aside, I enjoy the Campus series as a delightfully off-kilter spy series about a bunch of heroic do-gooers against EVIL terrorists. It's a series you can turn your brain off for and still enjoy the lengthy descriptions of actions, locals, and likable protagonists. Tom Clancy novels are an acquired taste of jingoistic movie action fiction which don't attempt to aspire to anything higher than being really fun contemporary spy fantasies--and I'm okay with that. The right-wing preaching is actually considerably toned down from Dead or Alive and Locked Down, perhaps because Jack Ryan is now President of the United States and all is well in the world.
The premise is the Chinese government is going bankrupt. Decades of expansion are about to lead to a devastating retraction and its current President is desperate to avoid a coup by his enemies using trumped-up charges. Allying with the military, he discovers they intend to force him to go to war in order to secure Tawain. Meanwhile, the Campus is under surveillance by a new and powerful enemy in Center.
Possessing computer hacks into much of the United States' infrastructure, Center is capable of inflicting devastating damage and have a network of coerced operatives across the globe. Faced with a foe able to uncover their true identities and operations, the Campus' leadership must decide whether or not it will proceed given the risks to its operational security. Jack Ryan Junior is unaware his girlfriend Melanie is spying for the FBI while all this goes down, the young woman being blackmailed into serving as an operative for an unscrupulous agent.
The treatment of China is of an oppressive communist dictatorship seething with resentment against America as well as possessing a personal desire to destroy President Ryan. This is not unexpected given past treatment of them in The Bear and the Dragon but may put off some readers. Tom Clancy makes notes to include dissidents, Asian heroes, and Asian American agents to show he's not racist but his anti-People's Republic of China slant is on every page.
Computer hacking is handled in a manner which is both amusing as well as informative. The authors clearly want to use the right kind of lingo and technical jargon but it comes off as a somewhat silly at times. Still, A for effort. I was reminded of the original Splinter Cell game due to Georgia (the nation, not the state) crippling the United States with the use of computer hacking techniques but if a plot is good, it shouldn't be shied away from.
The villains, as always, are mwah-ha-ha evil with the Chinese antagonists including a warmongering psychopath as well as his sociopathic computer hacker terrorist leader subordinate. They have the man who tortured John Clark in Locked On and a child-pornography-loving creepy FBI agent assisting them as well. That's in addition to their henchmen in the form of Libyan secret police, Russian mafia toughs, and a Hong Kong Triad.
If you're looking for moral ambiguity or villains with convictions, this is not the place to find it. I disliked the treatment of character Melanie Kraft this time around as I was quite pleased to have another strong female character in the books. Here, she's reduced to a weak puppet of her FBI handler and a horrifying secret is introduced to make her more pliable to the villains. I was hoping she'd find some way to extirpate herself from the problem by the end but, sadly, that falls to Jack Ryan Junior.
The action in the book is, as always, highly entertaining and I enjoyed the various twists and turns throughout the book. As much as I disliked the retcon to Melanie Kraft's character, I enjoyed her dealing with the shame and unease she has about her father's treason. It's just a shame this is a quality that's unforgivable for her but would have been overlooked for any of Tom's male heroes. After all, they've all done things which are highly illegal and threatening to national security.
I like Center and his henchmen as a set of villains even if I find the idea of a computer terrorist organization working for the PRC hiding with the Triads ludicrous (even if they lampshade how ludicrous it is--it's still ludicrous). There's also a well-written subplot about John Clark struggling with his decision to retire despite the fact, it turns out, it's not as fun as he'd imagined.
In conclusion, Threat Vector is a fun spy fiction adventure weighed down by the portrayal of the Chinese government as well as its outdated techno-jargon. I also disliked the treatment of Melanie Kraft, a character I really came to like in Locked On. The book is still enjoyable, though, mostly for the action and entertaining characters.
7/10
*pause*
Remember when Tom Clancy's books were paragons of accuracy and realism?
Yeah.
All kidding aside, I enjoy the Campus series as a delightfully off-kilter spy series about a bunch of heroic do-gooers against EVIL terrorists. It's a series you can turn your brain off for and still enjoy the lengthy descriptions of actions, locals, and likable protagonists. Tom Clancy novels are an acquired taste of jingoistic movie action fiction which don't attempt to aspire to anything higher than being really fun contemporary spy fantasies--and I'm okay with that. The right-wing preaching is actually considerably toned down from Dead or Alive and Locked Down, perhaps because Jack Ryan is now President of the United States and all is well in the world.
The premise is the Chinese government is going bankrupt. Decades of expansion are about to lead to a devastating retraction and its current President is desperate to avoid a coup by his enemies using trumped-up charges. Allying with the military, he discovers they intend to force him to go to war in order to secure Tawain. Meanwhile, the Campus is under surveillance by a new and powerful enemy in Center.
Possessing computer hacks into much of the United States' infrastructure, Center is capable of inflicting devastating damage and have a network of coerced operatives across the globe. Faced with a foe able to uncover their true identities and operations, the Campus' leadership must decide whether or not it will proceed given the risks to its operational security. Jack Ryan Junior is unaware his girlfriend Melanie is spying for the FBI while all this goes down, the young woman being blackmailed into serving as an operative for an unscrupulous agent.
The treatment of China is of an oppressive communist dictatorship seething with resentment against America as well as possessing a personal desire to destroy President Ryan. This is not unexpected given past treatment of them in The Bear and the Dragon but may put off some readers. Tom Clancy makes notes to include dissidents, Asian heroes, and Asian American agents to show he's not racist but his anti-People's Republic of China slant is on every page.
Computer hacking is handled in a manner which is both amusing as well as informative. The authors clearly want to use the right kind of lingo and technical jargon but it comes off as a somewhat silly at times. Still, A for effort. I was reminded of the original Splinter Cell game due to Georgia (the nation, not the state) crippling the United States with the use of computer hacking techniques but if a plot is good, it shouldn't be shied away from.
The villains, as always, are mwah-ha-ha evil with the Chinese antagonists including a warmongering psychopath as well as his sociopathic computer hacker terrorist leader subordinate. They have the man who tortured John Clark in Locked On and a child-pornography-loving creepy FBI agent assisting them as well. That's in addition to their henchmen in the form of Libyan secret police, Russian mafia toughs, and a Hong Kong Triad.
If you're looking for moral ambiguity or villains with convictions, this is not the place to find it. I disliked the treatment of character Melanie Kraft this time around as I was quite pleased to have another strong female character in the books. Here, she's reduced to a weak puppet of her FBI handler and a horrifying secret is introduced to make her more pliable to the villains. I was hoping she'd find some way to extirpate herself from the problem by the end but, sadly, that falls to Jack Ryan Junior.
The action in the book is, as always, highly entertaining and I enjoyed the various twists and turns throughout the book. As much as I disliked the retcon to Melanie Kraft's character, I enjoyed her dealing with the shame and unease she has about her father's treason. It's just a shame this is a quality that's unforgivable for her but would have been overlooked for any of Tom's male heroes. After all, they've all done things which are highly illegal and threatening to national security.
I like Center and his henchmen as a set of villains even if I find the idea of a computer terrorist organization working for the PRC hiding with the Triads ludicrous (even if they lampshade how ludicrous it is--it's still ludicrous). There's also a well-written subplot about John Clark struggling with his decision to retire despite the fact, it turns out, it's not as fun as he'd imagined.
In conclusion, Threat Vector is a fun spy fiction adventure weighed down by the portrayal of the Chinese government as well as its outdated techno-jargon. I also disliked the treatment of Melanie Kraft, a character I really came to like in Locked On. The book is still enjoyable, though, mostly for the action and entertaining characters.
7/10
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