Eric Plume’s Reviews > The Hunt for Red October > Status Update

I love how Clancy describes his Russian characters. They're competent, cynical about their government, nihilistic in a way but still loyal to the system they serve - even as they privately acknowledge that said system is totally broken.

I can imagine a 21st century US soldier/sailor in a similar position feeling about the same way.

Reading this 20 years later is definitely interesting.

Another fact Older Me is noticing; while Clancy is very fond of info-dumps and uses them regularly, he is very good at A: flowing from the story to the dump, B: making the dump interesting, and most importantly C: putting some good authorial connective tissue from the dump back to the story.

A lot of authors don't know how to do that and it shows.

Tom Clancy knows how to write a proper engineering disaster. Like, as someone who has watched one happen how he writes them are how they happen. I'm even more impressed than I once was.

Still as riveting as I remember.

I forgot how evocative Clancy's writing could be, especially when characters are ruminating on their lives and motivations.