I was on vacation and read in the paper that Tom Clancy had died.  In the article the author raved about Clancy's first novel, Hunt For Red October. Thus, I downoaded it on kindle to read.  Well it's 2 weeks later, and I've finished 80% of the book and will not go on.  My chief complaint is Clancy does not make it clear--several, several times--who is speaking the dialogue.  I had to constantly re-read to figure it out--if I could.  To fix this, the novel really could have used several re-writes.  To further confuse the reader, Clancy tries to impress with SO many different characters with SO many different military titles, and SO many military technology terms, and with SO many different plot angles going on at the same time mostly leaves the reader scratching their head.  As another reviewer pointed out, there is virtually no character development that would have provided the reader with interest. The characters are flat. Maybe back in the cold war days, the story involving the Americans and Russians would have been more interesting.  To his credit, Clancy must have done a LOT of research to include so much in one book.  As a first novel, it is a valiant effort but in my opinion falls short and would not recommend.
I was on vacation and read in the paper that Tom Clancy had died. In the article the author raved about Clancy's first novel, Hunt For Red October. Thus, I downoaded it on kindle to read. Well it's 2 weeks later, and I've finished 80% of the book and will not go on. My chief complaint is Clancy does not make it clear--several, several times--who is speaking the dialogue. I had to constantly re-read to figure it out--if I could. To fix this, the novel really could have used several re-writes. To further confuse the reader, Clancy tries to impress with SO many different characters with SO many different military titles, and SO many military technology terms, and with SO many different plot angles going on at the same time mostly leaves the reader scratching their head. As another reviewer pointed out, there is virtually no character development that would have provided the reader with interest. The characters are flat. Maybe back in the cold war days, the story involving the Americans and Russians would have been more interesting. To his credit, Clancy must have done a LOT of research to include so much in one book. As a first novel, it is a valiant effort but in my opinion falls short and would not recommend.