Patriot Games » (~)

Known for originating the techno-thriller genre, Tom Clancy writes complex novels dense with hardware and international intrigue. Perhaps the strongest indication of his power as a writer is the fact that he is often treated by the media like a character in one of his books, asked for opinions about military readiness and the subject of rumors about being debriefed by the Pentagon. Not bad for a former salesman who was rejected for service because of bad eyesight.

Tom Clancy's Patriot Games is filled with the exceptional realism and authenticity that distinguished the author's two previous bestsellers, Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising. Patriot Games puts us on the cutting edge of another type of war — the international battle of terrorism.

Years before the defection of a Soviet submarine will send him hurtling into confrontation with the Soviets in Red October, Jack Ryan, historian, ex-marine, and CIA analyst, is vacationing in London when the Ulster Liberation Army makes a terrorist attack on the Prince and Princess of Wales. By instinctively diving forward to break up the attack, he gains both the gratitude of a nation and the hatred of its most dangerous men. Jack Ryan must summon all of the skills and knowledge at his command to battle back against his nemesis.

Patriot Games is a major new film from Paramount starring Harrison Ford.

Two Casettes.

Publishers Weekly

Introduced in The Hunt for Red October, Jack Ryan, the naval historian who freelances for the CIA, returns in this novel, in which Clancy demonstrates once again that he is a master of a genre he seems to have createdthe technico-military thriller. On a visit with his wife and daughter in London, Ryan stumbles onto an attempt by a new Irish revolutionary group to kidnap the Prince and Princess of Wales and their eldest son. Using his Marine Corps training, Ryan saves the royals (which leads to several visits between the Ryans and the residents of Buckingham Palace), but Ryan becomes the target of the surviving terrorists. Many familiar elements of the Clancy style are evident here: a fascination with machines and systems and procedures; thin characters; idealization of the soldier's life (``the discipline and the essential toughness that makes them different''); sarcastic humor; and a discordant sentimentality about family life. There are also some unintended ironies, particularly Clancy's praise of the CIA and the Marines, considering recent news from Washington and Moscow. Nonetheless, Clancy spins a marvelously tense yarn that will appeal to his legion of fans. First serial rights to Penthouse; Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, Military Book Club, Reader's Digest Condensed Books selections. (August 7)