Dead or Alive [Hardcover]

"For my iniquities have gone over my head;
Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
My wounds are foul and festering
Because of my foolishness." -- Psalm 38:4-5 (NKJV)

Dead or Alive pits the Emir and his global terror network against the United States, with only the hope that the secret group, The Campus, can act in time to avoid horror. If that plot sounds familiar, you've read some variation on it several times in the last decade by other authors. What's different here? Authors Tom Clancy and Grant Blackwood work in the major surviving characters from the earlier Jack Ryan novels. Although the names are familiar and friendly to the memory, the characters themselves are more similar in name than in reality. So if you think you are going to enjoy a vintage Jack Ryan thriller, think again.

If that puts you off, realize that you'll be disappointed if you are looking for the old zing in this series. It's just not there. You'll probably grade the book as one or two stars, as a poor imitation of "the prior characters and stories."

If you can put that feeling aside and focus on the book itself, it's about a two-and-a-half star effort that's mainly marred by taking forever to develop over the 950 pages in my edition. The strength of the slow development is that your curiosity will grow about what the terror plot involves, but I doubt if you'll be intrigued. If you enjoy learning how to run a terror network over the Internet, the book becomes a little more interesting. If you want to gain a little paranoia about American vulnerability to terrorists, the book is decent in that regard.

The test for me with such a "thriller" is whether I can put it down in the middle for a few days and feel relaxed about not knowing what's coming next. I did such laying aside with no problem.

The book opens on a high point, as an Army Ranger team strikes into the cave network along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border seeking to capture a potentially high-value terror suspect. They come across something quite unsuspected, which begins to slowly reveal a mystery in motion. Terror cells are described in action, moving towards undefined objectives with great remorselessness. Treasure those parts of the book. What's coming isn't nearly as fast-paced and interesting.

What's the nicest thing I can say about the book? It's definitely better than The Bear and The Dragon.

What's the worst thing I can say? The Kindle version is overpriced.

Should you read it? You'll probably enjoy the trip if your expectations aren't set by the best of the prior Jack Ryan books.

In the 90's Clancy was huge, his books were huge and it seemed he could do no wrong. It was probably wrong to think such a srata of books would remain contemporary forever.

For many, Clancy went off the boil and in some cases the later books were poor by his standards. This new novel, co-written by someone I confes i have never heard of, is moving that quality line back towards where it once was. OK, so it's not Clear & Present Danger or Executive Orders, but it is better than some of the later offerings.

In places, you might be able to spot the Clancy chapters and this makes the book a little patchy but the characters are old friends and the plot in well put together. At 600+ pages it is a 'shorter' Clancy, but the fact that I finished this in under a week means it held my interest and was clearly a good read.

I will keep this one short. I was expecting big things from this book but found myself struggling to keep going by the third chapter. I still can't quite put my finger on what it is that's wrong with it. The storyline seems solid enough but, for me personally, it just doesn't seem to flow.

I have stopped reading about 1/2 of the way through (for now) and whether I pick it up again remains to be seen. If you are a devout fan then I suppose it may be OK but, if like me you like some of the previous stuff and are thinking about getting it - it's maybe not the best idea. Again, I reiterate - this is my personal experience of it.