Author Bookshelf From Stellar Books and Things 
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Tom Clancy 
 
 
 Literary Specialty: Bombers, tanks, and submarines-- the military thriller    
 The Score: 14 books, including 9 bestsellers    
 Date of Birth: 1947    
 Place of Birth: Baltimore, Maryland    
 Education: Graduate of Loyola College, Baltimore    
 Humble Beginnings: He started his career as an insurance broker.    
 Family Ties: Wife Wanda; son Tom; three daughters, Michelle, Christine, and Kathleen    
 His Parents: His father was a mailman and his mother was a department store employee.    
 Where He Lives: In a five-bedroom home in Calvert County, Maryland. (He also owns an 80-acre farm on Chesapeake Bay.)    
 Praise From High Places: Tom Clancy's first novel got the ultimate seal of approval when, in 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan called The Hunt for Red October a "perfect yarn." 
BIBLIOGRAPHY  
Rainbow Six (1998)   
Submarine (1997)   
Armored Cav (1997)   
Fighter Wing (1997)   
Marine (1997)   
SSN (1997)   
Into the Storm (1997)   
Executive Orders (1996)   
Debt of Honor (1994)   
Without Remorse (1993)   
Sum of All Fears (1991)  
Clear and Present Danger (1989)   
The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988)   
Patriot Games (1987)   
Red Storm Rising (1986)   
The Hunt for Red October (1984)  


 Written with Steve Pieczenik  
Op-Center series  
 
Airborne : A Guided Tour of an Airborne Task Force  Representing the very best from the Army and Air Force, the Airborne Task Force is a formidable combination of manpower and firepower. Now, Tom Clancy examines this elite branch of our nation's armed forces. With pinpoint accuracy and a style more compelling than any fiction, the acclaimed author of Executive Orders delivers a fascinating account of the Airborne juggernaut - the people, the technology, and Airborne's mission in an ever-changing world. Airborne includes two Tom Clancy "mini-novels" - real world scenarios involving the Airborne Task Force; Airborne's weapons of the twenty-first century, including the Javelin anti-tank missile, the hypersonic LOSAT fire support system, and the Comanche Stealth Helicopter; Eighteen weeks: Life in an Airborne Alert Brigade; exclusive photographs, illustrations, and diagrams; plus an in-depth interview with the incoming commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, General John M. Keane.
Armored Cav : A Guided Tour of an Armored Cavalry Regiment  With the same compelling, you-are-there immediacy of his acclaimed fiction, Tom Clancy provides detailed descriptions of tanks, helicopters, artillery, and more--the brilliant technology behind the U. S. Army. He captures military life--from the drama of combat to the daily routine--with total accuracy, and reveals the roles and missions that have in recent years distinguished our fighting forces.  
The Cardinal of the Kremlin  Tom Clancy takes readers inside Soviet and American attempts to develop a Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). The Soviets have begun successful tests of their system, located near the border of Afghanistan. Americans race to implement their system, Tea Clipper, to maintain strategic parity. 
 Cardinal of the Kremlin, however, is more about the shifting allegiances of the intelligence community and the unstable world of late 1980s U.S.-Soviet relations than it is about military technology. Colonel Mikhail Filitov is the Cardinal, the CIA's ear in the Kremlin and a steady source of the latest Soviet secrets. Passing microfilm through a chain of agents that begins in a Turkish bath, the Cardinal exposes a double agent in the American SDI program. Unfortunately, the KGB also knows that they have a mole in their midst. In tightly crafted narrative that rapidly cuts from the Kremlin to Afghanistan to Washington, D.C., the Americans rush to pull Filitov and his associates out before his cover is blown. Jack Ryan returns as the moral center in a world often dominated by egos and politicking, and John Clark, ex-Navy SEAL and current CIA agent makes his first appearance in a Clancy novel.
Clear and Present Danger  CIA man Jack Ryan, hero of Patriot Games, finds that he will probably never have a boring summer: The sudden and surprising assassination of three American officials in Colombia. Many people in many places, moving off on missions they all mistakenly thought they understood. The future was too fearful for contemplation, and beyond the expected finish lines were things that, once decided, were better left unseen. Tom Clancy's thriller is based on America's war on drugs... and the covert--and shocking--U.S. response. 
Debt of Honor  Razio Yamata is one of Japan's most influential industrialists, and part of a relatively small group of authority who wield tremendous authority in the Pacific Rim's economic powerhouse. He has devised a plan to cripple the American greatness, humble the U.S. military, and elevate Japan to a position of dominance on the world stage. Yamata's motivation lies in his desire to pay off a Debt of Honor to his parents and to the country he feels is responsible for their deaths: America. All he needs is a catalyst to set his plan in motion. When the faulty gas tank on one Tennessee family's car leads to their fiery death, an opportunistic U.S. congressman uses the occasion to rush a new trade law through the system. The law is designed to squeeze Japan economically. Instead, it provides Yamata with the leverage he needs to put his plan into action. As Yamata's plan begins to unfold, it becomes clear to the world that someone is launching a fully integrated operation against the United States. There's only one man to find out who the culprit is: Jack Ryan, the new president's National Security Advisor. 
Executive Orders   Tom Clancy goes to the White House in this thriller of political terror and global disaster. The American political situation takes a disturbing turn as the President, Congress, and Supreme Court are obliterated when a Japanese terrorist lands a 747 on the Capitol. Meanwhile the Iranians are unleashing an Ebola virus threat on the country. Jack Ryan, CIA agent, is cast in the middle of this maelstrom. Because of a recent sex scandal, Ryan was appointed vice president, a slot he doesn't hold for long when he lands in the Chief Executive's chair. He goes after the Iranians and then tries to piece together the country and his life the only way he knows how--with a fury that we've grown accustomed to in Clancy's intricate, detailed, and accurate stories of warfare and intrigue. 
Fighter Wing : A Guided Tour of an Air Force Combat Wing  Now, for the first time, an insider's look at an Air Force combat wing--the planes, the technology, and the people--with Tom Clancy as your guide. Tom Clancy's previous explorations of America's armed forces, Submarine and Armored Cav, revealed exclusive, never-before-seen information an the people and technology that protect our nation. Now, the acclaimed author of takes to the skies with the U.S. Air Force's elite: the Fighter Wing.   
 With his compelling style and unerring eye for detail, Clancy captures the thrill of takeoff, the drama of the dogfight, and the relentless dangers our fighter pilots face every day of their lives, showing readers what it really means to be the best of the best. 
The Hunt for Red October  Somewhere under the Atlantic, a Soviet sub commander has just made a fateful decision: the Red October is heading west. The Americans want her. The Russians want her back. And the most incredible chase in history is on.... 
 The Hunt for Red October is the runaway bestseller that launched Tom Clancy's phenomenal career. A military thriller so accurate and convincing that the author was rumored to have been debriefed by the White House. Its theme: the greatest espionage coup in history. Its story: the chase for a runaway top secret Russian missile sub. 
Into the Storm : A Study in Command   This Tom Clancy book on  the military-industrial complex focuses on the Army--and Fred Franks, a general who helped smash Iraq in the Gulf War. In this first volume of a series on the intricacies of military command, Clancy traces the organizational success story of the U.S. Army's rise from the slough of Vietnam to the heights of victory in the Persian Gulf. In 1972, the Army lacked proper discipline, training, weapons, and doctrine; all these would be overhauled in the next 15 years. For those readers keen on such nuts and bolts, the book will be fascinating. But the book truly sparkles when Franks tells his story. A "tanker" who lost a foot in the invasion of Cambodia, he is a man of great courage, thoughtfulness, and integrity. One cannot help but wince when a civilian tells him, "You and those boys did that for nothing." And for all the acronyms and military history, that is what this book is about: healing the wounds Vietnam inflicted. "But this time [the Gulf War], it was going to end differently. They all would see to that." 
Marine : A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit  Marine takes an in-depth look at the United States Marine Corps--in the New York Times best-selling tradition of Submarine, Armored Cav, and Fighter Wing--including an interview with the Commander of the Marine Corps, General Charles "Chuck" Krulak, an examination of recruitment and training, and more. Exclusive photos, illustrations & diagrams. 
Patriot Games  Jack Ryan is back  to fight in his deadliest battle yet.  
From England to Ireland to America, an explosive wave of violence sweeps a CIA analyst and his family into the deadliest game of our time: international terrorism. An ultra-left-wing faction fo the IRA has targeted the CIA man for his act of salvation in an assasination attempt. And now he must pay ... with his life.  
  
 
Rainbow Six   Morally centered, disciplined, humble yet powerful, Jack Ryan (and his onscreen incarnations in Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford) has made Tom Clancy one of the most popular writers in the world. But as Clancy has constructed the Ryan mythology, he has quietly established Ryan's shadow double, John Clark. Appearing in The Cardinal of the Kremlin, Clear and Present Danger, and Without Remorse, Clark has many of Jack Ryan's most appealing traits, but he is also a darker figure embodying the more paranoid sensibilities of the late '90s. As is made clear from the opening pages of Rainbow Six, ex-Navy SEAL Clark and his colleagues believe violent, deadly force to be the best deterrent for terrorism.  
 Clark (a.k.a. Rainbow Six) has left the CIA to create an England-based organization code-named "Rainbow." Its mission: deploy an elite squad of American operatives combined with handpicked British, French, and German agents to stop terrorism in its tracks. Rainbow's emergence could not be more timely: in quick succession, the force diffuses three attempted terrorist actions. But Clark becomes suspicious when Russian agents suddenly show interest in Rainbow's work. 
 Rainbow Six appeals on all the levels that Clancy fans could hope for. The Rainbow operatives, from Navy SEALs to German mountain-leader school graduates, are rendered to inspire with their physical and mental prowess. The book is infatuated with the latest gadgets for scrambling, transmitting, and decoding secrets. And, in a carefully woven narrative that simultaneously traces the Rainbow team, a former KGB agent named Popov, the Australian Olympic security team, and a sinister group of American scientists, Clancy artfully reveals the mystery of "Shiva" at the center of the novel. How does Clark measure up against Jack Ryan? He may be the perfect hero for a world with hidden villains. 
Red Storm Rising   Using the latest advancements in military technology, the world's superpowers battle it out on land, sea, and air for the ultimate global control. A chillingly authentic vision of modern war, Red Storm Rising is as powerful as it is ambitious. It's a story you will never forget. 
 Hard-hitting, suspenseful, and frighteningly real. 
SSN    Based on the interactive CD-ROM developed by Tom Clancy, in this multi-cast, multimedia audio, the listener is thrust into the world of the USS Cheyenne--the Navy's newest and most sophisticated Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarine--as it heads toward a tense confrontation with China. 
SSN : Strategies of Submarine Warfare     China has invaded the oil-rich Spratly Islands. The American response has been swift and deadly, resulting in the start of World War III. SSN: Strategies of Submarine Warfare presents 15 thrilling scenarios--fact-based mission profiles for Captain Bartholomew Mackenzie and the crew of the nuclear submarine the U.S.S. Cheyenne--stirring plots and characters, perfectly accurate details, and the chilling knowledge that these events could really happen. 
Submarine : A Guided Tour Inside a Nuclear Warship  Never before seen by the general public: a rare glimpse inside a Los Angeles-class (SSN-688) nuclear submarine ... with Tom Clancy as your guide. Only the author of The Hunt for Red October could capture the reality of life aboard a nuclear submarine. Only a writer of Mr. Clancy's magnitude could obtain security clearance for information, diagrams, and photographs never before available to the public. Now, for the first time, every civilian can enter this top secret world and experience the drama and excitement of this stunning technological achievement.... the weapons, the procedures, the people themselves... the startling facts behind the fiction that made Tom Clancy a #1 bestseller. 
Submarine includes: 
   Exclusive photographs, illustration, and diagrams  
   Mock war scenarios and weapons launch procedures  
   An inside look at life on board, from captain to crew, from training exercises to operations  
   The fascinating history and evolution of submarines 
The Sum of All Fears  Once again, Tom Clancy manages to add new twists to the alternate U.S. history he initiated in The Hunt for Red October. In The Sum of All Fears, the center of conflict is the perpetual hot spot the Mideast, where a nuclear weapon falls into the hands of terrorists just as peace seems possible. Clancy realistically paints an almost unthinkable scenario--the bomb is planted on American soil in the midst of an escalation in tension with the Soviet Union; the terrorists hope to rekindle cold war animosity and prevent reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. 
 Despite such a dramatic story line, Clancy doesn't neglect the individuals who drive his tale. Jack Ryan's problems are as much domestic as they are part of the international crisis that is the ostensible narrative: National Security Director Elizabeth Elliot has the president's ear, and she has convinced him that Ryan's ethics are questionable. She hints at marital infidelity and an insider-trading scandal. Of course, both accusations are false, but her arguments have enough evidence behind them (e.g. some photographs of an innocent embrace with a friend) to cause a strain in the Ryans' marriage and a flurry of media attention. While "Mr. Clark" tracks the terrorists, he also provides some needed intelligence to heal the Ryan family.  
 The Sum of All Fears is the stuff of nightmares but contains enough verisimilitude to terrify sober minds. Ryan has matured into a complex protagonist as Clancy's writing, too, has matured. Ryan is plagued by stress and self-doubts that test even his dauntless moral compass and make him a more interesting subject for readers' attention. Those fascinated by military hardware, from nuclear submarines to atomic weapons, will find almost enough here to start their own army. And Clancy's understanding of international politics seems chillingly correct.
Without Remorse   Expanding the universe of Jack Ryan and his colleagues, Without Remorse tracks the early career of John "The Invisible Man" Kelly, the ex-Navy SEAL who will become the shadowy John Clark in Clancy's other novels. Kelly is a highly decorated hero and a masterful soldier, diver, and sailor. But during the first Nixon administration, he suffers two tragedies that transform him into ruthless vigilante: his pregnant wife is killed in a freak accident, and Pam, the woman he turns to in his pain, is murdered. Motivated by revenge, Kelly systematically kills the drug-dealing pimps who had so brutalized Pam and her friends. At the same time, James Greer and others at the CIA recruit Kelly for covert operations in Vietnam. 
 While most of Clancy's oeuvre celebrates high-tech gadgets and clear-cut battles of good versus evil, Without Remorse focuses more on the character, struggles, and motivations of its hero. Kelly's status is always ambiguous, reflecting the uncertainties of the Vietnam era, and Clancy resists the temptation of making him into a puritan. From the start, he holds secrets from even his loved ones (he won't tell Pam the origin of his SEAL tattoo, for example). While he is a killer, he believes he has justification for each death, and the CIA is more interested in his deadly talents than his criminal record. 
 For Clancy fans, the insights into the early history of Clark, Greer, and others build a sense of realism and depth into the Jack Ryan series. As Kelly becomes Clark, Clancy underscores the somber sense of resignation and despair that underlies much of the book: "He was working for the Agency now, so Clark was his name. It made it easier somehow." Yet, in the darkness of this moment, one can't help but reflect on what Clark and his CIA will become. It's like watching Batman donning his cape for the very first time. 
 
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