RIP Tom Clancy

[SpeedTchr]

My goodness, if you thought Clancy's novels were incoherent, you have to be brain-damaged in some way. Some of the easiest-to-read things I ever bought. Of course, I could just be a simpleton.

 

[Bubbler]

In his honor, I did a Crazy Ivan with my car on my drive home.

 

[Armchair_QB]

In his honor, I did a Crazy Ivan with my car on my drive home.

I hid a suitcase nuke in a Coke machine.

 

[Bubbler]

In his honor, I did a Crazy Ivan with my car on my drive home.

I hid a suitcase nuke in a Coke machine.

I shot Sam Neill before he ever got to see Montana.

 

[Armchair_QB]

In his honor, I did a Crazy Ivan with my car on my drive home.

I hid a suitcase nuke in a Coke machine.

I shot Sam Neill before he ever got to see Montana.

I ran Ann Archer off the road.

 

[DanOregon]

"This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it."

 

[Alma]

My goodness, if you thought Clancy's novels were incoherent, you have to be brain-damaged in some way. Some of the easiest-to-read things I ever bought. Of course, I could just be a simpleton.

They're not incoherent. They were, after some point boring and unusually anchored in needless detail.

 

[Boom_70]

My goodness, if you thought Clancy's novels were incoherent, you have to be brain-damaged in some way. Some of the easiest-to-read things I ever bought. Of course, I could just be a simpleton.

They're not incoherent. They were, after some point boring and unusually anchored in needless detail.

It's popular among elite thinkers to disavow Clancy. I find it hard to read John Le Carre books. Can't make it 2 pages into Joyce.

 

[da man]

In his honor, I did a Crazy Ivan with my car on my drive home.

I hid a suitcase nuke in a Coke machine.

I shot Sam Neill before he ever got to see Montana.

I ran Ann Archer off the road.

Is that a euphemism?

 

[da man]

So Hemingway and Clancy have something in common. Not everyone gets them.

And neither has been in my kitchen.

 

[Liut]

Clear and Present Danger is the only one I've read and I enjoyed it. RIP.

BTW, Bubbler, your Crazy Ivan line would have driven me off the road had I been behind a wheel. Good stuff. ;D

 

[Football_Bat]

I read all his books up until "The Sum of All Fears." After that he started his serialized stuff and I wasn't drawn to those.

He was a pretty good storyteller, though not in Stephen King's orbit.

RIP.

 

[Versatile]

Clear and Present Danger is the only one I've read and I enjoyed it. RIP.

BTW, Bubbler, your Crazy Ivan line would have driven me off the road had I been behind a wheel. Good stuff. ;D

Don't read the Internet while driving.

 

[JR]

My goodness, if you thought Clancy's novels were incoherent, you have to be brain-damaged in some way. Some of the easiest-to-read things I ever bought. Of course, I could just be a simpleton.

Easy-to-read has nothing to do with, you know, ability to write.

There are dozens of authors who are popular but can barely produce a coherent sentence

I tried to read Clancy but his writing was so godawful that I couldn't keep going. It was absolute torture.

A little google on his **** is like shooting fish in a barrel

Here's horrible sentence # 1

“‘Fighter weather,’ agreed Lieutenant Colonel Bill Jeffers, commander of the 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, the “Black Knights,” most of whose F-15 Eagle interceptors were sitting in the open a bare hundred yards away.”

Can you get anything clumsier?

Or this:

“If the Soviets kicked off the war that seemed to be springing from the ground like a new volcano, Kaflavik was as ready as it could be.”

Volcano? Huh?

As a former poster used to say, "Inches from actual English"

The only two worst writers I can think of are Dan Brown and the Uber awful Ayn Rand

 

[Gold]

I read the first Tom Clancy book... I think it was the Hunt for Red October. Some people told me how exciting it was, so I read it. Halfway thru the book, no excitement. Parts of it read like a technical manual. Three-quarters of it, still no excitement. Like an idiot, I read it to the end.

JR, I agree with you about Dan Brown and Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand might have an excuse because she is talking about philosophy rather than writing and English was not her first language. Dan Brown's DaVinci Code was a bit absurd. It had a lot of facts wrong about the Catholic Church. I'm talking about basic facts. Granted it is fiction, but when you make easy mistakes, it shows you don't know what you are talking about. The only reason I read it was because some high officials in the Catholic Church were so upset about it. They should have told people if they read it, it would count for forgiveness in confession.

 

[SpeedTchr]

My goodness, if you thought Clancy's novels were incoherent, you have to be brain-damaged in some way. Some of the easiest-to-read things I ever bought. Of course, I could just be a simpleton.

Easy-to-read has nothing to do with, you know, ability to write.

There are dozens of authors who are popular but can barely produce a coherent sentence

I tried to read Clancy but his writing was so godawful that I couldn't keep going. It was absolute torture.

A little google on his **** is like shooting fish in a barrel

Here's horrible sentence # 1

“‘Fighter weather,’ agreed Lieutenant Colonel Bill Jeffers, commander of the 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, the “Black Knights,” most of whose F-15 Eagle interceptors were sitting in the open a bare hundred yards away.”

Can you get anything clumsier?

Or this:

“If the Soviets kicked off the war that seemed to be springing from the ground like a new volcano, Kaflavik was as ready as it could be.”

Volcano? Huh?

As a former poster used to say, "Inches from actual English"

The only two worst writers I can think of are Dan Brown and the Uber awful Ayn Rand

Nicole Cushing would probably appreciate a lil credit where credit is due, JR.

That being said, if you name a couple of your favorite writers, it is likely I would think they are ****e.

Different strokes, and yours are almost certainly more highbrow than mine.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Interesting WaPo piece about how Clancy got his first novel published:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/tom-clancys-longshot-path-to-techno-thriller-superstardom/2013/10/02/4371ef92-2b77-11e3-97a3-ff2758228523_story.html