Any fans of Tom Clancy?

[ericthecleric]

If so, what's Threat Vector like?
The last book of his I bought was The Teeth of the Tiger, and I found it disappointing.

Also, the following info from his Wikipedia page:

Spoiler:

Red Rabbit (2002)In the early 1980s, CIA analyst Ryan aids in the defection of a Soviet officer who knows of a plan to assassinate Pope John Paul II.The Teeth of the Tiger (2003)Jack Ryan's son, Jack Ryan, Jr., becomes an intelligence analyst, and then a field consultant, for The Campus, an off-the-books intelligence agency with the freedom to discreetly assassinate individuals "who threaten national security", following the end of the Jack Ryan Sr. presidential administration. This book of the Jack Ryan series by Tom Clancy introduces Ryan's son and two nephews as heirs to his spook-legacy.Dead or Alive (2010, with Grant Blackwood)The story picks up where The Teeth of the Tiger left off with Jack Ryan, Jr. and The Campus trying to catch a terrorist known as "The Emir".Against All Enemies (2011, with Peter Telep)A terrorist bombing in Pakistan wipes out Max Moore’s entire CIA team. As the only survivor, the former Navy SEAL plunges deeper into the treacherous tribal lands to find the terrorist cell, but what he discovers there leads him to a much darker conspiracy in an unexpected part of the globe — the United States/Mexico border.Locked On (Dec 2011, with Mark Greaney)While Jack Ryan Jr. trains to become a field operative within The Campus, his father campaigns for re-election as President of the United States. A devout enemy of Jack Sr. launches a privately funded vendetta to discredit him, while a corrupt Pakistani general has entered into a deadly pact with a fanatical terrorist to procure nuclear warheads.Search and Destroy (July 2012, with Peter Telep) (Cancelled)Threat Vector (Dec 2012, with Mark Greaney)Jack Ryan has only just moved back into the Oval Office when he is faced with a new international threat. An aborted coup in the People's Republic of China has left President Wei Zhen Lin with no choice but to agree with the expansionist policies of General Su Ke Quiang. They have declared the South China Sea a protectorate and are planning an invasion of Taiwan. The Ryan administration is determined to thwart China’s ambitions, but the stakes are dangerously high as a new breed of powerful Chinese anti-ship missiles endanger the US Navy's plans to protect the island. Meanwhile, Chinese cyber warfare experts have launched a devastating attack on American infrastructure.

Indicated that several of his last few books were co-written. Has he been unwell or something?

[Vic Wertz]

I stopped paying attention in the mid-'90s, when his name started appearing on piles of crappy books that he apparently had little to do with.

[Brian E. Harris]

Yeah, that whole "co-written" bit really isn't all that much co-written.

Clancy has loaned his name out to a bunch of different folks, and there's very little Clancy past the name on the cover.

It's an easy way to make a buck without having to exert much (if any) effort.

People are far more likely to buy a "Tom Clancy & Wilbur Ferguson" novel than "Wilbur Ferguson" alone.

I notice this is an increasing trend with a number of authors.

[_Cobalt_]

I haven't read much of him. Hunt for the Red October, one that falls in the category that Vic mentioned.

He's okay, not my favorite. But if I see another one of his books at a bookstore for cheap, I'll think about picking it up. But, I'm also a bibliophile and just like the way books look, so yeah.

[Peter Stewart]

I was a big fan of Clancy, but primarily only the Ryanverse stuff. The exception is Red Storm Rising which is still one of my favorite books of all time - and perhaps the best book about 'modern' warfare ever written.

I read him right up through Teeth of the Tiger, and even bought into Dead or Alive, but I can't stand the new crap that is being published under his name. As others noted, it's a disturbing trend (that started for the most part with James Patterson) that produces crap work with the name of an established author in it. I thought Dead or Alive was so bad that I didn't touch anything thereafter. I think he really hit is high mark with Debt of Honor and Executive Orders, and everything thereafter has been a falling action right into the trash can.

[Midnighter]

I stopped reading Clancy after his smug little interview on CNN the morning of 9/11/2001.

[Haladir]

I liked Red Storm Rising, The Hunt For Red October, and Patriot Games. I think they went rapidly downhill after that. His portrayal of female characters is just awful: he definitely has a "madonna/whore" complex going on. His female characters are either beatific or evil... Mostly evil. (e.g. Ryan's wife is knockout gorgeous, an ophthalmologist with 'dainty little fingers,' and went into that field of medicine because she didn't want to lose patients. She's also almost completely subservient to him. Terrible character.)

Jack Ryan essentially ascends to godhood over the course of the Ryanverse novels, and in later books he basically becomes Clancy's mouthpiece for boilerplate neo-conservative politics. It's lazy writing. And the later books are way too long: his editors gave him far too long a leash because he got so popular.

I wanted to like his later books, but I can't really recommend any after Patriot Games.

[Matt_Scudder]

One of the reasons I was fond of the books written by those ex-SAS guys, like Andy McNab; they tended to have a more Pogo-esque view of the world.

For folks who want something similar to Clancy, I suggest the following:

Devil's Keep by Philip Finch
Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp (the basis for Die Hard)
The Detachment by Barry Eisler (or any of the Rain series)

I think Clive Cussler was the first fella who I noticed did the co-authorship thing, but I now think there are authors who simply have their books ghostwritten. I've been reading John Sandford's Davenport series for 25 years, and there's no way someone else hasn't written the last two or three while Sandford (or Camp) writes the Flowers series.