Book Review: The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
Captain First Rank Marko Ramius has in a way been preparing for this moment his entire life. He’s spent decades building an exemplary reputation as a submarine officer and commander, and training a cadre of officers who are more loyal to him than to the country. His last reason for remaining in his homeland gone, Captain Ramius is in an excellent position to exploit the opportunity he’s been given by taking command of the Soviet Union’s latest stealth nuclear submarine. All it will take is one little murder to send the Red October on a cruise its makers never intended.
This was Tom Clancy’s first published novel, and all these years later, the first Tom Clancy book I’ve read. And yet it felt so familiar. Turns out I’ve been reading a lot of writers who copped Clancy’s writing style. Usually badly.
Between chapters about Captain Ramius faking orders to head to Cuba and sabotaging the radiation badges to make it look like the reactor’s sprung a leak, we check in with other characters, the most important of which is Jack Ryan. An independently wealthy Marine officer (disabled from service) and history writer, Jack’s also an analyst for the CIA. This gets him called in to look at pictures of the Red October, and then consulted when the Soviet Navy begins behaving oddly.
Eventually, Jack is the only person available to get aboard the Red October to coordinate Captain Ramius’ defection. But his job is by no means done!
Good: Tom Clancy is much better at writing in a Tom Clancy style than most of his imitators. The switching between various characters is done well, and helps build tension. There are some genuinely thrilling moments, especially when Captain Ramius is the focus. Good use is made of the 1980s advanced technology.
Less good: The American patriotism is piled on thick, with the Soviet Union’s system being condemned at every turn while flaws in the United States’ political and social systems are confined to one Senator not understanding the CIA’s need for secrecy. The one black person in the story is there basically to declare “Racism? In America? Totally over.”
Jack Ryan comes across as much of a muchness; he’s overall less interesting than Captain Ramius as a protagonist, but guess who gets to be the star of all the sequels?
Also notable: In the 1980s, the U.S. Navy and I am guessing the CIA were much more of a male preserve, and that’s carried into this book. Mrs. Ryan is described in glowing terms, but is completely irrelevant and off camera. The one woman who gets a short important role is a honey trap and is shuffled off screen as soon as this is revealed.
Overall: A competent techno-thriller that came along at just the right moment. Worth reading once, I have no interest in the protagonist beyond this story.
Oh, and there was a movie with a stirring theme song:
