There have been many reviews of this novel. If you like the genre it is worth the read. If you still hope for leadership with common sense you will enjoy the story; although after you finish, you will be let down by the reality of today's political figures and press. If you lean to the left with your political views and believe in big government entitlement you may want to skip this book as it could cause a issue of faith.

Executive Orders is the beginning of Tom Clancy's downward spiral. It is a book that suffers from lack of an editor and clumsily written plotlines that go nowhere. That said, the patented Clancy formula is still well executed here, plenty of edge-of -your- seat action, a complicated plot, and the trademark military detail will keep you reading until the end. This is the last of his books which hard-core Clancy fans will enjoy. Take it from me, the rest are almost unreadable.

This is one of his best. Drags at times but overall very very excellent writing.

Tom Clancy's suggestion how to fix the American political system: have a terrorist kill the president, the whole cabinet, the supreme court, and every member of the house and senate; then let hero Jack Ryan, shortly before sworn in as Vice President, rebuild the system by reminding common folk of their civic duty and summoning them to government posts.

And then there are the bad guys. Masterminded by the evil Ayatollah Daryaei, Iran invades Iraq and plots to take over Saudi Arabia. To distract President Ryan, Daryaei not only attempts to kidnap his daughter but also releases an ebola plague in the United States and instigates a military conflict in the Taiwan strait. Oh, and not to mention a band of American anarchists who want to assassinate Jack Ryan.

The real problem of the book? Nothing ever happens. Clancy gets so tangled up in his various plots (which, to be fair, he handles mostly well throughout the book) that the action only really begins after 800 of the novel's thousand pages. I assume his editor set him this limit, otherwise the story may well have run up to twice that. In fact, the book is so hurriedly wrapped up that the two would-be assassins merely fail because they are stopped by a random traffic cop.

All in all, Tom Clancy put too much on his plate this time. Had a good editor removed at least half of the subplots, the story might actually have come out well; Clancy's talent for pulsating build-ups and charged action scenes is still there. As it is, though, the reader has to invest far too much time to get to the juice to make it worth his wile.

This is also one of Tom Clancy's better books, it follows on the heals of Debt of Honor. I think that Debt of Honor and Executive Order should be read back to back. As the ending of Debt of Honor is continued into Executive Order.

The plot is a very plausible one, since the invasion of Iraq and the execution of Saddam. The fear that Iran could enter into Iraq and unite it with their own country, due to the large Shia population within Iraq. Tom Clancy shows once again his foresight into a possible scenario.

The other interesting co-incidence is the lawsuit against Ryan as President of the United States, which to a degree reflected the 2000 election, this book was published in 1998, and the execution of Saddam and war in the middle east. In some ways Jack Ryan was a foreshadow of GWB and the events that would surround his presidency.