This is classic Tom Clancy and worth returning to again and again. The only flaw in the Kindle edition are the typos. It appears that this book was OCR to convert it to an electronic form. Still this minor annoyance does not detract from a fun read.

I watched the movie for this one when I was younger and I read the novel for it a few years ago. This novel is different from his others, this one does not focus on Russia or the middle east, but on Ireland and the war between Northern Ireland and the UK.

Ryan gets caught up in the war, when he saves the life of an English Lord, who is the target of an Irish separatist group. The plot thickens when this group decides to go after Ryan, here in the US.

This is a straightforward action novel, and Clancy does an excellent job! Read the book and watch the movie!

This is still my favorite Clancy book ever. It's the most personal Jack Ryan story and is very, very emotional (and thus very gripping) for that reason. The only time I've ever cheered at a novel was while reading this! This book has much less technical and military minutiae than any of his other books and I actually prefered that. If I want all the specs on a pistol or mortar round, I'll look it up in a Jane's.

There are other stylistic differences and some have speculated that Clancy was playing with the character internally and giving him more depth. I've always felt like that 'Patriot Games' was his "real" first Ryan novel - actually written (or at least sketched out) before 'The Hunt for Red October.' It precedes that book 'chronologically' and its basic plot is mentioned in 'Red October'.

I read the book first and while I love 90% of the film version of 'Patriot Games', the book is better to me. The movie is more faithful to the book than just about any movie adaptation I've seen - except for the ending. I utterly despise the movie's ending, having read the book first.

SPOILERS: The whole point of the story is that Jack is a better man than Sean Miller. That he doesn't kill Miller at the end of the book and instead turns him over to the authorities is extremely important. Now, the movie may kill off Miller "accidentally" (and clumsily) during the boat chase but it robs Jack of that important moral choice. And I HATE THAT.

we the british we have ruled this planet since we have been around and we will continue to rule it for as long as we are around

IRA attack.


Jack Ryan accidentally gets involved with the IRA when he saves one of their targets from being killed because he just happens to be around and that is the sort of thing he does.

This has serious reprecussions for him when he is minding his own business with his family and they come calling with an attack team.

A decent, fairly intense personal level thriller.


3.5 out of 5