Dead Or Alive

We've all played the game before, no not necessarily this one. The momentary exchange when you're confused about whether or not a celebrity is Dead Or Alive. "Did you hear X is going to be in that new movie?" "Isn't he dead?" "No, I'm pretty sure he's alive."

Let's play a quick round. Kirk Douglas. Harry Morgan. Herman Wouk. Tom Clancy. Tom Clancy's writing career.

Alive. Alive. Alive. Alive. Huh, that last one is a tough one.

Earlier this week, Penguin Putnam announced the first new Tom Clancy novel in 7 years would be released in December. 


In the interests of full disclosure: I will be at Borders or B&N on December 7th to get my copy. I am a huge fan of Tom Clancy's Ryanverse.  I can't stand Clancy's politics (He makes Sarah Palin look liberal).  His last two books have really disappointed me.  I can't read Clancy now without picturing Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan.  Air Force One, although not written, created, conceived or even thought about by Tom Clancy should have been a Jack Ryan story.

Reading the description of this latest novel, I am intrigued and bothered by a few points. 

• It's a Jack Ryan novel. This should be a bonus, but I feel like having followed Jack Ryan through his progression from Marine to CIA analyst to Director of the Intelligence to Vice President to President and into retirement, we've pretty much run the gamut of life experiences.  No offence to The X Presidents, but all relevancy ends the moment you leave office.     
• It's "ripped from the headlines". The plot revolves around trying to catch "The Emir, a sadistic killer who has masterminded the most vicious terrorist attacks on the West." Emir=Bin Laden. No subtlety there. 
• The suspension of the suspension of disbelief.  I read fiction because it allows me to escape from our world.  I love fantasy novels; I love comic books; I loved Star Wars novels until the prequels ruined the franchise.  I allow myself to believe that a man can fly and that another man would dress up as a bat to fight crime.  I enjoy those stories.  What disappoints me is when something comes along in story that ruins that suspension of disbelief.  In the Ryanverse, the following things have happened: The FBI Director was assassinated by the Colombian drug cartel. The city of Denver was nuked by a multi-ethnic group of terrorists including Palestinians, East Germans and an American Indian.  Washington DC is the site of a Japanese terrorist attack resulting in the death of the President, 98% of Congress, the entire Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President's cabinet.  An Iranian coalition attacks the US using a biological weapon that releases an airborne Ebola virus.  US based eco-terrorists almost wipe out all of civilization by trying to disperse Ebola at the Olympics.  The Vice President of the United States is assassinated by white supremacists.  All of these terrorist attacks were hatched by someone other than The Emir.  Half of these are arguably more vicious than 9/11.  Tom Clancy prognosticated some pretty horrible events, but now it seems he wants to revisionist history all that away so he can write a thinly veiled attack on the Obama administration.
• It's co-written by Grant Blackwood.  Rumors abounded that Clancy had a ghost writer during the 90's.  That's when I liked his books.  As I said, his latest two have been disappointing.
• It's being released on December 7th.  Pearl Harbor Day.  Really?  Couldn't get it done to be released on September 11th?  (And yes, I know September 11th is a Saturday this year and new books are released on Tuesdays).  Subtle.
• It's a team-up.  The initial press release must have hammered home the idea that this book is special because it's going to feature all of Clancy's characters together.  A sampling of headlines from newspapers: Tom Clancy Heroes Team up to Fight Terror, New Clancy Thriller Contains the Sum of All Characters, Tom Clancy's 'Dead or Alive' to feature all-star list of Clancy characters, Tom Clancy's All Star Reuinion Novel (their spelling error, not mine), and New Tom Clancy book has all-star lineup.  These characters have always interacted.  All these characters have been in or mentioned in 3 of the last four books. 
• It's Clancy's first new novel in 7 years. Could the wait be a good sign?  Or will it leave me wanting, like John Grisham's pseudo sabbatical from legal thrillers fromm 2005 to 2008.