Book Review: Tom Clancy's Executive Orders

Tom Clancy burst out onto the scene in 1984 with a runaway hit called The Hunt for Red October. Hunt was made into a film in 1990 and Then President Ronald Reagan said it was one of his favorite books. Three other books starring Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan in both Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games and Ben Affleck in The Sum of All Fears. But his remarkable penchant for realism and technical detail are hallmarks of his style, it keeps fans coming back time and time again. For some, it might be laborious but the technical detail is interesting to see and the speculations on it by other characters. This lets me know that he has great advisors.  He's also made his mark on non fiction 

But nonfiction isn't exactly what you came here for. You came here for a book review of Executive Orders...so let me get to it 

In the previous book, Debt of Honor there is a war going on with The US and Japan again and that sets up for this book. There is an attack on the Capitol mere minutes after Jack Ryan had been sworn in as Vice President. President Roger Durling to be Vice President after his previous one, Ed Kealty got caught up in a scandal, resigned but never made it final. Ryan is in a state of shock after a plane wipes out the Capitol during a joint session of Congress in which the Supreme Court Justices are also in attendance and he must now deal with enemies, foreign and domestic 

List of Important Characters

UIR, the former countries of Iran and Iraq join together under Darayei to form the United Islamic Republic and as always with a new change in leadership, old foes must go. Darayei spends the book preparing his military and getting a bio attack (ebola) going in the US 

China, in a dispute over Taiwan, a Chinese airliner is shot down. China plays an antagonistic role here and it's more of a diplomatic subtle kind of warfare they wage 

Ed Kealty, Kealty spends the book trying to become President by staying in the media and bashing Ryan as much as he can. Kealty is a consummate politician that is in stark contrast to Ryan. Ryan is your reluctant politician 

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So, Ryan has to reconstitute Congress, the Supreme Court and tries to simplify the tax code. There's elections happening and while you're not supposed to wonder the partisan lean of Ryan, it's set up that he's on the right, and national security is his focus. Ryan navigates his relationship with the Press, which is antagonistic at first but he becomes adept at it. At one point, toward the end of the book Cathy Ryan blows up at the media and it's valid as Dr Ryan (SURGEON) is acting as a Dr caring for her patients, and not about optics or how First Lady like her behavior might be 

At one point in the book an attack on his daughter's Day Care center is built up but is a disappointing scene when it actually gets to the actual scene. It does set in motion a plan to ferret out a mole in the Ryan inner circle. Of course, the mole is drawn out but where Tom Clancy excels at setting up circumstances and taking you into the characters, the action is underwhelming 

Ed Kealty is someone that ends up suing Ryan for unconstitutionally imposing a lockdown and quarantine. Since Kealty ends up acknowledging Ryan as President, the lawsuit ends his claim to the Presidency 

The UIR is run by Darayei and he spreads the Ebola virus to the US through 18 different trade shows in many cities. In the final act, The US and UIR duke it out with the US predictably winning and Iran becoming a separate country. The new Iran is friendly with the United States 

The Ebola pandemic is actually handled competently, unlike the current COVID pandemic 

At the very end of the book, unfolding is a war between the US and UIR after the Ryan administration finds out that Darayei, the leader of the UIR initiated the ebola epidemic they're facing. In the beginning of the book a Dr infects a nun with ebola then tests out an airborne version of the virus on prisoners. After successful tests, they release it in 18 cities at trade shows

This book is not bad, but we could truly cut out about 300 pages to quicken the pace. The pontificating scenes can run a little long but the action isn't all that bad. If you are a person that likes political intrigue and seeing how things are set up in this iteration of the Ryan/Clancyverse it's a great one to look at. This one I believe is his longest book and I enjoyed reading it