Travis McClain

I've only read the first two of his novels, but one of my friends is an avid reader who's gone through his entire bibliography with zeal. Anyway, I saw this posted by Borders on their Facebook page and thought some fans here might appreciate knowing about it:

"Great news for legions of Tom Clancy fans: For the first time ever, the bestselling thriller writer bands together all his unforgettable heroes (and heroines) in a fight against terrorism. "Dead or Alive," Clancy's first novel in seven years is due out Dec. 7. Pre-order today and save 46% at Borders.com!"

Jedi Master 33

For years, Jack Ryan, Jr. and his colleagues at the Campus have waged an unofficial and highly effective campaign against the terrorists who threaten western civilization. The most dangerous of these is the Emir. This sadistic killer has masterminded the most vicious attacks on the west and has eluded capture by the world’s law enforcement agencies. Now the Campus is on his trail. Joined by their latest recruits, John Clark and Ding Chavez, Jack Ryan, Jr. and his cousins, Dominick and Brian Caruso, are determined to catch the Emir and they will bring him in . . . dead or alive.

marka351

Hopefully it is better than The Teeth of the Tiger. It would be nice if it was like his earlier books.

Sean O'Hara

Grant Blackwood? Is Clancy sharecropping his own novels and not just the Ghost Force Recon Ops Center crap?

Wolf359

Exactly what I was going to say. Anytime I see one authors name huge like that and then a with so and so beneath it, I believe that the author just came up with an outline at most and the other person wrote it.

The William Shatner Trek books for example. No way he really wrote those.

Patman

I'm still miffed that his last novel was only 2/3 of a novel, he still owes us a final 3rd act.

And how frikkin' old is John Clark in this new novel? 70?

djmont

I'm not surprised Clancy is going the "co-writer" route.

Grant's a buddy of mine, so I'm happy to see him get the gig...Maybe I'll give it a try.

Geofferson

Ugh, he's going the route of James Patterson and Clive Cussler. Not familiar w/ Grant Blackwood, so hopefully it exceeds my expectations.

djmont

Let's be honest -- it's not like Clancy's prior books were world-beating. He had interesting ideas, but his prose always struck me as needing more work. (And he had an unnamed collaborator on his best books anyway.)

movieking

I read one or two of Clancy's books years ago, but none of them ever grabbed me. I might have to go back and try again, since a few of my friends are big fans of his stuff.

Sean O'Hara

Cite? He's been completely upfront about Larry Bond's involvement with Red Storm Rising, and that's the only one, other the apostrophe books, that I've ever heard about him having a co-writer on.

djmont

As you mention, Larry Bond was an unnamed co-writer on Red Storm Rising. There has also long been speculation that Bond helped with The Hunt for Red October as well. But no, I can't prove it.

Axeramm

Still waiting for a Without Remorse movie.

Sean O'Hara

Just rent Death Wish and Missing in Action, switch between discs every fifteen minutes, and pretend that Bronson and Norris are the same character.

Isn't that where Clancy got the idea?

milo bloom

I've seen this at the stores, anyone read it? I gave away all my Clancy's earlier this year, so this would just be a library checkout, but I might not even bother with that if it doesn't sound good.

tks

Geofferson

Paged through this at the bookstore yesterday. Not eager to invest my time in it right now (~850 pages).

Deke Rivers

read some of this as a Kindle sample..except for the length I doubt its Clancy writing...as far as the co writing at least Larry Bond has some novels of his own (thats are quite good BTW)
never heard of Grant Blackwood

djmont

Blackwood has published some of his own novels, as well as writing under a pseudo, and "co-writing" with Cussler and Clancy.

I haven't read any of them, though.

Deke Rivers

I looked him up on amazon and you are correct ..he has a few books out..
after reading more of the novel in the book store I have to say im pretty convinced Clancy did not do much of the writing in this book unless his style has changed significantly during his hiatus

djmont

I doubt Clancy did any of the actual writing.

kenbuzz

Several years ago I lived in Southern Maryland while working at Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) headquarters at NAS Patuxent River. Clancy lived down there too, in the next county over (I think he lived in Prince Frederick). This was from around 1996 until 2005 IIRC.

Clancy's early novels came pretty close to the mark when describing systems that - without a security clearance - he shouldn't know that much about. Rumor has it that he got called in by the Navy for a little chat. Not a "big brother" type scare chat, just a little talk about the information he was publishing in his novels. They ended up coming to an agreement that resulted in Clancy being a regular visitor to NAVAIR HQ. In exchange for all the good PR the Navy (and the DoD in general) was getting from his books, they agreed to allow him to come in to ask questions to help in his research. The Navy would ensure that he didn't stray off into "sensitive" territory, but would give him access to unclassified but not widely known information about existing systems and doctrine.

More than once I would be heading out of the HQ building, only to pass Clancy on his way in. He also did a lot of book signings on base - I could kick myself for NOT getting him to autograph my first edition print of =The Hunt For Red October= that I got from the Naval Institute Press



NIP published THFRO because Clancy couldn't get any of the big publishers interested in him. He signed with Putnam Press right afterwards.