Action/Adventure Aficionados discussion

Hey all,

Planning on reading my first Clancy novel very soon and wanted to know critical (or not) it is to read these in order?

Ive seen the lcancy novels that were converted to films but I really want to read WITHOUT REMORSE first.....is this ok or will it screw up some of the characters etc.

Also, I recently purchased Locked in, Threat Vector, Against all enemies....can these be read in any order or is there an ongoing story arc?

Look fwd to your responses

There is a chronology to all of them. I think the Jack Ryan novels pretty much follow their publication date.

I think many authors restrict their plots by keeping to the strict chronological order of plot events. It's easy to keep consistent the crucial franchise of an author's main protagonists and antagonists, etc., without having to run each plot directly to the next-- that is my experience with the thrillers I've written so far.

The Clancy books follow a story arc. It's not that you won't be able to see what's going on if you pick up in the middle, it's just that you'll know things about the books that went before. We start with jack as a Cold War annalist in/for the CIA. He leaves, gets drawn back in, gets pulled into government and finally becomes president. then the books begin about Jack Jr.

If the Cold War plots will be a problem you could start later. Personally if you don't want to follow the entire series I'd start with Patriot Games as it's not so much Russia vs. US but begins to develop Jack's family in depth and sets the stage for his reentry into government service.