Locked on

Clancy is part of a class of writers who peaked early and then went downward under their own momentum. He's not the author he was 20 years ago on a number of fronts and me buying this in Kindle format was an anomoly due to my first trans-continental air trip. It says something, I think, that it took me nearly three months to read it, and that's not because Clancy hasn't known what an editor is for the last 15 years.

It's OK. There are a lot better books. Still, Clancy can still write an ending (although he's getting worse even at that.) I'll be looking at "Threat Vector" via the library. Gone are the days when I'd buy hard copies of Clancy.

As a long-time Clancy fan, I have a real affection for some of the characters that continue to inhabit his stories. John Clark and Ding Chavez play primary roles in Locked On, and it's hard to do anything but root for them. However, Clancy's writing has gone significantly downhill, and this book is just the latest example of that slide.

Clancy lovers have come to expect long, thick novels, and picking this one up off the shelf leads you to believe that it is another of similar size to classics like Red Storm Rising or Clear and Present Danger. However, opening the 900-page book you find that the publisher has reverted to tricks a lazy student uses with a college paper - wide margins, large line spacing, big fonts. There is probably only 60% of the content that used to be in a 900-page Clancy novel.

The book is also sloppily edited. For example, at one point it is noted that Chavez and Clark have been partners "for over 20 years". Further on, though, Chavez says that Clark "is more than twice my age - what, 63, 64?" It doesn't take a math whiz to figure out those numbers are screwed up.

Back in the glory days of this genre, Clancy was cranking out great stuff, WEB Griffin was top-notch, and Larry Bond was putting out some good stuff in the genre when he wasn't co-writing with Clancy. Today, though, I haven't found a younger author to fill that void; everybody seems to be focused on writing 300-page quickies rather than Clancy-length epics. Sad.