Review of The Sum of All Fears, by Tom Clancy

What if a middle-eastern terrorist group got their hands on nuclear bomb materials and all of the technology to construct such a device? ... This is the question explored in Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears.

The main storyline begins with an Israeli fighter jet carrying a live nuclear warhead crashing in a Syrian farmer's field. The bomb is lost to Israel and falls into the hands of a terrorist group who use the material inside to construct their own H-bomb and intend to detonate it in the United States at the Super Bowl.

The hero of the story is none other than Jack Ryan (from several of Clancy's other books), who is now Deputy Director of the CIA. In this story, Ryan faces several problems of his own, including drinking, job stress, marital tension, and a President and National Security Advisor that don't like him and attempt to force him into retirement early. Through all of this, Ryan becomes a key factor in trying to save the United States from a nuclear threat.

Opinion
This book was frighteningly convincing of the fact that the wrong people are getting closer and closer to being able to construct devices that can wipe out entire cities in one shot - and possibly even trigger global nuclear war. The story had several separate story lines-- the one about the terrorist group with the bomb was definitely the most interesting. I did think, however, that some of the other story lines were a bit too long and drawn out. It almost seemed to me that Clancy couldn't come up with enough material for the main story line so he had to pad the book with a few side-shows. Having endured through the fatter parts of the 900+ page book, I can say that in general, I enjoyed the book. I would definitely recommend it to any Clancy fan. To anybody who has read little or no Clancy before, I would recommend most of his other books over this one, especially Patriot Games, The Hunt for Red October, or Clear and Present Danger.

My grade: B