Finally: Tom Clancy e-books at Fictionwise

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Thanks, Nate - I had a feeling it would be. I read a couple of the "whatever" books before I realised that they weren't written by Mr. Clancy. They were pretty dire!

That really doesn't set them apart from his own novels. The last several are pretty bad.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Has he actually written 39 books? Or are they including all the "Tom Clancy's <whatever>" books that other people wrote?

If you look at Fantastic Fiction it looks like he solo wrote 12 fiction books and 4 non-fiction (military type) books.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/tom-clancy/

Most of the rest are listed as "with XXXX". Tom Clancy's Op-Center and Net Force Explorers I pretty much think he sold his name to for the most part.

I fell for this once and bought one of the "Tom Clancy's Op-Center" books once from a bargin bin. When I later went to read it and realized it was not written by Clancy... I dropped it.

BOb

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I fell for this once and bought one of the "Tom Clancy's Op-Center" books once from a bargin bin. When I later went to read it and realized it was not written by Clancy... I dropped it.

BOb

Yes, it was one of the "Op-Center" books that I read; I didn't enjoy it at all.

I've very much enjoyed all of Mr. Clancy's own books. His political views are diametrically opposed to my own, but he's such a good story-teller that for me this didn't "interfere" with the enjoyment of the books at all. I honestly don't think there's been a single one of his books that I've not thoroughly enjoyed.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've very much enjoyed all of Mr. Clancy's own books. His political views are diametrically opposed to my own, but he's such a good story-teller that for me this didn't "interfere" with the enjoyment of the books at all. I honestly don't think there's been a single one of his books that I've not thoroughly enjoyed.

But in later books a really big part of the book is not storytelling but technical info dump. I especially remember the extremely boring descriptions about how to build an atomic bomb in one of the book. But I really liked some of the earlier books.

[HarryT]

Now for me that "how to build an atomic bomb" stuff added to the "believability" of the book, and I liked it - I think it was in "The Sum of All Fears". Just goes to show that we all have different tastes.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Must resist. I loved some of Clancy. although some of the later ones got a little predictable and monotonous. Same thing happend with Ghrishm.

BOb

Don't resist.

Clancy wrote Harpoon, thereby creating the computer war simulation game genre. Computer gamers owe him an immense debt.

Buy all of his books, even the ones that kind of missed the mark.

[HarryT]

Chess is a war simulation. There were chess programs around long before "Harpoon" .

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Chess is a war simulation. There were chess programs around long before "Harpoon" .

Chess is an abstract game.
Not a simulation.

Unless you are contending castles really move?

[HarryT]

It is an abstract representation of war, to be sure, but a representation nonetheless.

There have of course been "table top" war games around since the 19th century, at least (I uploaded a set of rules for one such game to our eBooks collection fairly recently). Was "Harpoon" really the first computer war game? I hadn't realised that.

[lilac_jive]

Heh, now I have War Games in my head.

<robot voice> Would you like to play a game? </robot voice>

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

Heh, now I have War Games in my head.

<robot voice> Would you like to play a game? </robot voice>

That is one of my all time [if not my number 1] favorite movies. Right up there with The Wrath of Kahn.

BOb

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

That is one of my all time [if not my number 1] favorite movies. Right up there with The Wrath of Kahn.

BOb

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It is an abstract representation of war, to be sure, but a representation nonetheless.

Right, but not a simulation, which generally means a higher degree of fidelity.

[Gibbo]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Red Storm Rising is on 100% micropay rebate for Paypal/CC pre-orders.

http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook80348.htm

And The Hunt for Red October,
http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mw?t=book&bi=80144

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I honestly don't think there's been a single one of his books that I've not thoroughly enjoyed.

Really? While I agree that I loved his earlier books, especially Red Storm Rising (on my 5th or 6th Copy), The last couple of books he wrote, namely The Bear and the Dragon and especially The Teeth of the Tiger Really grated on me and took him off my must buy list.

I agree that the Op center and Net force series is not really anywhere as enjoyable as his solo books.

Having said that I have to admit that I found the first couple of net Force Books interesting, but they later on started to get very repetitive, so I lost interest.