The true story of Red October

Red Storm Rising was co-written with Larry Bond

I think it’s inaccurate to claim that “Hollywood messed up the story again”, because Hollywood never set out to tell the story of the Storozhevoy. The Red October movie’s plot was pure fiction, just as the book’s was. I should think it’s obvious, but this was the reason Clancy created the fictional submarine Red October…

Additionally, while Clancy isn’t the best, and the plotlines in his latest books seem to get worse and worse, his first novels (such as RO and RSR) came out in the midst of the Cold War, when very few people had the access to military equipment information that we have now. Indeed, for a while Clancy was regarded as one of the foremost civilian experts on Warsaw Pact military equipment and organisation, which made his novels interesting in a way they could not be today.

Neptune,

Do I smell some bad experience with bricks there Steve?

Nail on head there shipmate. Damned vicious things bricks if theyre only wounded!.

Got to agree with you bout the Red Storm film. Would love to see if if it was done right, but, the chances of that are slim to none so……!. Remember being very disappointed when they dropped the whole A-10 strike on the Kirov group from the Red October film. Get the feeling that a Red Storm film would end up being some kind of love story bout that Metoc chappie legging around Iceland with blonde bint in tow and the rest of WWIII being a bit of background!!!.

Nic,

You didnt like Nimitz Class. Personal taste I guess. For me it was pure visualisation – it was obvious that Sandy Woodward was heavily involved in that one and a lot of it ‘felt’ right!. Can’t explain it better than that unfortunately. Rest of those books though should feel most appreciated when they hit the local landfill with the rest of the gash!

Robinsons books, with that weight of knowledge and experience behind them, should be veritable tours de force in the genre. Oddly enough I thought his first book – Nimitz Class – was just that. Clever, insightful, atmospheric and involving. Shame that the rest dropped in quality and credibility the same way a brick does before it lands on your foot!

Is that the book when a nimitz class carrier gets is destroyed by a nuclear explosion? If so, then I beg to differ. It was utter &#$£!

Nic

Do I smell some bad experience with bricks there Steve?
I still like Tom Clancy’s books, although I agree that the Bear and the Dragon was much less than Red Storm Rising and Red October. That is explained by the fact that in RSR and RO John Gresham helped him. On the later books, Gresham didn’t help and likely he was the biggest brain behind those books.
Again, it should be taken in account that Tom Clancy wrote those books at a moment where most of you (and me) hardly had any idea how things worked and what was around in the world’s armies at that moment. A time when the internet with all its I-know-better-cause-I-read-it-on-the-internet kind of guys wasn’t around.
And yes, he forgot some weapons and made some unlogic/unbelievable alterations to the scenarios, but at least he tried to write a book and kept many of us interested. For me it was great to read and it will always be great to read anyway. On one side I would like to see a movie of Red Storm Rising, on the other side I’d rather leave it to my imagination.

Haven’t read Robinson yet. Hard to find over here, same with any other story in that genre actually…

Bloody well shouldn’t be ‘military flavoured thrillers’. As he states in every bloody book Robinson is best mates with Sandy Woodward and draws on the good Admiral as his technical resource. Sandy Woodward was known as being a ‘teacher’ on the RN Submarine Command Course (the near-infamous ‘Perisher’), before he took on command of the South Atlantic Task Force in 82. He was regarded, in the submarine community, as one of the best.

Robinsons books, with that weight of knowledge and experience behind them, should be veritable tours de force in the genre. Oddly enough I thought his first book – Nimitz Class – was just that. Clever, insightful, atmospheric and involving. Shame that the rest dropped in quality and credibility the same way a brick does before it lands on your foot!

Kilo class, the book by author named Robinson, right? I haven’t read it, but read his USS Seawolf novel. His books aren’t military novels, but thriller novels with military conflicts as a backdrop. His technical details are pretty lacking, at least that’s what I thought when I read the Seawolf.

Very interesting piece of article.

Oh and I loved Tom Clancy’s novels when I was a kid, but the more it went on the more I found them to suck. I haven’t even read one of them in many years. Yuck.

I haven’t read Kilo Class but I have read another “book” (POS more so) from him and it was terribly bad.

Nic

More on the Storozhevoy story in this month’s Naval Proceedings, including this great paragraph:

“On 9 November, the Swedes had monitored events in the Baltic with growing alarm. From their vantage point on Gotland Island, they watched as every ship and plane in the Baltic Fleet headed straight for them. It was a few hours before they realized the Russians were locked in a desperate hunt for a mutinous vessel, but for several anxious moments that Sunday morning it appeared as if it might be the prelude to World War III…”

re:

Oh that review was nice. After The Bear and the Dragon, I gave up on Clancy’s work. I thought both Debt of Honor and Clear and Present Danger was bad, but good enough to kill time, but his modern stuff sucks. Didn’t even touch the Teeth of the Tiger. His early works are decent, epscially the Red October and the Red Storm Rising. I’m reading Red Rabit right now, kind of ‘in between’ work. Not sure if I like it yet.

Funny, everybody says that about Tom Clancy. Just read “Red Storm Rising” and found it to be pretty enjoyable.

BTW, check out this review on one of his books, “The Bear and Dragon” :

http://www.bookofhook.com/Review/Books/TheBearandtheDragon.html :dev2:

There were always the rumors of Clancy having a ghost writer for his first few books (the good ones). The guy is a major loon! I believe the rumors now. I saw him on CNN peddling this book when it came out. He was asked where he get the information China is planning to invade Russia. He said, “The Mongols did it!” The guy’s books now are basically a form of porn for his hardcore fans to masturbate to.

I’d advice people to stay away from Tom Clancy’s novels ,apart from ‘Red Storm Rising’ which is readable.

Funny, everybody says that about Tom Clancy. Just read “Red Storm Rising” and found it to be pretty enjoyable.

BTW, check out this review on one of his books, “The Bear and Dragon” :

http://www.bookofhook.com/Review/Books/TheBearandtheDragon.html :dev2:

A true hero of a dificult time. His leadership qualities would have been a boon to USSR and to this world as a whole. Its sad to actually “now” understand the blackness of russian burecarcy.

Agreed. SSN is the worst naval-warfare fiction book I’ve ever read. Go ask JA Worsley what he thinks about it. 😀

Don’t mean to split hairs (well, I guess I do), but SSN is technically not a novel really, it was meant as a companion piece to the SSN video game. But I agree it is easily Clancy’s weakest work of fiction.

However, I don’t think it’s anywhere close to being the worst naval-warfare fiction book ever written. IMHO, that dubious honor goes to “Kilo Class,” by Patrick Robinson.

Stephen King once said that every aspiring author remembers one book which, while reading it, makes that person think “I can write much better than this, and this guy is published and making money!” And thus the aspiring author is encouraged like never before. “Kilo Class” was that book for me.

“”Hunty

Which is that Book that u mentioed ? ….. got any Free Links so that i can have a FREE download “”

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