Tom Clancy: Power and Empire: A Jack Ryan Novel, Book 18

Jack Ryan Jr is at the top of his game in this story. His team does a great job ferreting out the bad guys. There is a lot of space devoted to Jack Sr. acting as president. I am disappointed Sr. didn’t catch on to what was happening in China until the end of the story. I especially liked the parts about John Clark. So I do recommend this book and series.

I've been reading Jack Ryan novels since The Hunt for Red October came out & it has been over ten years since my last Clancy novel. Thus it was nice to pick this up & jump right back in with some familiar characters. I really liked that the story is relevant to today's real world problems and the cast has grown & changed to fit the times. This is one of those books that grabs hold & demands to be read all the way through. I was on a flight to the west coast & my wife was a little upset with me that I kept reading, after we got off the plane. It was that good. The only problem was the ending was a little predictable, but otherwise it is another great read in this franchise. Now I'm really hyped for the Amazon produced Jack Ryan Jr. series coming at the end of this month. 4 stars.

Another great Clancy style novel filled with lots of action. I enjoyed it very much and I am looking forward to the next novel.

“Power And Empire” concerns a struggle for power within Chinese political leaders and gives a full account of fall down process of their coup. What made the evil scheme fall in deadlocked was the President Ryan’s unshakable confidence in his son. Marc Cameron, the fifth writer of a Jack Ryan novel, describes every incident, planned to break a balance with the USA, in full details. He is particular about depicting a personal history and a social background of every person concerned, which deepens story development. The episode suddenly begins with a surveillance act by the Campus operators in Dallas. Cameron doesn’t explain clearly why they are put into there. His style differentiates a taste of this book from the preceding series, where the former writers eager in getting authorization for Campus activities. The story digresses into John Clark’s clandestine assault on a child trafficking ring, in which Clark reproduces similar anger, power, and persistence as in “Without Remorse.” Cameron laid the finale in Tokyo, being in session of G20. This setting becomes a big surprise to avid Japanese Clancy readers. He writes down an interesting observation on Japanese train passengers. It seems to foreigners that passengers, no-eye contact, no talking, have the same rules as libraries or urinals. Cameron brought up the difference in a national feeling for a protection officer vaguely. While a Chinese security guard gains an ascendancy over an enemy, a Ryan’s protector swears Ryan not to leave him alone even in a brief moment. Cameron let Caruso say something are just nuts to know. However, why on earth Vincent Chen, a tool of a mastermind, lurks in Shinjyuku? What is his role there? Why the Korean woman killed him? Whom the Korean woman actually worked for? Are these things better to shut the hell up too? Anyway, will give hearty welcome to a new writer of a Jack Ryan novel.

Hard to follow at times. There are so many details and then, boom, it’s the end. Story keeps you going though.

Marc Cameron has proven himself to be a worthy successor to Tom Clancy (R.I.P.) and Mark Greaney as an author in the “Ryanverse,” i.e. the Jack Ryan/The Campus novel series. A few nitpicks here and there, such as (1) the implausibility of ChiCom PLA officers carrying Brazilian-made Taurus pistols instead of the homegrown standard-issue standard issue Norinco QSZ-92 and (2) the author’s misspelling of the Czech Vz-51 Skorpion machine pistol as the Westernised “Scorpion.” Also, this Kindle Edition has several typos/transcription errors with missing words that makes the affected passages quite confusing. Those nitpicks and flaws aside,”Power and Empire” remains quite readable and engrossing and keeps the pages turning, as I have come to expect from novels in this series. This time the plot involves a dastardly combination of (1) an internal coup plot in the PRC by mandarins (pun intended) who hope to drive Beijing into a military confrontation with the U.S. and the Ryan Doctrine, and (2) Latino gangs and Chinese triads colluding in a diabolical child sex trafficking scheme. The latter becomes deeply personal for John Clark, as it brings back painful memories of Pam Madden from “Without Remorse.” Meanwhile, Lisanne Robertson and Bartosz "Midas" Jankowski are welcome additions to the Campus team, and it’s cool to see Adara Sherman getting more directly to involved in the action. And hmmm, could there be a budding romance between Jack Ryan Jr. and lovely (but still tough as nails) Japanese intelligence operative Monzaki “Yuki” Yukiko…?

Interest how Cameron weaves two different heavy stories together, each living separately until the end. I'll warn you that one of the stories delves into the issue of human trafficking and it's quite unsettling...very unsettling. I've always enjoyed Clancy novels because they speak the honest truth with unquestionable detail. The only thing fictional is the characters. It's an education in present-day issues and capabilities. Power Empire continues this pursuit of the truth. But buckle your seatbelt and be ready for a few sleepless nights as you wrestle with what is really happening right here in our country. Cameron drives the point home.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Mark Greaney and still read his books but they always lacked the far reaching intrigue and setting up a political web that begged for each plot strand to be plucked and followed back to center. Although this book was promised as a follow on for the last Jack Ryan Jr/Campus novel, that wasn't the case. This book veered off in different directions all at once. Mexican human trafficking, PRC politics, an idiot blogger, and various subplots going on at once. The nice thing Marc does is never lets them venture too far. All things are brought back to center and the ending wasn't rushed like it had been in the last books. Plenty of intrigue, lots of action too. John Clark going native was a nice flashback to his days in Without Remorse. It is very apparent that not only did Marc Cameron read all the previous books, he also loved them and the characters. The series is in very capable hands.

Clancy è morto e si sente. Questo imitatore non ce la fa a riprodurre lo stile è le trame. Libro scarsino. Credo abbandonerò la serie che non ha più fiato

Excelente livro, quase sem diferença do original Tom Clancy. Aguardo os próximos com este autor Mac Cameron.Assim a verdadeira legenda Tom Clancy fica preservado! Vamos lá Jack Ryan!

Vous aimez Les Ryan, ils sont là, Mr C & Ding ils sont là aussi, donc tout concure à une belle histoire

The perfect book arrived as schduled as for delivery. Thank you. Nobby Ishii

At last it is getting a little like the early Clancy Books. Good build up, great detail, plenty of action and daring do!! The intricacies of the story were well woven and blended to gether in the last quarter of the book to provide a suitable ending. Once I started to read it I could not put it down. Good job well done!