The Cardinal of the Kremlin

Executive Summary: I found this one a bit uneven. The start was pretty slow, but the pace picked up as it went on. Good, but not great.Audiobook: Michael Prichard did a decent job narrating. He spoke clearly with good inflection and volume, but didn't really add anything to the book. Audio a good option, but definitely not a must listen.Full ReviewI mostly read SFF, so it's always nice to take a break with another genre. I hadn't exactly planned to listen to this one, but I had put a hold in for this awhile back because the wait list was pretty long. The timing on my hold worked out pretty well to fit this into my schedule.When I was younger I probably read thrillers more than any other genre, but I never read and Tom Clancy apart from [b:Net Force 957376 Net Force (Tom Clancy's Net Force, #1) Steve Perry https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388235806s/957376.jpg 2467543] (and in writing this review I discovered he didn't even write that). I had watched all the Jack Ryan movies however. I'm still working my way slowly through the entire series in publication order, and this one was up next. It certainly doesn't have the name recognition of several of the other Jack Ryan books, but it was a fairly solid entry. I found it slow in the early going, and wasn't really getting into it. There were a few different subplots, including a random Afghani mujahideen whose name we never learn, and is simply referred to as the Archer. I had no idea how that was supposed to tie in with everything else going on.As someone who was born in the 80's, I didn't learn about our involvement with helping the mujahideen, until much later. I must admit it seemed a bit strange to me reading this after we've been fighting in Afghanistan ourselves for so many years. That aside, it took quite some time for the relevance of Archer's storyline to fit into the larger picture.Jack Ryan is once again at the center of the story, but one could argue not the most important character. That may be the titular character the Cardinal himself, or possibly one of the other players in Russia. That doesn't mean he isn't a key player, but there is a lot of time spent away from Jack and his actions in this one.This book certainly had a lot more espionage than the previous books. I liked how Mr. Clancy presented both the American and Soviet sides. At times I felt he was a bit too eager to paint the Americans as lagging behind the Soviets. This isn't from any sense of superiority as an American, but simply that it felt like he was doing it try to ratchet up the stakes a bit too much. In the end though, I thought it was a pretty well balanced, with people on both sides of the conflict who simply wished to avoid further escalation of conflict between the US and the Soviet Union. Both sides made mistakes, and both sides took advantage of their adversaries mistakes.There wasn't a whole lot of action in this one. Most of the tension comes from the various spy plots. Don't get me wrong, there are still a few gunfights, explosions and a car chase, but I felt like they aren't as prevalent as other Jack Ryan stories.I thought the end of the book really picked up the pacing, likely because the early part spent so much time moving the pieces into place and setting up the stakes of the book.I enjoyed the book, but I didn't love it. I'm glad my library seems to have the whole series in digital audio now, so I can simply borrow these books rather than buying any more of them. I suspect most of them will be in the fun, but not spectacular category that I'd place this book.