The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

One of the early novels of the modern techno-thriller genre, the book tracks the efforts of a disgruntled Soviet submarine captain to defect, with his Typhoon-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine "Red October," to the United States. Aside from the ICBM she carries, the ship has a new propulsion system that sounds like normal underwater seismic noise, essentially impossible to detect using normal submarine sonar systems optimized for mechanical noises and transient sounds. Jack Ryan, Clancy's hero, here performing as a CIA systems analyst, begins pulling the thread on the "Red October" when he is assigned to analyze a photograph of the ship under construction in it's dry dock that exhibits an unusual shape built into the hull. The pace and action continue to build through the book to a surprising climax.

Surprisingly not that different from the movie but still very good.

Executive Summary: A pretty fun spy thriller that occasionally gets bogged down by too much military jargon.

Audio book: This is my first time listening to a book read by J. Charles. He's a pretty good reader. I initially felt like he read too fast, but I either got used to it, or he slowed down. He does many accents, although with multiple Russian characters, I'm not sure if he made them all sound the same, or I simply couldn't tell them apart.

The book also uses sound effects to simulate phone calls and radio talk on the ships/submarines that I thought was well done. All and all I think the audiobook edition adds something extra to the story.

Full Review
This is my first time reading this book. I had previously seen and enjoyed the movie. It's been awhile so I have a hard time comparing the two. I might have slightly enjoyed the movie more however.

There are a few parts of this book that seemed to get bogged down with too much military jargon and side antidotes that I don't think always added much to the main story.

The main story however is a lot of fun though. There is a reason why several of Mr. Clancy's Jack Ryan books have been turned into movies. He does a great job writing a fast pace spy novel that translates well to a big screen. It doesn't seem like they had to do too much to the story to make a good movie out of it.

This isn't a book for great character depth or intricate subplots, but was the perfect choice as a palette cleanser from the last book I listened to. Most people are probably familiar with Tom Clancy and most likely Jack Ryan. He's not really a gun-toting action hero, but an intelligent analyst able to out think his enemies.

I plan to continue on in the series (in publication order rather than chronological order) at some point, especially if I can get a hold of them in audiobook for cheap or from the library.

3.5 Stars