The Hunt for Red October

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