A month or so,
I decide to start reading all the books in Clancy’s “Ryan-verse” (Wikipedia). In short, the serie’s protagonist, Jack Ryan, is literally put in so many life dangering situations that at times made my toes curl. My theory on Clancy’s books is, that over time, the story line gets more and more preposterous.
Take for example, ‘Debt of Honor’: in this book Jack (now National Security Advisor) unravels a Japanese plot to take down the US financial world and on top of that, an attack on American military assets. The plot reeks of the typical 80s anti-Japanese sentiments (remember the days the Japanese took over all those American companies?) but if you think of it: Since WW2, the Japanese army and Navy was and has always been severely limited in power. Reading this book in the 21st century reminds me of the rant I wrote back in 2007 (rant ahead) about Japan, particularly about these anti-Japanese sentiments.
Mind you, I’m not pro-Japan. In fact, I love yelling at Japanese (that is, when I happen to encounter them). It’s just that I believe even at that time, Japan’s economic power was fairly overrated and (as we now know) temporarily. You know, cheap production thru robots and that.