Full Force and Effect: A Jack Ryan Novel

Interesting scenario, and very easy to read writing style. Can’t wait for the next Mark Greany book. Love his writing style.

I have become a fan of Mark Greaney and enjoy reading the books that he has written under the Tom Clancy syndicate. Most of his books up to this point have been middle range books that have had good intrigue and lots of action. This is what I would consider a more daunting longer read epic in the style that Clancy made famous. The story is well conceived and well written. It has that overarching epic feel of a huge political situation that has multiple fronts and threats that have to be analyzed an dealt with. The main gist of the story is that North Korea has a new leader, the son of the previous dictator. This son wants to accomplish what his father started by getting ICBM missiles with nuclear warheads that can reach the west coast of the United States and thus push the U.S. to listen up to North Korea and consider them a world power. To do this they need cash. To get cash they have to find a new way to produce income. Lucky for them the worlds largest deposit of rare earth minerals is found in their own back yard. This mining operation could produce 12 trillion dollars of income for the regime. That is enough money to buy everything they need to go nuclear. Thus the Campus is on the trail of what is going on as well as the CIA and DNI Mary Foley. All the characters are coming together to try and determine the best way to stop North Korea from getting this funding online. President Ryan wants this stopped. Thus he is willing to step out on a limb and handle sanctions against North Korea even against the wishes of other nations. This epic tale is current to todays political climate. It is ripped right from our front pages. Maybe the only stretch is the rare earth mining issue, but that just adds to the intrigue of the book. Greaney does a masterful job of weaving this story together and providing plenty of little sub-plots to help you learn more about the characters involved and the dynamics of how espionage works in todays corporate and political world. You will enjoy every once of the book. So, why did I only give it four stars you ask? Well, because I think that as a larger epic piece under the Clancy name it still didn't have the gripping power of the Clancy style for this longer work. It's close and with more time of development Greaney will get there, just not completely this time. BUT, that doesn't detract from a great story. Enjoy!

I read COMMAND AUTHORITY and FULL FORCE AND EFFECT back to back and I loved both. FFAE is a thick doorstop of a book but I breezed right through it. Greaney's writing is a lot less technical than Clancy's. He doesn't give you the specs for all the awesome cutting edge technology and military hardware. I'm sure this will upset some but others will find FFAE far more accessible because of it. Despite this Greaney's writing comes across as well researched. A large portion of FFAE deals with the mining of rare earth minerals and I never once got the impression that Greaney didn't know what he was talking about. FFAE is a very character-driven book. Greaney dedicates a good amount of time explaining the antagonists' motivations. Instead of coming across as villainous caricatures the North Koreans read like real people. You don't necessarily want to root for the antagonists because they're up-to-no-good but it's not difficult to empathize with them. And then there's the Home Team Clancy readers know and love. I can't get enough of the exploits of the off-the-books intelligence agency known as The Campus. Ding Chavez is getting old and John Clark is getting really old but there's some new blood to be found in the form of Dom Caruso and Jack Ryan Jr. I still need to read Dom's first solo outing SUPPORT AND DEFEND but I look forward to doing so. As much as I enjoy the operators of The Campus it's President Jack Ryan Sr who continues to steal the show. One of the most thrilling moments of FFAE is an attack on the Presidential motorcade in Mexico City. It's a real standout scene. There's also another gripping scene that takes place on the New York subway that just begs to be put on the big screen. There's lots of suspenseful spy craft as readers of Clancy and Greaney both have come to expect. Mark Greaney continues to impress with FULL FORCE AND EFFECT. As of now he has been asked to write at least two more Clancy books but I sincerely hope he's writing about Jack Sr/Jr for years to come. ***EDIT*** I'd was also pleased to see the return of CIA agent Adam Yao. He was one of my favorite parts of THREAT VECTOR so it was really cool to see him again. Maybe one day he'll earn a place on The Campus team...

Still loving the Jack Ryan stories! This was WAY better than the last effort, which was childish, badly written, and not very good. (See my review for more info) this was MUCH more in Clancy's style in writing and character descriptions, and especially details which were sorely missing in the last effort. In any case, still not as good as the original Tom Clancy novels but imho "good enough" At this point only Stephen King still writes the whole book himself. Even John Sandford suffers from sloppy editing, not King though. his writing is still "tight" no spelling errors, good grammar and syntax too. James Patterson, and Tom Clancy who now have collaborators, although both have put forth efforts that are in the correct "voice" and style. However, they and to a lesser extent John Sandford suffer from less than good editing. Computer spell check and grammar check, poor syntax in many cases, and as unbelievable as it may seem simple errors like your for you're, or to for too. A sign of the times I suppose. Anyway, this was a good effort, and I enjoyed. Read it through from start to finiah like I used to read the original Jack Ryan novels. Well worth the read!

I like the book. I won't spoil on it. I have everything Clancy ever published as well as all of the Greaney / Clancy books. Greaney is no Clancy. But the Campus characters from the last Clancy books live on in the Greaney books and that's why I buy them. I'm ex-military and I keep up. It was always obvious Clancy knew his facts about the military. Although Clancy made a couple of subtle errors in his books, Greaney had me scratching my head a few times while reading this book alone. Not identifying the class of ship the Navy uses as it's primary platform in this book, or it's unique configuration and suitability for its mission, is a Greaney thing. Clancy wouldn't have done that. You'd have known all about the U.S.S. Freedom. SEALs carrying M4A1 SOPMODs in one op and HK416s in their next (similar) op didn't make sense to me. And using C-141s to transport anything these days just wouldn't happen. The last C-141 was retired in 2006. There is plenty of the now-standard jumping around from location to location, but I detected an increased propensity for sequencing that wasn't linear. By that I mean that an action sequence would be described from one perspective, but the other perspective would not be interspersed during the sequence. Generally speaking it's easier, in my opinion, to follow these sequences when both perspectives are interspersed. You know...A did this, B did this, A did this, B reacted this way, and so on. In Full Force sequences are described both ways, so you'll know what all of this means if you read this review before the book. A bigger problem for me was that many of the conversations and supporting plot points were glossed over, abbreviated, implied, or just left to imagination. Clancy books were great because the reader was trusted to absorb what the characters were saying and doing and the reader trusted the author to include details that developed the characters and their interactions. There is some of this in Full Force, but not as much as I would have liked. No examples but if you read the book I think you'll get the idea. There were several parts of the book that made me think that Greaney was rushed to finish so the story was not told with consistent levels of detail or plot points were left off to make the book shorter. Maybe the editor got to it. Either way at 674 pages it's a brute, but it still left me feeling like I wanted more. So the book is not perfect, but it if you're at all like me you'll enjoy it because of the cast. Look past the few errors and you'll definitely be wondering when the next one is due to be released.

This book is an exciting, well-crafted story in the traditional Clancy fashion. Lots of action scenes throughout, but they do not press the envelope as far as believability is concerned. This, I feel, is a definite plus. The plot demonstrates that the author is well prepared to assume the Clancy mantle in the spy/adventure genre. The plot is developed in such a manner as to keep the reader's interest churning between reading sessions, trying to determine if the hero makes it through the latest situation. The only feature that I could find fault with, was that the time scenes bounced back and forth early in the plot. Nevertheless, this is not a game breaker, and anyone who likes good adventure stories should not miss this one.

As the owner of a first edition "Hunt for Red October" I tend to judge all Clancy books as they compare to that. This book was certainly entertaining and would make a good movie but I'm finding all recent books to be structured pretty much the same. It's as if a certain number of chapters dealing with a certain number of storylines needs to be in place so that superhuman Jack Sr. and Jack Jr. can show their limitless physical and mental abilities. Will I read another in this series? Hard to say. This book is OK and would certainly be a good choice for a long plane ride or afternoons on the beach.

Another enjoyable novel. Mr. Trendy does a good job of keep t you engaged. Almost first when I finished it.

This is a fast paced read. Action starts from the start and never lets up. Decent plot, good storytelling. Not a boring page in the book.

A really good book that moves fast though every exiting event to keep you on the edge of your seat. Hard to put down.

as good as ever. i hope clancy's co authors continue to write more in the series. they are always a good read

Das Buch ist eine gute Fortsetzung der Jack Ryan Serie und ich hoffe es werden noch ein paar folgen. Es liest sich flüssig von Anfang bis Ende, interessante Handlungsstränge die gut zusammengeführt werden. Hat Spaß gemacht und war in meinen Augen deutlich besser als die 2-3 Vorgänger.

毎度のことながら、現実に起こっていることとの境目がわからなくなるほど、リアルなストーリー展開でした。 北朝鮮問題、まさに「今そこにある危機」ですね。