tifosi77 wrote:As you might expect, I have a really hard time with the way military aviation is usually fictionalized; I can't even watch the movie Top Gun because it's so riddled with stupidity and presents the school in such a silly light. Clancy may have had things to quibble with, but he was generally excellent. But even if he was wildly inaccurate with his depictions, I think I still might have enjoyed his books because - above all else - the guy knew how to tell a story.
This cannot be underscored. Storytelling ability, and making it seem like he knew what he was talking about, was enough when reading as a teen. Could be why Coonts' Flight of the Intruder worked so well.
Haven't gone back and read anew recently, but still have all of the books. The uncanny ability to have a near seemless fit between Red October and Patriot Games, where the latter was set before the former but the latter being written after the former...
The only downside in the whole mess is not being able to cast a single actor as Jack Ryan in the film versions.
*** I can still picture Clancey's telling of Iceland in my head from Red Storm Rising...