Tom Clancy Is Dead At 66

guttentag writes "The author of The Hunt for Red October and many military and espionage novels which inspired a number of movies video games died last night in a Baltimore Hospital. The news was first reported by Publishers Weekly's Twitter account this morning and confirmed by New York Times Book Reporter Julie Bosman's Twitter account."

Comments

We lost a good one here.

[Virtucon]

Although his writing was pretty mechanical, his stories were real page turners. It's sad to see him go.

Re:We lost a good one here.

[bhcompy]

Without Remorse was one of the better modern fiction novels I've read, and totally accessible to those not looking for military porn

Re:We lost a good one here.

[Nidi62]

One of my favorites, as is Red Storm Rising (at one point I may have had 3 copies of Without Remorse, and 4 copies of Red Storm Rising). The juxtaposition of the 2 jungles (one an actual jungle, Vietnam; the other an urban jungle, the poor/drug areas of Baltimore) was really well done, especially how Clark has to transition each way pretty much overnight. And Red Storm Rising is classic military porn, yes. But as a standalone novel the characters were pretty well developed, the plot was believable, and the combat seemed spot on and realistic, both in the technologies/tactics used and the outcomes.

Re:We lost a good one here.

[gstoddart]

i just wish he hadnt put his name on those "co-authored" series, never cared for most of those.

But, really, can you blame him?

When someone comes along and says "hey, we'll give you big piles of money if we can crank out pulp associated with your name and based in and around your fiction", it's hard to turn them down when they add enough zeroes.

I suspect he was happy enough to get the money.

Re:We lost a good one here.

[guises]

Setting aside his writing for the moment, he impressed me back in 2001 on September 11. He had a book where some terrorists hijacked a plane and crashed it into the capital building, so the news drones had him on so they could say things at him about that. Meanwhile, he had a message: "Don't make the mistake of blaming Islam or Muslims for this. This was a specific group of terrorists, not representative of Muslims in general." (I paraphrase.) The talking heads tried to redirect him, ask him how he "felt" about this or that nonsense, but he stayed on message.

He was the only one for at least a couple of days after 9/11 (that I saw on TV at least) who both recognized that this would be a problem and who called for consideration in the face of bigotry. I have trouble believing that he was the only one who recognized that this would be a problem.

I would like to have seen Montana.

[bill_mcgonigle]

n/t

A Blue October

[kingtet]

The technical detail and intriguing blending of military tactics and politics engrossed me as a child. Perhaps more importantly, his political views that often shone through his writings challenged my own, which are often contrary to the ones he held, in a way that did not make me instinctively defensive or unreasonable. He was a great writer, indeed. RIP.

Very tech oriented

[onyxruby]

He was very tech oriented and worked extensively with people in the field to try to make his novels sound as accurate on the details as he could. He was good enough at taking non-classified data and extrapolating where things could go from there that he received visits from the FBI and CIA to find out how he knew what he knew.

He certainly made things up (caterpillar drive for the sub etc), but the point is he worked tirelessly to get technical details right in as many cases as he could, and to try get them as plausible as he could get away with in those cases where he needed to make the up. He put a lot more effort into getting the details right than most authors and far more than Hollywood ever did and for that his passing is very relevant for Slashdot. He took creative license, but he took it far less than a lot of other authors (Bourne Ultimatum series etc) and used it far more selectively.

He wrote 17 number one selling books and had three of his books turned into blockbuster movies. He was active in having games made about his books even back in the 80's and made sure a series of games was made ever since then. He came up with ideas for terrorism like flying a civilian airliner into a government building before 9/11.

/. Obituary Section Please

[Freshly Exhumed]

So the passing of an author who is popular amongst nerds and geeks gets mentioned here (all due respect to Clancy) while the obituaries of much more significant pioneers of geeky, nerdy things are routinely dropped from consideration after submission. It happens again and again. It seems like popularity trumps significance. How about an Obituary Section?

Let the Conspiracy Theories begin...

[wernercd]

Obamacare starts. Tom Clancy Dies. Coincidence? I think not.

Re:Let the Conspiracy Theories begin...

[istartedi]

Oh come on, you can do better than that. How about this: NSA spy thriller manuscript found partially written in dead author's home. Contained too much truth. Experts say it may have gone beyond Snowden's revelations, and pulled in numerous undisclosed sources. Cause of death remains unknown.

Tom Clancy and The Death of His Age

[Phoenix666]

It used to be you could read Tom Clancy and identify with the characters, exult in the common mission, and marvel at his technical details. It didn't matter what part of the political spectrum you hailed from, you could still read his books and feel good about being an American. Then at some point, I think it was "Debt of Honor," his schtick slid beyond to a right-wing crazyland fantasy where I could not follow.

I come from a military family. I come from a family with deep roots in America, half native-American, half-original European settlers. I could not stomach the jingoism that defined his later writing. America is not a destination, it's a process. If you forget that, and kick everybody who you don't see eye-to-eye with off the bus, then you forfeit your own seat on the ride, as far as I'm concerned.