Ryaniverse

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Ryaniverse is fandom jargon for the fictional universe centered on Tom Clancy's characters Jack Ryan, John Clark, and the other characters associated with them in Clancy's series of popular novels.

[edit] Level of Realism

Though the events and people written about in the books are fiction, the books, especially those whose plot takes place during the Cold War, are based on actual political feelings at the time. The level of technology that takes place in the books is somewhat realistic, owing to the level of research done by Tom Clancy. Clancy sometimess stretches credulity: The Sum of All Fears details how a few Lebanese terrorists and an East German nuclear engineer build a thermonuclear bomb, then use it to blow up a domed stadium in Denver. Clancy claims that the computer-controlled milling machines used to grind aspheric eyeglass lenses could grind the components of a nuclear weapon out of exotic materials like beryllium and plutonium. Of course, the engineer forgets a key step, and he is killed before he can correct the oversight, so the bomb is technically a "fizzle": the fission works; the fusion doesn't.

The level of realism and historical accuracy decreases as the book series goes on. This occurs because the plot takes turns that would make realism impossible. One rule of fiction-writing is that the authoc cannot include "falsiable" events: events that one can prove never happened. (This is why extraterrestrials usually disappear without a trace at the end of a science-fiction movie, and why nobody goes back in time and kills Hitler or keeps John F. Kennedy from being killed. These interesting alternate timelines are usually not explored, at least not in movies. In a few Star Trek episodes, some classical time travel paradoxes are explored.) In The Sum of All Fears, Clancy destroys Denver with a nuclear explosion. Since Denver still exists, Clancy has written an "irreal" fiction, which can be disproven. As time goes on, Jack Ryan's world diverges from our own, in ways that are only credible because of Clancy's novelistic skill. By Executive Orders, the stretch marks begin to show.

Debt of Honor and Executive Orders were written before the (eerily similar) real-world September 11th terrorist attacks. Clancy's own fictional national catastrophe had a Japanese airline pilot hijack his own (passengerless) plane and crash it into the Capitol--during a Joint Session of Congress--at the end of Debt of Honor), with the effect of decapitating the U.S. government. The real attack appears in his latest novel, The Teeth of the Tiger, when a doctor helps the anti-terrorist team with a succinylcholine injector pen because "his brother was a trader on the 97th floor of tower 1". Clancy has been quoted as saying on Usenet that continuity is not always his most important priority.

[edit] By publication date

One will notice that movie adaptations tend to tie up loose ends by shooting villains; Clancy's books tend to give them more inventive "just deserts."

  • The Hunt for Red October (1984)
    Clancy's first novel. Jack Ryan assists in the defection of a respected Soviet naval captain, along with the most advanced missile sub of the Soviet fleet. The movie (1990) stars Alec Baldwin as Ryan and Sean Connery as Captain Ramius.
  • Patriot Games (1987)
    Ryan saves the (unnamed) Prince of Wales from terrorists, who go after Ryan and his family; the Prince helps round up the terrorists, who by this time have committed murder in Maryland, which has a death penalty. The 1992 movie stars Harrison Ford as Ryan, and has a fictional lord instead of the Prince of Wales. The bad guys are all killed off. (John Clark later tells Jack Ryan in Clear and Present Danger that he was on the helicopter that had to turn back when attacking the terrorist camps in northern Africa.)
  • The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988)
    First appearance of John Clark and Sergey Golovko. Secret anti-satellite lasers (SDI), high-stakes diplomacy, spies and computer geeks (Major Gregory is introduced here and shown later as updating SAM software in The Bear and the Dragon). Wsee how spies pass secrets and how they are interrogated in the Lubyanka Prison: no torture, but clever use of sensory deprivation.
  • Without Remorse (1993; set in 1970)
    Chronologically the first book featuring John Kelly/John Clark, detailing Clark's life before joining the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Set during the Vietnam War, it tells about the past of John Kelly and how he assumed the Clark identity, and tells how Clark became a CIA officer. Jack Ryan's father (Emmett Ryan) has a key role; Jack Ryan has a tiny cameo.
  • Debt of Honor (1994)
    Ryan as National Security Advisor, and John Clark and Domingo Chavez as agents with Russian cover, help win a military and economic war with a nuclear-armed Japan. Golovko makes a cameo here. (Golovko calls Ryan "Ivan Emmetovich," a Russian-style patronymic meaning "Son of Emmett.")
  • The Bear and the Dragon (2000)
    War between Russia and China. Ryan recognizes the independence of Taiwan and the U.S. Air Force helps Russia defeat the Chinese invasion.
  • Red Rabbit (2002)
    Back when he was a humble CIA analyst, Ryan aids in the defection of a Soviet officer who knows of a plan to assassinate the Pope. The Pope is shot but survives.
  • The Teeth of the Tiger (2003)
    Features the rise of Jack Ryan's son, Jack Ryan Jr., as an intelligence analyst, and then a field consultant, for The Campus, an off-the-books intelligence agency with the freedom to discreetly assassinate individuals "who threaten national security", following the retirement of Jack Sr. from the Presidency.