Why I Chose to Quit Reading "Patriot Games"

 

Trailer for Patriot Games

     Every school year, I always fall into this pattern of reading one book series for the entire year. 6th grade was Harry Potter, 7th was Alex Rider and 8th was the Divergent series. This year, I decided to read a more mature book series, the Jack Ryan books, by Tom Clancy. I was inspired to read them after watching "The Hunt for Red October" at 1:30am the morning I went to Hawaii. So, for my first book of the year, I read the book version of the movie. Then, to continue the books, I read the next one, Patriot Games, but this book may have turned me off to the whole series.

     In this book, Jack Ryan, the series protagonist, saves the Duke and Duchess of Wales from an attack by a ultra-radical, Irish paramilitary group. Then, this group tries to get back at Ryan by trying to kill his wife, daughter and unborn child in a car crash. But as interesting as it may seem, the majority of the book is just guys standing around, talking to each other. Nowhere near the scale of the previous book, where the worst possible outcome would be a nuclear holocaust and not a bunch of people getting killed. There were also rouge Soviet naval commanders and nuclear subs and everyone denying everything. Now it's just alot of talk that keeps the plot moving, and seems kind of lazy to me. There just wasn't enough action, which from the movies I've seen, actually makes the movie version of Patriot Games.