Book Review: 'The Tom Clancy Companion' (1992 Edition)

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Reviewer's Note: This review is about the original 1992 edition; Berkley published an updated edition in 2005. 
 Until his death in October of 2013, Tom Clancy was a best-selling novelist whose books about American intelligence and defense agencies are read by millions of readers all over the world. 

 Some of his novels, particularly 1986's Red Storm Rising, are even required reading at some of our prestigious military academies. Four of his novels have been adapted into popular films, and a vast array of books (nonfiction as well as his novels), video games (Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell), board games, and computer simulations is available in many marketplaces, including malls, used bookstores, and online stores such as Amazon.

The Tom Clancy Companion, edited by Martin H. Greenberg (the brain behind the seven volume Guided Tour series of non-fiction books about the U.S. armed forces) is a 1992 reference book that explores the Clancy phenomenon at the popular and critical zenith of his career. Although it covers only the first five Jack Ryan novels (The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Cardinal of the Kremlin, Clear and Present Danger, and Sum of All Fears) and Red Storm Rising, The Tom Clancy Companion not only gives the reader an insight into Clancy's creative process and writing career, but also delves into the author's mostly conservative political views, both in the interview he granted to Greenberg and in a selection of newspaper columns written by Clancy.

To most of Clancy's legions of fans, perhaps the best feature is the A-Z concordance of characters and weapons systems that appear in each of the first six novels. The entries are brief but nevertheless informative, and it is this feature that new Clancy readers would find most useful.

Want to know, say, about an A-10 Thunderbolt II and its close support mission? Or what a Typhoon-class submarine's dimensions are? The concordance answers those questions and others, although it is not as complete as one would like. The "caterpillar" device that allows the Red October to pass Soviet vessels undetected while running silent, running deep using a nearly silent propulsion system is nowhere to be found. Such a glaring error is why I gave this otherwise excellent (if badly outdated) reference book four rather than five stars.

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