Tom Clancy's First Strike

This was the first Tom Clancy book I've read, but, if this is a good indicator of things to come, then I may become an avid fan.

This is a well-written book about an American task force that is collected from the most qualified operatives all over the world, and is given control over covert operations. Specifically, their main concern is attempting to reduce the growing hostilities between North Korea and South Korea. The main character, Director Paul Hood, is charged with the task of determining the powers behind a terrorist bombing in South Korea, and to prevent any further actions that would threaten the relative peace in that region.

The book does a good job of depicting how each office, both within the Op-Center, as well in the governments of the world, have a number of actions they take, and a number of people they contact, before making any decisions concerning the welfare of the people of the country. One result of this is that, during the course of the book, you meet a large number of characters. Now, in a regular book, this can become cumbersome, with so much information to remember about each person. But Clancy does an excellent job of making you feel like each character is a relative, or a family friend, of whom you need no background information. The only information you need is their name and what they do, and it allows you to create the character in your mind. And you truly begin to care about each character individually, as you've created them.

One small problem with this book is that, with all of these characters, there is some confusion between the chapters as to what the situation is at the time. Especially since the setting of the story takes place from Washington, DC all the way to Pyongyang and Seoul, it sometimes takes a little too long into the chapter to find out who these people are, and what they're doing. This doesn't detract from the book a great amount, but it gets annoying sometimes.

Overall, this book is relatively easy to read, and moves quickly most of the time. It's not very much of a thriller, but it's exciting enough to keep you going. I'd recommend this title to people with an interest in government activities, and who are looking for something more than another book about protecting the President.