Yes, I finished it! And wow….what a novel! I mean, it’s seriously epic! And the scale is so expansive…definitely quite a different creature from the film. I understand now why they give awards out for adapting screenplays – you can’t put everything from the book into the movie. Well, you could, but then it would be like a 4 hour Michael Bay film…and John McTiernan did just fine, in my opinion.

As stated above, the major difference between the book and the movie is scale. In the movie they tell you about the “entire fleet” and everything, but you never see it. You see like, three submarines an aircraft carrier. In the book you visit so many boats and subs from both sides that are indirectly connected to the main storyline. There’s like a 50 page subplot dealing with the air force and fighter planes. The political subplot gets more face time as the president et all discuss and try to protect the spy that gave them the pictures of the Red October in the first place.

Also, everything is super technical – and I’m not gonna lie, at times I had a hard time keeping track of everything…but for this same reason I was impressed – all the details were amazing! The amount of research that must have been needed to write this book is astounding.

Already two books in you can see how Clancy created his own universe with lovable and unlovable characters you can get to know more and more about. Patriot Games is referenced, as well as Operation KINGPIN from Without Remorse – and Pete Henderson, that hippy traitor spy that I hated from Without Remorse shows up briefly too.

I think one of my favorite lines was this, “Ryan was chain-smoking at his station, and his palms were sweating as he struggled to maintain his composure.” Just the mental image of Jack Ryan chain smoking is hilarious. Man, I love Jack Ryan.

Also, the climax was INTENSE. Two submarines smashing into each other? I would have liked to see that in the movie for sure, that would have ruled.

As I said in my earlier post, I’m glad Clancy incorporates faith into some of his characters. So far he’s written two supporting characters that are Mormon, and his main characters seem to be Catholic or have a Catholic background. It’s realistic – it’s the United States and people have faith in things. Here’s a nice excerpt:

“Thank God for that,” Ryan breathed.
“You are be- believer?” Borodin asked.
“Yeah, sure,” Ryan should not have been surprised by the question. “Hell, you gotta believe in something.”
“And why is that, Commander Ryan?” Borodin was examining the Pogy through oversized night glasses.
Ryan wondered how to answer. “Well, because if you don’t, what’s the point in life? That would mean Sartre and Camus and all those characters were right – all is chaos, life has no meaning. I refuse to believe that…”

Kick. Ass.

Anyways, I still love the movie for what it is – the basic premise of Clancy’s book + Sean Connery + John McTiernan + one-liners. I like how the movie gave you a more personal look at Borodin and Ramius too; the whole scene where they talk about what they would like to do in America is great.

“Do you think they’ll let me live in Montana?”
“I imagine they’d let you live wherever you’d like.”

Anyways, I’d definitely recommend this book if you’re into the naval thriller thing, and don’t mind reading how exactly the nuclear reactor inside a submarine works, etc =P It’s quite excellent.

Now to read Prince Caspian by C.S Lewis before Friday when I see the movie…then I’ll write a review complaining about all the things they got wrong =) Yay!