Tom Clancy—'Threat Vector'—How Close To Reality?

Tom Clancy teams with close range combat expert Mark Greaney to bring fans a new  work of fiction that touches the edge of reality in a world of cyber warfare!  The players from his previous best seller Locked On return in the new Clancy book Threat Vector.  Jack Ryan is now president, his son Jack Jr. is even more deeply involved in The Campus black ops.  Hendley, Mary Patricia Foley, Ding Chavez, John Clark and Sam Driscoll carry on.

The new bad guys are the Chinese Communists operating a cyber warfare ghost ship called The Center, run by a Dr No like character, Dr. Tong Kwok Kwan.  Kwan infects U.S. military computer networks, takes control of U.S. Air Force drone aircraft, invades CIA secret files, destabilizes a U.S. nuclear power plant and shuts down America's power grid with the click of a mouse.

No Clancy fan will be disappointed with the pace of the novel and all will admire the accuracy of the military, scientific and cyber research provided by co-author Greaney.

President Ryan is faced with an all out land war against the Chinese Communists as they re-claim the South China Sea and threaten U.S. Military presence in the region, all in preparation of an elaborate plan to capture Taiwan!  The threat is escalated when it is discovered that The Campus itself has been compromised, with The Center bad guys one step ahead of The Campus good guys. Who, where, when, why and how could that happen? For Jack Ryan Jr., it may be closer than he could imagine.

Enjoy every page as the authors pull together all of the elements of good against evil to develop a plan and strike force involving assassinations , Taiwanese Air Force planes secretly flown by U.S. Pilots, a surgical bombing in the center of Beijing and the tactical planting and withdrawal of the Campus black-ops including the president's son Jack Ryan Jr.

Clancy is the master in turning contemporary issues  into reality. Who but Clancy would have cyber hackers hijack drone aircraft?  What is the level of vulnerability of U.S. top-secret communications networks?  Are nuclear power plants subject to cyber attacks?  The good guys in Threat Vector win but many of the issues raised remain outside the pages of the novel. Suspense from the master, and high marks from this Tom Clancy fan.