Patriot Games Book Review

2015 Reading Challenge

18. Patriot Games by Tom Clancy
      Theme/Topic: book that came out the year you were born

Synopsis:
From England to Ireland to America, an explosive wave of violence sweeps a CIA analyst and his family into the deadliest game of our time: international terrorism. An ultra-left-wing faction of the IRA has targeted the CIA man for his act of salvation in an assassination attempt. And now he must pay ... with his life.

My Review:
It took me a little bit of time before I could get into this book. Once I did, though, I was hooked. What I really liked about this was getting a glimpse into the lives of terrorist groups, as well as the CIA - for instance, (for terrorists) how they plan their attacks and ways to avoid getting caught and (for the CIA) how they try to figure out how to stay one step ahead of terrorists and possibly stop the attacks planned or how they plan to fight back if an attack were to occur.

What makes a hero? To me, heroes are anyone who save/help the lives of others or try their hardest to do whatever they can to make that happen. Obviously, I'm talking about firefighters, police officers, members of the armed services and doctors and nurses, etc. There are everyday heroes as well who may not wear an uniform, but perform heroic acts, just like Jack Ryan. He relied on his former training as a Marine to save the lives of members of a royal family.

My favorite characters other than the obvious (Jack of course) were Robby and Sally. Robby was just a great supporting character and Sally, Jack's daughter, may not have been a main character, but she was an integral part for Jack to keep going.

My only complaint would be this. I didn't understand why Jack's character was referred to as Jack and Ryan at the same time. It was confusing at first until I got used to seeing it.

While I was reading this book, a similar type of incident took place in Europe. I believe three American men thwarted a possible terrorist attack on a train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris by taking the suspect down. With that being said, terrorist attacks have been quite common all over the world, including one of the deadliest on US soil 14 years ago - 9/11. To me, I don't understand why anyone would want to attack and kill innocent people of all walks of life anywhere.

Happy Reading and Keep on Writing!

♥Meg♥