Tom Clancy's Tom Clancy

I generally don't consider it a good sign when the name of an author is in a bigger font than the title of the book.  To me it implies a degree of arrogance on the publisher's part.  As if they are trying to say "the specifics of the story are irrelevant because the writer can do no wrong."  While I'm sure there are fans out there that will claim their favorite novelist is perfect, in my own experience even the best authors have written some stinkers.  In Tom Clancy's case, it's a little bit weird.  Of the thirty-six novels written by him, half were published after his death.  In fact, only about a dozen Tom Clancy books were actually written by none-other-than Tom Clancy himself.  The rest were co-authored or ghostwritten by other people with Clancy sometimes providing little more than a plot outline or tacit approval.  Obviously, after his death in 2013 any creative input he provided came to an end...and yet the "Tom Clancy" brand continues.  Before becoming a novelist, Tom Clancy was an insurance salesman...and it shows.  The kind of "insurance" buyers are getting in this case though is a perceived guarantee that they will receive an espionage-thriller with the technical aspects researched in detail.  As always, this is a blog about video games so let me cover that too.

As far as I can tell, Tom Clancy's contributions to the world of video games really began with Tom Clancy's SSN.  Released in 1996 as a (then) modern day sub-sim, players control a Los Angeles-class attack submarine across 15 missions in a limited war between the USA and China.  The game featured quite a bit of FMV, but the actual sim aspect of the game was fairly simple.  A tie-in novel of the same name was also published, but suffers from perfunctory prose...possibly because it was co-written by Martin H. Greenburg.  This sort of thing begs the question, "what (if any) contributions did Tom Clancy make to his games?"  

About the same time SSN came out Clancy co-founded Red Storm Entertainment (which later became a subsidiary of Ubisoft).  In the years since then more than forty games have be released with the "Tom Clancy" label.  The single most famous one is probably Rainbow Six, but it only marked the beginning of one franchise.  There are more; such as Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell and most recently The Division.  Going back to Rainbow Six for a moment, the series starter was an adaptation of a novel bearing the same name.  Some of the scenarios in the game are taken from the book.  Even so, the game fleshes out the content quite a bit by adding more variety (as well as a slightly different ending).  True to the Clancy spirt of meticulous detail, the game allows for precise planning and execution right down to the assigned equipment and actions for each individual agent.  In a time when FPS games mostly consisted of run-and-gun DOOM clones this was innovative stuff and marked the emergence of tactical shooters into the mainstream market.  While this might sound like Clancy made major contributions to the game, it's important to note that the concept of a black ops FPS had been in the works at Red Storm Entertainment before he began writing the Rainbow Six novel.  This leads me to believe that his label was more akin to "Tony Hawk" or "John Madden" than "Sid Meier."

In truth, I think Tom Clancy struggled to find proper antagonists for his stories once the U.S.S.R. collapsed and the Cold War ended.  He would return to that time period in some of his works, but for his stories set in the present day he had America doing battle against terrorists, drug lords and Japan...yes, you read that third one correctly.  To say Clancy jumped the shark with his novel "Debt of Honor" would be an understatement...particularly with Jack Ryan turning into a Gary Stu by not only becoming the President, but the best one in United States history.  Personally, I can't quite figure out why anyone would read "Hunt for the Red October" when they could just read "Blind Man's Bluff" and get the real story with better characterization to boot.   If you want a sci-fi version of Tom Clancy there are those too...John Lumpkin being the first example that comes to mind.  Most of all though why read "Rainbow Six" when you can play the far more entertaining game?