'The Cardinal of the Kremlin' by Tom Clancy
'The Cardinal of the Kremlin' by Tom Clancy

The good

  • An intriguing tale of spies, double agents, and espionage during the Cold War.

  • A fun look at building defense systems built on lasers to defend against ballistic missiles.

  • Some creepy & clever interrogation methods.

  • A few fun characters. Jack Ryan, of course, plays a role in the story, but as in the other books, it’s not a central role, and the other agents, especially the Soviet ones, are the more interesting parts of the tale.

  • Reasonably well-paced and exciting the whole way through.

The not so good

  • Some elements of the story, like the US funding the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, didn’t age so well.

  • Tom Clancy is good at pacing, technology, and spy action, but he’s not good at mystery or suspense. Many items that could’ve been positioned as fun, unexpected plot twists end up being revealed early on, so there are few surprises, and the stories end up feeling a bit predictable: for the most part, you already know how it’s going to end, so you’re just going through the (reasonably well-executed) motions.

Rating: 4 stars