Both writers were, perhaps still are, great story tellers. Their stories were action-packed thrillers and I loved reading them. Then, the love died, killed off by excesses in the writing. In Ludlum's case, it was an excess of characters and places and plots and subplots. Said I, "Yeah, there's a story in there somewhere but I'm tired of sifting through extraneous crap in search of it. I'm outta here!"
In Clancy's case, the excesses were in high tech stuff, political and military organizations, acronyms and superhuman heroes. Said he, "Story be damned! I'm famous and wealthy and people will read anything I write so I'm gonna use all these technical terms and acronyms and government agencies and unbelievable characters as much as I damn well please." Once again, trying to follow the story line through the maze just wasn't worth the effort.
Last night I watched The Bourne Legacy (Ludlum). The night before, I watched The Sum of All Fears (Clancy). I read both books years ago: Ludlum was just stepping over the line; Clancy was still well behind it. I enjoyed aspects of both movies. Both had excellent casts and great action sequences. Sum was best by far, was able to follow the story line, no problem. Bourne, like the book, was over the line, disjointed, skipping and hopping around like a cat on hot tin roof. Half way through, maybe earlier, I was mostly lost and remained that way for the duration.
My junior year in high school, , inspired by a challenging remark from my history teacher - something about the number of characters and pages - I read War and Peace. Yeah, it was a struggle. I certainly wouldn't include Tolstoy in my top ten list of greatest authors. Not even the top 100. Seems like Ludlum and Clancy evolved into Tolstoy wannabes.
Is it me? Have I become a simpleton over the years? Weigh in here if you will: have you read these guys? Are you still reading them? Do you connect at all with what I said above?
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ReplyDeleteLudlum and Clancy both have a place in my library among the authors whose books I keep for re-reading. I have thought a bit about your complaints and agree with you to some degree.
ReplyDeleteClancy, in particular, I find guilty of allowing his name to be used on series (Op-Center and Net Force) where his only contribution in the credits is "Created by". What does that mean? I only read bits and pieces of those books. They seem totally outside the range of stuff that Clancy writes. Seems to me that the publishers and Clancy are just trying to squeeze a few more dollars out of a gullible public who think that because his name is on the cover, the book will be like what he has written in the past.
Clancy's main continuing character is Jack Ryan. It looks to me like Tom may have gotten tired of writing about Jack. After 12 books with him as a primary character, Tom started taking on co-authors to write the continuing saga of Jack's son, Jack Jr. (five more books so far). I suspect that Tom's contribution to those books is minimal.
Ludlum also has several novels written by others after his death that still carry his name. I havn't read them so I can't speak to their quality, but the plot summaries I have seen at least leave them in the same ball park as his works. I do like Jason Bourne but object to another author presuming to write seven sequels to the Bourne series.
You said a couple of things in your critique ("an excess of characters and places and plots and subplots" and "disjointed, skipping and hopping around like a cat on hot tin roof") that sound to me like you think they have gone too far with the device of trying to weave together stories that are unconnected at the beginning of the book and gradually come together. (Clive Cussler also uses this device heavily.) I actually like that technique and rarely find it to be overdone for my taste.
There are two authors that hold a larger section in my library - John Grisham and Dick Francis (I am hi-jacking your blog to write about two of my favorites).
One of the things I like about Grisham is that he takes an occasional sidetrip out of his main genre (legal thrillers). "Skipping Christmas," "The Painted House" and "Playing for Pizza" are definitely different but still engaging.
Dick Francis has a long list of delightful novels with horse racing as a common theme. When he reached the point that his age and health hindered his writing, he engaged his son as a co-author and produced four more books before he kicked the bucket. Those last books retained all of the elements of the earlier books (Actually, when I checked the list, I found out that I had somehow missed reading his last book. I have already reserved it online at the library.).
Thanks for the chance to spout a little. Hope you enjoy your new cat.