Name:
Location: Metro Phoenix, Arizona, United States

I'm too lazy to type anything about me. Read my blog and I'm sure you'll eventually learn a few things.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Red Rabbit

I just finished reading Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy. That is to say, I finished reading it, rolled out of bed, and sat down at the computer to start typing this post. It's a fictionalized account of the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, filled in with characters from the Ryanverse (the universe of characters used in nearly all his novels, named for the main charcter, Jack Ryan). Interestingly, I don't believe John Paul II is mentioned specifically by name in the whole book (though it does refer to him as Karol several times), though he is on the dust jacket (as is customary with Clancy, he'll specifically name high-ranking Soviets, but will usually avoid doing so when he uses high-ranking historical political figures from other countries, unless they predate the story (for instance, in this book, not naming Reagan or Thatcher, but naming Carter, Brezhnev, Andropov, and a few others).

Oddly, Clancy mixes around the timing of some historical events for the book. No real spoilers here, so don't worry if you haven't read it yet, but plan to. Working off the top of my head here, John Paul II was shot in May of 1981, but the book clearly takes place during the fall (numerous mentions), and the latter part of the book (second half, give or take) during the Orioles-Phillies World Series (which took place in 1983). However, Brezhnev is still in charge of the Soviet Union, and he died in November 1982. There are several references to the new Baltimore shortstop (Cal Ripken, Jr.), who didn't play in the majors until August 1981, and the comments about him (rising star) seem most plausible for 1982, rather than 1981 (very little playing time, and quite unimpressive) or 1983 (a genuinely star season which he would only top in 1991). It also makes reference to the Falklands War (March-June 1982). There are also several mentions of Transformers (the television series), which debued in 1984. Now, I know that Tom Clancy isn't always perfect with such things, but the sheer number of errors in the historical timeline is surprising. He also seems to get his time zones reversed, saying the sun rises two hours earlier in Budapest than Moscow (I could see that possibly happening in winter, but the story occurs much closer to the autumnal equinox than the winter solstice, and the time zones have Moscow being two hours earlier, so a time zone mix-up seems most probable).

There's less action in this book, as well. All-in-all, it's one of the weaker books in the series.

Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home