Dead or Alive

Written by Tom Clancy and Grant Blackwood

Narrated by Lou Diamond Phillips

Don't Miss the Original Series Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Starring John Krasinski!

Tom Clancy delivers a #1 New York Times bestselling Jack Ryan novel that will remind readers why he is the acknowledged master of international intrigue and nonstop military action.

It is The Campus. Secretly created under the administration of President Jack Ryan, its sole purpose is to eliminate terrorists and those who protect them. Officially, it has no connection to the American government—a necessity in a time when those in power consider themselves above such arcane ideals as loyalty, justice, and right or wrong.

Now covert intelligence expert Jack Ryan Jr. and his compatriots at The Campus—joined by black ops warriors John Clark and “Ding” Chavez—have come up against their greatest foe: a sadistic killer known as the Emir. Mastermind of countless horrific attacks, the Emir has eluded capture by every law enforcement agency in the world. But his greatest devastation is yet to be unleashed as he plans a monumental strike at the heart of America.

On the trail of the Emir, Jack Ryan Jr. will find himself following in his legendary father’s footsteps on a manhunt that will take him and his allies across the globe, into the shadowy arenas of political gamesmanship, and back onto U.S. soil in a race to prevent the possible fall of the West....

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Dec 7, 2010
• ISBN: 9781611061192

Tom Clancy

Since the phenomenal worldwide success of ‘‘The Hunt for Red October’, his controversial, ground-breaking first novel, Tom Clancy has become one of the world’s fastest-selling thriller writers. Three of his novels have been made into highly successful films: ‘The Hunt for Red October’, ‘Patriot Games’ and ‘Clear and Present Danger’. He is also the author of several non-fiction books on military subjects, and the co-creator of the ‘Op-Centre’ series. He lives in Maryland, USA.

Reviews for Dead or Alive

[leslie398 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5*
This 13th book of the Jack Ryan series is the first one Clancy co-wrote with another author and I felt that I could detect a slight difference in the prose. While Clancy never had Jack (or other characters) hide their political and/or ethical beliefs, in this book they came across a bit more pontifical. The action was still gripping though!

Most of the action in this book centers around Jack Jr. & his work at the Campus. While I had read the previous book that started this plot line, it was years ago so I was struck by the appearance of the 2 Caruso brothers twins who are Jack Jr.'s first cousins - I hadn't remembered there being extended family.

Lou Diamond Phillips does an excellent job narrating.

[jimgysin_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This one was an improvement over the first Jack Jr. outing, but there's still work to be done. Especially on the pacing front once again, where a lot of time was spent of side issues and subplots that weren't particularly relevant to the main story and that served mainly to cause the overall effort to lose its focus on more than one occasion. Still, I can already see that some new blood working with Clancy here might be just what it takes to get the Ryans franchise back to the top of the heap where it belongs.

[elizabethcromb · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Also authored by Grant Blackwood
Islamic extremists and attempts to bring down the US and other countries not thinking the same as the extremists. Post 9/11.

[gpaisley_2 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Worst.Clancy.Ever.

formulaic plot, uninteresting characters, recycled prose, incorrect technical details, hundreds of pages that didn't advance the story, caricatures as characters. Felt like he phoned this one in.

Thankfully, later stories seem to be back on track.

[likos77_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ein routiniert geschriebener Campus-Thriller, dem aber im Vergleich zu anderen Stories aus der Reihe ein wenig der Schliff fehlt. Alles in allem aber lesenswert.

[buffalogr · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Plowed through this book on the power of it's author, but wasn't too impressed. There was a lot of action, yes. But, even in it's condensed version, was 9 hours or so and contained a lot of droll discussion. What must the unabridged version be? That meant there was little character development--only the bad guys were new characters and they didn't last for the duration. The plot was pretty mundane...no, boring...chase after a terrorist. I'm not giving up on Clancy, yet!

[murderbydeath · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent. Typical Tom Clancy and I enjoyed it just as much as the rest. I've missed reading about the characters that have been a part of the Jack Ryan series all these years and I loved that he got them all together in this book. I hope there will be more to come.

[hemlokgang · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was very good. The quick pace was engaging, the plot was just the right blend of technical and character driven story, and I have a real soft spot for Ding Chavez and John Clark. I am becoming fonder of Jack Ryan, Jr. as well.

[guide2_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ok story, but the beginning is too short on details for any of it to make sense at first and the ending timing is way too short for into make any sense.

[nursewidener · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Clancy does it again"

What did you love best about Dead or Alive?

The continuation of John Clark and Ding Chavez after "Rainbow Six" and the forced retirement of both of them. I have really enjoyed the story lines in the "Jack Ryan" universe of John Clark in particular. Especially since the book "Without Remorse."

What does Lou Diamond Phillips bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Lou Diamond Phillips was born to be an actor/narrator. His performane of Tom Clancy's novels as been great entertainment. His ability to create unique inflextion of his voice for each character and situation causes the written word to become alive.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

If I had had the time when I started this book I would have sat in a cozy chair in a calm quiet room with a cup of coffee and just listened until the end. But atlas, life is not perfect.

[ponsonby_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This a a disappointing entry in the Clancy canon. It is co-authored by 'Grant Blackwood' and it shows. Although it starts well with an operation in the hills of Afghanistan, most of the book is taken up with the efforts of an unofficial terrorist catching operation to foil a plot masterminded by 'The Emir', who is a thinly disguised but not very clever version of Bin Laden. The good guys seem actually to have little better morals than the bad ones (okay they don't kill children). The characters are skin deep especially Jack Ryan Jr and Caruso brothers (sounds like a circus act...). Clancy's strength has always been in sustaining narrative drive through lots of technical explanation without making the latter boring, but that simply isn't the case here. And the terrorists' plot, when finally revealed, is pretty lame and ill-explained. One can only hope that the next in the series is better. But we said that before this book.....

[taylorsteve_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good plot but way more complicated than realistically believable. The book could have been shorter by 300 pages and not lost anything.

[drewsflash · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The only reason for reviewing this book is to warn others not to waste their time. Tom Clancy was one of my favorite writers before I wasted my time on the first 624 pages. Yes I am writing a review on a book that was unreadable. Poor character development, slaggard story line, soap opera dialogue and many other negative conditions led me to stop reading and to proceed to other more important reading.

[barbgarcia1987 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was a BIG improvement over "The Teeth of the Tiger". It grabbed me in the first couple of pages & never let go. I am hoping that "The Teeth of the Tiger" was just an aberration and that "Dead or Alive" says that he is back on track. Yes, it is a VERY long book, but I enjoyed it a lot. I liked the fact that many characters from previous books were included.

[maureen61_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A convoluted rehash of several past characters bringsthis story forward but requires the patience of a saint to figure out. A very long book, it is not Clancy's best but is creative non the less.

[patrickjiv_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As good a writer as Tom Clancy is, had a hard time keeping focused on the storyline in this 40#, 950 page book. Kept saying, "This has got to get better", but alas, never did IMO. Far to much tech speak that can not be understood by Joe/Joan Average. Felt like my 3 rating was being very generous.

[davevanl_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Proofreading and factchecking must be a lost art. At one point, a flight from the east coast to las vegas is listed as 4 hour and 20 minutes, which is reasonable. However, it is stade in the book that due to the 4 time zones, they arrived just 20 minutes later by local time. They need to rethink that.

[mainrun · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book brought back nice memories of previous Tom Clancy novels. Several times, one line in the book reminded me of a whole 700+ page book. It read a lot like an episode of "The Unit" with a little "24" thrown in. Actually "The Unit" and "24" should give Clancy royalty checks more than the other way around. I think I would have liked it even without reading Clancy's other novels, but maybe 4 not 5 stars.

[command3r · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Grant Blackwood's name should be the bigger one on the cover.

[golfncurl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The first few chapters jump around quite a bit, but it all comes together in the end.
I enjoyed this book.

[tasker_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

For a 900-plus page book, its reading went fairly fast - easy reading and well-paced action. However, I still remember my fascination with the military strategy depicted by Mr. Clancy in "RED STORM RISING" and "The HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER" and this terrorist-chase stuff is getting sort of boring (just my opinion, sorry).

[lanes_3_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not exactly the quality I remember from Clancy, but it has been awhile since I've read him. Multi-faceted story like usual, but some of the story lines didn't seem necessary (Jack Ryan's in particular), perhaps they lead in to a future book. Also could have used a better edit and revision. There seemed to be character swaps and repeated info in multiple places.

[dene2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As always, worth the wait...just hope the next one doesn't take so long. The story line is very topical to todays state of the Union. The author really shows the necessity of a change in our outlook and approach to warfare as it is fought by other countries today. In showing how other countries throw out the old rules of wasfare, it acts as a reminder that one of the reasons we won the revolutionary war was in no large part due to our change of tactics. We took cover. "Dead or Alive" shows us a possible answer to thinking outside the box in the current wasfare situation. This book is an excelent read and I highly recommend it.

[stanrobinson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Clancy's gang is back fighting for what is right and doing it in fine fashion against all fronts in country and abroad. It is a fast read even with a total of 950 pages. What is difficult at times is the multiple plot lines and multiple character actions . You are constantly battling to keep the images in your own mind from losing track. A couple of times I had to review a character or action to make sure I was on the right boat or in the right country. It is Clancy through and with assistance from co-author Grant Blackwood.

[rastaphrog · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It's a Clancy novel. If you're already a fan, that's all that needs to be said. It's typical Clancy with lots of action and intrigue. For me, it was a fairly quick read, but then I got my copy on my day off from work, so I was able to jump right into reading it straight thru. The book doesn't end on a "cliff hanger", but there is a lot that happened that leaves things open to more books in the future, and I hope we do see more books dealing with "The Campus".

That being said, I only gave it three stars because of some glaring inconsistencies from the previous book. Either Clancy or Blackwood (who the book is written "with"), or even both, must not have taken too much time to do much to get down the facts we were given about things in "Teeth Of The Tiger". While they didn't completely "ruin" the book for me, it wasn't as good as it could have been if things had stayed consistent in their progress.

[lillyparks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've read better from Mr.Clancy.

Mr Clancy is a superb writer with insight into conspiracies, military weapons and procedures. He gives us great plots and heroes that we can root for, but this book gave me very little to cheer about. It should have because the book is the size of a "door stopper". One would think that with all the side stories being bounced around in the story there would be a great read. It never happened for me. Very disappointed in the book.

[jsoos_7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This very long novel (950 pages) is almost classic Clancy. Since he hasn't written in so long, it takes the first 100-150 pages to refamiliarize yourself with all of the characters and their histories (all continued from previous novels). There are 5-6 concurrent efforts being tracked around the world, all involving some sort of massive terrorist effort (and of course, with the "good guys" attempting to stop them) - all in classic Clancy style. I have 2 issues with the book; instead of looking to the future (as Clancy has traditionally done) this volume seems to deal mostly with thinly veiled current events (including a lot of ranting about current politics), and secondly, I am not sure that 950 pages were needed. The good news? - Clancy has left several candidate follow-on books available with his ending!!

[csayban · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It has been seven long years since Tom Clancy's last Jack Ryan techno-thriller, "The Teeth of the Tiger." Much speculation has surrounded the long writing layoff of one of the bestselling authors of all time. No matter the reason, 2010 has seen the return of Jack Ryan and Co in "Dead or Alive." Picking up where Tiger left off, "Dead or Alive" is quintessential Tom Clancy. Highly developed, relatable characters and a complex, multi-layered plot that doesn't tip its hand until the very end. One of the biggest complaints many readers have with Clancy novels is the technical nature of much of his writing. However, the layoff must have given him time to refine his writing, because "Dead or Alive" contains very little of the notorious Clancy "techno-drag." The book moved along at a brisk pace and kept me engaged from start to finish. Tom Clancy shows that he has lost none of his storytelling chops with "Dead or Alive." A great book that I encourage you to pick up.

[wings3496_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Tom Clancy's newest addition to his Jack Ryan series falls far short of his past works. The plot slowly plods along, the beginning serving largely as a summary of his past novels and the middle attempting but failing to build tension. The conclusion is stale, and is followed by a lengthy and detailed description of the interrogation of a thinly-veiled Osama Bin Laden stand-in character which can only be described as "torture-porn".

Tom Clancy fans be warned, the author you know and loved in the past is not to be found in this novel.