We all know Clancy's work. For the most part, it's pretty good. This, however, is his grand opus (my favorite cartoon penguin, by the way). In Without Remorse we get the back story of Clancy's über badass, Mr. Clark. Every two bit hack (I only aspire to make it all the way to 25₵ someday. On the hack scale, I'm currently about a peso...) who writes espionage fiction has a main character who is a former Navy Seal Green Beret Royal Marine who can sever your head with a pipe cleaner while simultaneously banging the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. While they are festive, they frequently require a little suspended disbelief. Clark, while being a seriously bad man, is more of the social misfit you would expect a professional killer to be. He has normal human failings, makes mistakes, actually gets shot from time to time (unlike the above referenced NSGBRM who can shoot the nuts off a fly at 1,000 yards while the bad guys couldn't hit him if they pulled the trigger with the barrel of their weapons firmly planted up his ass).
We go back in time from Clancy's other works to find out what happened in Clark's past to turn him into the sociopath for the good guys that he became. Once again, knowing how he ended up, it is not surprising to see how life repeatedly kicked him in the 'ol coin purse along the way. After the worst of the bunch, our boy decided to get even and killed pretty much everyone who was even vaguely involved in a dizzying array of creative ways. Good times... good times.
At 639 pages, this is a looooong read. It is filled with enough action, suspense, heartbreak, and mayhem, however, to make it worthwhile. Enjoy......
Nats
