Jack Stewart tackled an in-depth Tom Clancy Pressure Depth Q&A with me and dropped a lot of inside detail, on the book and also the wider series. To be honest, I’m more excited than ever about what is coming and the fact that Jack Stewart is penning the series.

Read on and I’m sure you will agree that Stewart is the best pair of hands the series could have. He really does know what’s important to the series.

Pressure Depth is an absolutely fantastic and thrilling addition to the series, available September 1st. Don’t miss my full review: Tom Clancy Pressure Depth: Jack Stewart delivers exceptional authenticity

WARNING: spoilers ahead.

Jack Stewart: Writing Journey

SAM HUNTER: You’ve written your own series, Battle Born, teamed up with Chad Robichaux on the Silent Horizons series, and taken on the Presidential Agent series, which I know was one of your favorites growing up — it really came through in Direct Action. And now you are writing in the Ryanverse, another longtime favorite series of yours. That writing journey is truly incredible. Other than the crushing weight of responsibility, word counts, deadlines, endless interviews and publishing tours, that journey has to feel pretty great, right? How does it feel to be the steward of the characters you grew up reading?

JACK STEWART: I’ve read every Tom Clancy novel (some more than once) and proudly display them on my shelf at home. When I started writing, I immediately looked up to the authors that carried the torch after Tom’s passing, including my good friends Mark Greaney, Marc Cameron, and Don Bentley. When Andrews & Wilson and M.P. Woodward took over, I began to consider it a real possibility that I might one day get the opportunity to write novels in the Ryanverse. When the opportunity finally came, it was simultaneously a dream come true and huge weight of responsibility. I wanted to add my own spin to the series while remaining true to the world created by the master and the characters introduced by previous authors. It’s a huge challenge but extremely rewarding.

SAM: Of all the characters you’ve written, which do you see yourself in the most? And which has simply been the most fun to write?

JACK: I don’t really see myself in any of the characters I’ve written, but I enjoy the ones who inject a bit of levity into otherwise tense situations, like Jad and Cary. Don Bentley first introduced those characters, and I really can’t imagine carrying on the series without including them.

Creative Pressure Depth

SAM: The Ryanverse has already covered so much ground. Pressure Depth is the 46th book. What’s your process for finding something new?

JACK: That’s a great question and one I think every author struggles with. For me, I really appreciated the way Andrews & Wilson paid homage to The Hunt for Red October in Act of Defiance. I’d like to see more threats/characters from some of those earlier Clancy novels make a comeback.

SAM: Siren is a late-Cold War Soviet automated weapon with a highly specific physical fail-safe on the outside of the hull. What real-world historical weapons or Soviet “Dead Hand” concepts inspired the creation of Siren, and how did you balance technical plausibility with the fast-paced requirements of a modern undersea thriller?

JACK: At some point, you just have to write a story that’s entertaining. While I based some of the technology in Pressure Depth on real-world weapons and technology, what I really wanted to do was transport the story into a time and place that existed only in the Cold War. Siren was the perfect setting for that.

SAM: In other books you’ve pulled things from Cold War history — I’m thinking the backpack nukes in Declared Hostile. Definitely a similar vibe there to Pressure Depth. And your description of the laser tech in Bogey Spades was very reminiscent of The Cardinal of the Kremlin. Is this your military background coming through, or perhaps your love of history? And is this a trend we will see continue? It certainly brings the series back to its techno-thriller roots in an intriguing and pulse raising way.

JACK: The challenge with the Jack Ryan, Jr. series specifically is that the story should revolve around Junior and a small cast of characters without much external help. Compared to the larger-scale Jack Ryan series that can involve the entire might of the U.S. military, JRJ books need to be smaller in scope. If anything, I’m trying to find ways of pulling back the series from being too technical while focusing more on the clandestine work of The Campus. It doesn’t seem so in Pressure Depth, but I think you’ll see what I mean as the series continues.

SAM: There are multiple call backs in Pressure Depth, and not just to prominent events like with the Red October, but smaller ones too like the Meriwether, or even the smallest of details like where Mary Pat Foley and John Clark meet up to discuss operations. And that’s just to name a few. Just how tapped into the Ryanverse are you, and how do you do it? How do you plan and structure your work to do that, as well as ensuring maintenance of continuity with all that’s past in the series?

JACK: Like I said, I’ve read every book. But it’s a massive universe that is nearly impossible to respect in its entirety. I do try my best to add continuity to the series by including characters and locations from previous books—creating “Easter Eggs” that fans will appreciate—while remaining true to the story. In addition to mentions of events from The Hunt for Red October and Power and Empire (by Marc Cameron), I also included events from Dead or Alive (by Grant Blackwood) and Zero Hour (by Don Bentley). And I added a few nuggets that will connect to The Coldest War (by M.P. Woodward). [Bonus: For those paying attention, they’ll notice the setup for this book in Rules of Engagement (by Ward Larsen)].

Jack Jr’s Evolution and the “Action Tourist”

SAM: Jack Jr. has been a very difficult character over the years, often seen as immature by even the most devoted fans. It’s an irony that he’s the leading character of this half of the Ryanverse, yet has struggled so significantly. Despite that, readers do want him to grow, mature, and ultimately carry the same weight as other characters, such as Jack Ryan Sr. or John Clark. How have you grappled with this, and what direction do you see for Jack Jr.?

JACK: Some authors wrote Jack Ryan, Jr. as a Bond-esque playboy. Some wrote him as a Ryan-esque family man. M.P. Woodward set the tone for his direction before I took over, and I’m trying to flesh Jack Jr. out as a character who grapples with the idea of working with a team versus on his own. For inspiration, I returned to the roots and have modeled my portrayal after the original in The Teeth of the Tiger.

SAM: In Pressure Depth Jack faces a brutal saturation diving environment where he is explicitly the least qualified asset in the water. He even acknowledges more generally that he might not be cut out for naval service. Why choose an environment where Jack is so heavily outclassed, and how do you respond to the critique that Jack is sometimes an “action tourist” struggling to really settle on whether he’s an operator or a financial analyst / venture capitalist? A Jack of all trades, master of none perhaps?

JACK: Again, I’d like to see Jack return more to what Tom Clancy gave us in The Teeth of the Tiger. I think the original idea behind The Campus has evolved over the years, making it just another extension of the larger U.S. military/intelligence apparatus. But the original idea still has merit—using the cover as a financial analyst or venture capitalist to achieve objectives otherwise unattainable. It can’t be done overnight, and we can’t ignore the incredible stories that already exist in the series. But hopefully you’ll see more of that in the future.

SAM: The ending features a massive moment of self-sacrifice for Jack, followed by a slow decompression process where he finally moves past his guilt over Lisanne. Rather than jumping straight into a new romance with Carla Bennett, is Jack heading toward a period of psychological burnout or PTSD over his near death experience, or do you see it as his definitive moment of growing up?

JACK: I don’t see Jack jumping straight into a romance with Carla Bennett. In fact, I don’t see him jumping into a romance with anybody long term. Neither do I see him returning to his Bond-esque playboy ways. Instead, I see Jack maturing and accepting the role he plays within Hendley Associates and The Campus.

SAM: The book ends with President Ryan calling Jack Jr. to thank him, to ask him to come home and talk about what has gone down. The original premise of the series required the Executive branch to have total ignorance of Campus operations. By leaning into this more personal, family business dynamic between father and son, how do you keep the Ryans from feeling politically untouchable?

JACK: Unlike Andrews & Wilson who put the Ryan family dynamics front and center, especially in Executive Power, I intend to keep some distance between Jack Jr. and the rest of the Ryan family. As you said, the premise was to give President Ryan plausible deniability. But I can’t ignore that they still spend time together and probably share at least some stories over a drink after dinner. I just won’t show it.

the Legend: John Clark

SAM: Long-time fans love John Clark. In fact, I think he ranks as the fan favorite of the entire Ryanverse. Given the intense interest in Clark and his legacy, would you ever consider writing a prequel novel to explore his operations in the decades between Without Remorse and The Hunt for Red October? We’ve seen that done before very effectively with Marc Cameron’s Red Winter.

JACK: That’s an excellent suggestion and one that I have also been considering. I think it needs to be done at the right time in the series to work well.

The Campus, Mission, Op Sec, and Continuity

SAM: You mentioned in Pressure Depth that the mission of The Campus has changed over time, from its original mission to hunt and kill terrorists, to something much more broad. What are your personal thoughts on how the mission has changed? 

JACK: After more than twenty years of fighting a war against terrorism around the world, I think many authors (especially those who served overseas) have grown weary of writing about it. I believe many readers have as well. I think The Campus has evolved to take on state-sponsored acts by nations such as North Korea, China, and Russia. But there are still more stories hiding within the shadows, and I think a return to the original premise has merit.

SAM: This broadening of the mission has resulted in many, many, more people learning about The Campus. In Pressure Depth, on a beach in Guam, Jack Jr. essentially explains the entire Hendley Associates front and operational setup to Doug and Carla. Given that absolute deniability is the core foundation of The Campus, how long can the organization realistically survive when its operational security is becoming this vulnerable? Quite a while back I thought it might be over for them when the Chinese attacked their old offices. Is it possible that we could be increasingly closer to them being exposed, and possibly having to use the presidential pardons that are sat in Gerry Hendley’s safe?

JACK: That’s a very good possibility.

SAM: There is a degree of overlap between “Princess”, the Campus AI bot that scrapes and correlates intel data, and MAADN (Metadata Analysis and Distribution Network), the AI intel analyst over at Cyber Cell 6 of the DIA. The latter of course operated by Kyle Ryan, who has proved himself to be quite the out of the box thinker and AI specialist from his earliest mention by Andrews & Wilson. Do you see any possibility of him coming over to The Campus, temporarily or on a more permanent basis? Perhaps bringing MAADN with him and maybe featuring alongside his older brother. The difference in their characters is quite severe and could make for some great contrast.

JACK: Another really good suggestion and one I hadn’t considered before. Just as Clark and Ding were recruited later into The Campus, I could see other Ryanverse characters coming over to the dark side as well.

SAM: The Campus as an organization is the beating heart of the Jack Jr. books.  At the end of Terminal Velocity, M.P. Woodward had a coming together moment for The Campus. This was following a number of years/books where the cohesiveness of early Campus days had been lost. Fans of the series have been asking what happened to a number of Campus characters that seem to have faded into obscurity — Adara Sherman / Dominic Caruso, for example. What is your vision for Campus personnel generally?

JACK: In Pressure Depth, I focused on more of the kinetic end of the organization, relying on recent Campus additions of Kendrick Moore, Jad Mustafa, and Cary Marks. In my next installment, those characters will take a back seat, and we’ll see more of Ding Chavez and Gavin Biery. After that, you might see a new batch of characters. My intent is not to have every character in every book, but a roster of capable people from which to pull from based on the threat and scenario. Obviously, Jack Ryan, Jr. will always be at the center of whatever’s happening.

SAM: M.P. Woodward introduced Master Chief Kendrick Moore, who’s a very likable character but also one who mirrors an earlier John Clark in some ways. He has a past he’s still grappling with, despite President Ryan giving him his Trident back. Pressure Depth features Moore prominently. Do you see Moore on a character arc that eventually sees him as the spiritual successor to John Clark, particularly if Clark is aging out of kinetic operations?

JACK: I’ve always seen Kendrick as the spiritual successor of John Clark, though not as his successor in the organization.

Future Projects

SAM: Your next book in the series is Zero Point. At this early stage, what can you share about that?

JACK: Returning to the roots of using Hendley Associates as a cover for operations, Jack will again stumble upon a threat while executing a white-side operation. Previous authors like Don Bentley and M.P. Woodward did a great job of using this plot device, but I wanted the threat to be less military in nature and more covert. To that end, you’ll find Jack operating between Silicon Valley and Buenos Aires while researching a tech startup to invest in. But he’ll learn that Hendley Associates isn’t the only party interested in the technology. And they intend to blow Jack’s cover to create chaos in South America. Astute readers will find references to Clear and Present Danger inside.

SAM: I’ve been fairly vocal on the idea of you and M.P. Woodward collaborating on a three or four book concept that ties both halves of the Ryanverse together in a way we haven’t seen before. Is this something that interests you? Is it even possible with all the writing logistics for the two of you?

JACK: He and I have discussed ways of connecting the two halves to the series, though I’m not sure how that would work given our schedules and deadlines. We have made some leeway in tying the two series together through minor references, but I’m hopeful that will only strengthen over time. It has long been one of my goals as well, to provide continuity to the Ryanverse as a whole—much like how the early Campus/JRJ novels blended with the Jack Ryan series.

SAM: What other upcoming projects do you have?

JACK: In 2027, we will see the next two books in the series published. Other than that, I have the third book in my Silent Horizons series with Chad Robichaux scheduled to come out as well as a new standalone in the Battle Born universe with the Andrews & Wilson imprint at Blackstone.