Reddit has a fierce community of passionate Tom Clancy and Ryanverse fans. The discussion there is incredibly honest, unfiltered, as well as thorough.

I’ll try to cover the prevailing feelings of the Reddit community fanbase towards the Ryanverse, looking at canonical hierarchy, character development, and stylistic shifts introduced by continuation authors. I’ll also add my own views and comments where I have something useful to add.

What’s quickly apparent from the Reddit community is the prevailing feeling of a sharp demarcation between the Clancy legacy era and the continuation era, with the former predominantly viewed as a masterclass in geopolitical proceduralism and the latter often criticized as an action-oriented departure from the intellectual roots of the series.

However, it’s not quite as straightforward as that. Let’s get into the details.

Canonical Hierarchy

There is a fairly good consensus of a golden age for the Ryanverse. This covers novels published between 1984 and 1996, and in particular The Hunt for Red October, The Cardinal of the Kremlin, and Clear and Present Danger as the definitive benchmarks of the genre. The key to this being the analyst as hero trope, where intellectual labor and technical proficiency are prioritized over physical confrontation. Jack Ryan was the relatable everyman, accidentally thrust into scenarios where his academic background and integrity were his primary weapons.

A key focus of the discussion around this era is the level of technical realism. For fans, who read the books at that time, Clancy’s early writing provided a layman’s guide to complex military systems, acoustics of submarine warfare to the intricacies of strategic defense initiatives. In a time when access to detailed information wasn’t available online, these early books provided an immersive experience that was difficult to get anywhere else.

How the early work stacks up for the Reddit community:

The Reddit community sentiment regarding Without Remorse is particularly nuanced. While it’s consistently ranked as one of the best books in the series, the community is divided on its placement within a reading order. Many suggest that its dark, revenge-driven narrative is an inconsistent starting place for those seeking the traditional Jack Ryan experience. However, it’s also praised as the most human and well-paced story Clancy ever produced. John Clark is seen as the crucial counterbalance to Ryan. Clark is willing to step into the gray, where Ryan is the boy scout. Clark is the ground-level reality of the more removed intelligence work Ryan is primarily focused on.

John Clark’s Evolution

Clark’s transition from the rogue operative of Without Remorse to the leader in Rainbow Six is viewed as a logical progression, though some lament the eventual dilution of the Rainbow concept. I recently covered this somewhat indirectly in my recent article: What happened to Rainbow?

The Reddit community feeling is that Rainbow Six represented a peak of tactical writing, but the organization was subsequently sidelined in favor of The Campus, a move many find redundant and less compelling. The consensus suggests that Rainbow was a wasted opportunity, with the fans expressing a desire for globetrotting tactical adventures centered on Rainbow, rather than the current focus on the Ryan family.

And although I usually keep my focus on the books, I think it’s worth noting the ire generated in the Reddit community by the 2021 Without Remorse film. Total fan rejection. It’s a flashpoint for negative comments, in part because the book and John Clark are so highly regarded, with Clark being the fan favorite, even over Jack Ryan. There’s seen to be a fundamental disconnect between the cinematic portrayal of Clark as a “badass black action hero” and the literary Clark, who is valued for his meticulous planning, his Vietnam-era trauma, and his gradual evolution into a seasoned mentor for the next generation of operators. Along with a fear that these latter attributes may become lost over time if this portrayal continues into a Rainbow Six movie.

The Jack Ryan Jr. Problem and The Campus Era

The introduction of Jack Ryan Jr. and The Campus marks a decline in positive sentiment within the Reddit community. This era, beginning with The Teeth of the Tiger, is often characterized as Clancy-lite or run-of-the-mill thriller fiction. The central grievance is the perceived transformation of the protagonist from an intellectual analyst into a petulant child or an action-hero tourist.

This is where I feel so torn because I feel like disagreeing with a lot of the sentiment but actually agree with significant parts of it. In my view, the two sides of the Ryanverse try to achieve different things. The Jack Sr. side is supposed to be focused on the macro or geopolitical level, with big set piece action in the form of carrier battle groups etc. Whereas the Jack Jr. side of the series is more focused on the micro level, regional or single country operations, and is faster paced and more individual person action orientated. There’s inevitable bleedthrough but I think they differ deliberately to attract a wider range of readers, most of whom will cross over to the other side for related books that are perhaps otherwise just outside their usual wheelhouse. However, I have argued for a more unified approach: One thing the Ryanverse needs from M.P. Woodward and Jack Stewart, and why they are the authors to deliver it.

A frequent question from the Reddit community about The Campus is: what’s the point of a deniable, off-the-books agency that routinely utilizes military personnel and public infrastructure, thereby compromising its supposed mission? The sentiment is that Clancy created The Campus to address post-9/11 realities, but the execution has drifted away from the original Clancy hallmark.

Personally, I don’t see too much of an issue with The Campus, although I agree too many people know about them that don’t need to. And sure, they have drifted—they were straight up assassinating America’s enemies in the beginning, in what was about as dark as John Clark in Without Remorse. Much more of a Gray Man vibe. And, I’d have preferred to have seen Rainbow have a longer run and an enhanced evolution into The Campus, as multinational partners fell away, and the need for a totally deniable organisation became greater than a typical black ops unit.

But at the same time, I do agree with so much criticism of the character of Jack Jr. I want to like him. I want to see great things from him and all the Ryan’s—because the family really does/should represent the best of America. It’s just that Jack Jr. is the exception. It’s as if he’s stuck between trying to be both his father and John Clark, while not being good at being either, and getting pretty mad about it. A Jack of all trades, master of none.

There’s a lot of criticism for his portrayal in Terminal Velocity, and I can’t deny that he was particularly annoying in that book. However, my view on that is M.P. Woodward was doing it deliberately, trying to bookend an era for Jack Jr. Sure, Junior has seen some personal growth over the period before, but he’d never really rounded the corner. Not really. Having him have a big bust up with Lisanne serves as a potential catalyst for a subsequent transformation that could then take place from Pressure Depth onward, under Jack Stewart. I sure hope so, and that Jack Jr. picks whether he’s an analyst or operator, and stops throwing tantrums when he’s asked to do one but wishes he was doing the other. Perhaps it will take a Jack to sort another one out.

Narrative Bloat and Ideological Shifts

Reddit community discussion focuses on the structural changes in Clancy’s writing during the late 90s. The transition from Debt of Honor to Executive Orders and The Bear and the Dragon is marked by the sentiment that Clancy just didn’t have an editor. These novels are frequently described as bloated and repetitive, with the geopolitical conflicts often taking a backseat to Ryan’s domestic political musings.

The inclusion of subplots regarding domestic social issues, such as Roe v. Wade or tax reform in Executive Orders, is viewed by many as serving only to slow down the geopolitical thriller the audience expects.

It’s been years since I read Executive Orders but I can easily recall feeling like Clancy was complaining to me, the reader, about all the higher rate tax he was having to pay as a result of me buying his book by sacrificing what little spending money I had at the time. I think this is where Jack Ryan lost some of his everyman appeal.

Continuation Authors

The sentiment toward the various Ryanverse continuation authors is highly polarized, with each writer often viewed through the lens of their adherence to the Clancy style, which I think is somewhat unfair as times have changed.

Mark Greaney is widely considered the best of the post-Clancy writers, and I don’t disagree, for now. Fans value his ability to maintain a similar style to Clancy while improving the pacing for a modern audience. I expect this was greatly aided by his collaboration with Clancy on three of the seven total novels he wrote for the series. Whereas Grant Blackwood only co-wrote one with Clancy before his solo two. And Peter Telep only ever produced one book, which was co-written. His second co-written book, Search And Destroy, was cancelled. None of the other authors had a chance to work with Clancy.

Greaney’s work on Threat Vector and Command Authority is praised for its surprisingly good integration of The Campus into a world-stage conflict that felt genuinely consequential.

The most recent entries by Andrews & Wilson, specifically Act of Defiance, have generated a cautiously optimistic sentiment. And I couldn’t agree more, despite having flagged some issues in the past with their entries into the series.

Fans have described Act of Defiance as a fan throwback to The Hunt for Red October, although lacking the depth of the original, the feeling is that it successfully captures the grab you by the throat feeling which had been missing from the series for years.

I agree with the former sentiment and am not so convinced by the latter. For me Act of Defiance, and Executive Power, served to refresh because of the introduction of Katie and Kyle Ryan. Andrews & Wilson secured a future for the series through the introduction of these characters. While there’s criticism that these new characters were family members, my view is that they provide ongoing generational links for the series, which allows it to go beyond Jack Sr.

Conclusion: The State of the Ryanverse on r/tomclancy

Community sentiment from r/tomclancy can best be described as protective nostalgia. Fans are deeply invested in the “Old School” Clancy, the methodical, research-heavy, politically complex world of the Cold War and the early 90s. There’s a palpable sense of loss for the depth that Clancy provided, replaced now by a franchise model that prioritizes volume and action over technical excellence.

While continuation authors like Mark Greaney and the duo of Andrews & Wilson are credited with keeping the series alive, the community’s core remains rooted in the analyst as hero setup. Jack Jr. and The Campus are viewed as necessary but flawed expansions of the universe.

Ultimately, the community feeling suggests that while the Ryanverse is no longer peak Clancy, it remains a vital, yet fractured, universe for those who still appreciate a combination of technical capability and moral conviction leading to victory for the good guys.

Again, I’m personally torn. I see the continuation novels as fundamentally different but also as a product of their time. Information is so much more accessible now, and technology so much better understood, that these books don’t need to be what the earliest Clancy books were. However, I do miss the length of the legacy era. Yes, there was some bloat, but I miss being so completely absorbed by a book for weeks.

One comment I saw posted across multiple threads was that The Bear and the Dragon had been so absorbing for one particular reader that he’d found himself driving to work one morning feeling anxious about the fact that Russia and China were actually at war. That’s the kind of peak Clancy I would like to see again.

The current pace of publication means we’re never long without a title to read but I will point you back to my earlier article which argues that the current separation of the Jack Ryan Sr. and Jack Ryan Jr. series into distinct, episodic tracks has created an artificial ceiling on the narrative. While each installment provides a satisfying tactical victory, the siloed nature of these stories often robs the series of the grand, sweeping scale that originally defined the Ryanverse. By moving toward a unified, three or four-book story arc, that bridges the two series, the Ryanverse will embrace a more ambitious vision of storytelling and global strategy, driving reader retention, while also still enabling frequent on ramping of new readers.

I think this is something that can be delivered. I also think M.P. Woodward and Jack Stewart are the ones to deliver this. I hope they stick around long enough to make it happen and embed it moving forward.