Andrews & Wilson are the best-selling authors behind multiple series: Tier One, Sons of Valor, The Shepherds. Defense Protocol is their second entry into the Jack Ryan series after their series debut in May 2024 with Act of Defiance.

The stakes are sky-high when a power-mad Chinese president threatens Taiwan. Chinese President Li Jian Jun is done fooling around. He’s devised a secret military operation to take the island. Only one man knows how to stop Li’s mad and bloody plan for reunification and that’s Minister of Defense Qin Haiyu. Fearing for his life and the safety of his family, Qin covertly makes contact with the CIA in Beijing and signals his desire to defect to the West. To get Qin out, John Clark creates an international task force reminiscent of Rainbow Six and goes undercover in mainland China. Meanwhile, Lt. Commander Katie Ryan is deployed to the tip of the spear on the destroyer USS Jason Dunham to defend Taiwan. Threatened by an encircling Chinese armada, she’s under pressure to find a flaw in the invaders’ plan for her father to exploit.

If you’ve read my review of Act of Defiance then you’ll know I think Andrews & Wilson are a great addition to the series. With Defense Protocol they’ve once again delivered a thrilling instalment in the Jack Ryan series. While this is a Jack Ryan senior book, it wasn’t dominated by him. Andrews & Wilson have continued to develop the character of Katie Ryan. She’s his youngest daughter and a naval intelligence officer. With her, Andrews & Wilson have created an analogue to President Jack Ryan in his younger years when he was a CIA analyst.

In my view, Katie is set to become a pivotal character in the series for the long-term. She may or may not get spun off into her own series but I have a feeling she’ll follow in her father’s footsteps. Chapter 1 foreshadows this when Katie says to her father “I’ll leave leading running the country to you.” And her father thinks “Your time will come, daughter.” Jack Ryan revisits this thought at the end of the book, imagining his daughter sitting at the Resolute desk in the not-too-distant future.

The plot of Defense Protocol was solid. China invading Taiwan has long been a possibility, if not an almost certain probability. Andrews & Wilson explained on the Spies Lies & Private Eyes podcast that an invasion could easily happen but it would be the political fallout that China would find hard to deal with. And so this book focuses very much on that dynamic. President Li is building the groundwork to enable an invasion. Meanwhile, Defense Minister Qin is desperately trying to avert a war.

As this scenario was beginning to build up, it reminded me very much of earlier Clancy books, in particular The Bear and The Dragon. It felt very much that Andrews & Wilson were building a true international set piece. In The Bear and The Dragon the US fought in a war along side a Russia that had been admitted to NATO, against China. Russia being admitted to NATO seems unthinkable now but back in the late 90s it was not quite such a far fetched idea. And at the end of that book President Ryan gave diplomatic status to Taiwan. So as I read Defense Protocol, I felt there was a real possibility of it turning into a shooting war, where this time the US would be once again at war with China.

The more I read, the more it was confirmed to me that Andrews & Wilson have truly captured the essence of the earliest books in the series, although perhaps without the 1000+ pages of The Bear and The Dragon. It’s the same feeling I had with Act of Defiance, a worthy successor to The Hunt For Red October.

A new character for this book who was really well developed was Qiū Léi (The Night Spider). She was a CIA asset in China. I came to like her very quickly and felt she was credibly fleshed out. The backstory worthy of a book in its own right. I did, however, notice that her name was mis-spelled at least once later in the book, which confused me for a moment. Unfortunately, I also spotted inconsistency elsewhere with another character first being described as from the SBS, and then later from SAS. I know it’s incredibly difficult for authors to be faultless throughout a book, and here it didn’t really take away from the story. I’m such a fan of the series I’ve said on X to editor Tom Colgan that I’m ready to jump in, pre-publication, to look for these things.

The SBS operator was Daniel Wu, part of Task Force 99, A Rainbow-esque unit put together by John Clark as he is pulled out of “retirement”. I was initially pumped at this idea because Clark is probably my favourite character and the Rainbow days were legendary. So I was pleased that the go-to group of operators wasn’t the Campus. It was nice to break the mold a little – this also includes Katie Ryan and her Task Force 25.

The conversation in the oval office about the formation of Task Force 99 and the possibility of John Clark not making it back alive had me really contemplating what kind of end we might see for Clark, not for the first time. But thankfully, I know we will at least seem him one more time in M.P. Woodward’s next book Line of Demarcation. I had hoped for a strong and nostalgic Rainbow-esque moment for Clark but it wasn’t quite pulled off as much as Act of Defiance was for The Hunt for The Red October. It was, however, enjoyable and nice to see Clark operating with a different set of people. The Maldives operation was solid, and so was the later operation in China. I did think that Andrews & Wilson portrayed Clark as a little more hot headed than I have come to know him. For me he has always been the mature and cool headed leadership, particularly in reflection to Ding and later Jack Jr.

The rest of the plot came together nicely. I was kept on my toes, wondering whether the defense minister would get extracted, be killed, or become an agent in place. And although there wasn’t the an out shooting war, there was more than enough missiles loosed to give me thrills. I absolutely loved the naval blockade busting part and want to see more naval set pieces in the future from Andrews & Wilson. I think they have the experience for it and Clancy fans would eat it up.

Overall, this was another solid delivery from Andrews & Wilson, who are steadily cementing themselves as worthy successors to Clancy himself. I am looking forward to their third instalment coming December 2025.