Andy Levy ( @andylevy )from Red Eye just tweeted about The Hunt For Red October amking fun of the fashions and the huge laptops and cell phones. That made me think - most people probably don't realize what a cultural impact that novel had.
When it was published in 1985 very few military techological thrillers were being written, even fewer that showed the US military in a positive light. The first review I read of the book was in the Proceedings of the Naval Institute and as I recall that was one of the first points made the second was the amazing accuracy. A couple months after reading that review I read another that mentioned that Tom Clancy had been questioned extensively because no one in the government could believe he had written this book without someone slipping him classified data.
He must have convinced the CIA et al because the didn't throw him into one of their numerous secret prisons and the genre exploded. Larry Bond, Harold Coyle, David Poyer all hopped on board and I had reading material for the next 20 years. Clancy continued to write and now has entire sections of bookstores devoted too him. It was pretty damn amazing.
Through it all though Red October has remained my favorite Clancy novel. It had the cleanest story and I thought it was the most engaging.
Anyway just thought I would share.
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