The Kardinal of the Kremlin was not my first book from Tom Clancy, as I read the series in chronological order.
And the story has improved immensely so far, this is mostly thanks to the author’s special style of writing.
In my opinion, in that genre, there is no other writer who writes so authentic. His stories are always very well researched, very detailed and a pleasure to read.
However, the amount of information and character makes it difficult to get into the story. It takes time to keep the different characters apart, especially the ones on the Russian side. There is so much going on at the same time, that you encounter more than just one plot, which makes it sometimes difficult to keep track of the incidents. I was impressed at how Tom Clancy described Jack Ryan in this book, it seemed to me as if Ryan could finally settle into his role with the CIA, his struggles are a matter of the past.
Kardinal of the Kremlin is not a fast-paced read and has a large number of inputs, therefore needs a lot of concentration to get through the story. I often had problems keeping apart the Russian military ranks and names, they sounded all so similar. As I overcame that hurdle, the pleasure of an interesting read could begin.
