Not a fan of Tom Clancy's books at all, let alone SSN.
With most writers, I usually prefer to read one or two of their books rather than form an opinion based on their 'reputation' as a good author. To this end, I bought what is probably Tom Clancy's most famous novel, The Hunt for Red October, many years ago and read it. And I was not impressed at all.
In the case of Clancy (admittedly he is not the only action writer guilty of this), I think his writing style is too unwieldly; yes it is very technically accurate in almost every detail, but that often gets in the way of the narrative flow. Nobody would ever
'grab a gun from a desk drawer' in a Clancy book, they'd
'grab a Belgian-made FN Five Seven semi-automatic pistol loaded with ten armor-tipped 5.7x28mm catridges (serial number 265432990), from the third drawer down on the left hand side of the exquisitely-inlaid Florentine-styled boxwood and mahogany Bureau (dimensions 4' 8''x4'10''x9'7''), in the corner of the room'. That's all very well, but when every sentence reads like that, it feels more like you are reading something with notes for a screenplay production office than a fast-paced novel.
On top of all that, nobody in his novels is ever 27th in their class at Quantico (or wherever), they are always the top scorers, the best there is, which tends to make things a bit one-dimensional to say the least. And with the length of Clancy's novels, there would be plenty of pages for character exposition if we didn't have to suffer tedious technical details about every piece of hardware the hero ever comes into contact with.
Of course I wouldn't want it to go to the other extreme - which if anyone remembers the scene in the movie Throw Momma from the Train, is hilariously highlighted when someone with no technical knowledge at all in Billy Crystal's writing class attempts to write a submarine story in that style, but Tom, enough with the technical specifications already!
So although Clancy's novels are clearly great fodder for movies if someone can pare them down, they make great stories, but as a reading experience they aren't that enjoyable. A bit like Bob Dylan really: All Along the Watchtower is a great song, but you'd much rather hear Jimi Hendrix doing it.
Chock