Marc Cameron's Code of Honor (and a Giveaway)
Shortly before starting Code of Honor, I couldn’t remember the last time I had read a book based in the Tom Clancy universe. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good Jack Ryan novel, but somewhere along the way I got sidetracked with something else and never made it back to those stories. Strangely enough, a week or two before I heard that Marc Cameron was coming to Vero Beach Book Center to promote his latest book in the series, my husband and I were talking about a different character in the universe who he felt was actually a better character than Jack Ryan, John Clark, a.k.a. John Kelly. My interested piqued, I started the John Clark origin story, Without Remorse, and was about a third of the way through when I heard about Mr. Cameron and Code of Honor. I’m embarrassed to say that until then, I hadn’t even realized that after Tom Clancy’s death the publisher had chosen a series of people to carry on the stories of the characters that he had created. Marc Cameron is the latest to have been chosen.
Since the signing was coming up quickly, I put aside Without Remorse and started Code of Honor. To be honest here, setting it aside was no great tragedy for me as I was having trouble immersing myself in John Kelly’s story and had just been trudging through in hopes that the momentum would pick up. I just couldn’t seem to get into it. That was not the case with Code of Honor. From the first chapter, I steamed quickly through and found it to be much more smoothly written.
One of my hangups with the older book was that I felt like it was jumping from one scenario to another too frequently, and I was reorienting myself to each story line so much that I was losing the flow of the story. It felt disjointed, and as a result, I was having to make myself read it. Code of Honor similarly had more than one story line in the beginning, but the transitions were seamless, and I never wondered what was going on. Instead, I rolled right through it effortlessly and only begrudgingly put it down on occasion to go about adulting. (For tonight, I’m casting aside the “no adverbs” rule. Did you notice?)
As you might imagine, after several decades of adventures, Jack Ryan and John Clark are getting a little long in the tooth, so the universe has to take their age into account and add in some young blood. I just might enjoy this stage of the game even more than I did the original one. What Clark lacks in youth, he makes up for in wisdom. and the younger players show an appropriate amount of gratitude for it coupled with a healthy amount of “I’ll do what I want”. They work smoothly as a team, and the characters were well developed enough that I was quickly invested in them.
Mr. Cameron created a thought provoking plot, too, perfect for this age of technology and terrifying in its plausibility. It has led to many deep and fascinating dinner conversations with friends who enjoy such things and still makes me question how much I like being able to have Alexa turn on the lights in the other room.
I enjoyed Cameron’s writing style and story structure and look forward to his next Clancy book and to starting some of his other series. As a matter of fact, his next book, Stone Cross, is the second in the Arliss Cutter series, and it comes out March 31, 2020. Since I’m only one behind in that series, I think I’ll start it. Hopefully he’ll make another pass through Vero to promote this new book, too, and I can get a couple of signed copies of both of these—one to keep and one to give away!
What I do have right now, though, is a signed copy of Code of Honor for one lucky reader. To be entered to win, simply subscribe to this blog if you haven’t already and follow me on social media: Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The subscription is your first chance, and you get an additional one for each follow. For extra chances, share this post on any of these social media sites, but be sure to tag me in the post, or I won’t know you did it! One extra chance for each share, and you can do so as many times on each medium as you like between now and the giveaway. Winner will be announced Thursday, March 5, 2020. If you already subscribe and follow all those places, your first share gets you five chances, and you get one additional with each additional share. If you already subscribe and follow one place, your first share gets you three chances, and so on. But be sure to tag me in the shares so that I know you’ve done it and can give you your entries.
Many thanks to Mr. Marc Cameron for allowing me to do this giveaway and for being the most gracious writer I have ever met, Cynthia at Vero Beach Book Center for always being so beautifully supportive, and you wonderful readers for following along.
Stay tuned for my next giveaway, Jill Santopolo’s More Than Words.
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