The Sum of All Fears
- 914
- Pages
- about 17 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“The Sum of All Fears” is a tense political thriller on a grand scale, in which a terrorist plot pushes two superpowers toward nuclear war. Tom Clancy runs many threads at once, from diplomacy to espionage, and his appetite for technical detail is part of the appeal. The characters are drawn fully enough to carry the politics. At more than nine hundred pages, this Jack Ryan novel takes time and repays it with many-layered plotting.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Sum of All Fears is a political thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and released on August 14, 1991, as the sequel to Clear and Present Danger (1989). The main character Jack Ryan, who is now the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, tries to stop a crisis concerning the Middle East peace process wherein Palestinian and former East German terrorists conspire to bring the United States and Soviet Union into a nuclear war. It debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list.
Reading order · Ryanverse
Full order & progress →- The Hunt for Red OctoberStart here
8.08.0 / 10 - Patriot Games
7.67.6 / 10 - The Cardinal of the Kremlin
–Not ranked yet - Clear and Present Danger
7.77.7 / 10 - The Sum of All FearsThis book
7.67.6 / 10 - Without Remorse
7.97.9 / 10 - Debt of Honor
7.67.6 / 10 - Executive Orders
7.77.7 / 10 - Rainbow Six
7.77.7 / 10 - The Bear and the Dragon
7.47.4 / 10 - Red Rabbit
7.27.2 / 10 - The Teeth of the Tiger
7.37.3 / 10 - Dead or Alive
7.47.4 / 10 - Locked On
–Not ranked yet - Threat Vector
7.77.7 / 10 - Command Authority
–Not ranked yet - Full Force and EffectFull Force and Effect–Not ranked yet
- Support and Defend
–Not ranked yet - Commander in Chief
–Not ranked yet - Under FireUnder Fire–Not ranked yet
- Duty and HonorDuty and Honor–Not ranked yet
- True Faith and AllegianceTrue Faith and Allegiance–Not ranked yet
- Point of ContactPoint of Contact–Not ranked yet
- Power and Empire
–Not ranked yet - Line of SightLine of Sight–Not ranked yet
- Code of Honor
–Not ranked yet - Enemy Contact
–Not ranked yet - Firing PointFiring Point–Not ranked yet
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.5 across 200 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 58% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Thriller average of 7.6. That is how 7.6 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.0 | 23 | 12% |
| Hardcover | 7.6 | 177 | 89% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Sum of All Fears?
It has 914 pages — longer than 99% of the ranked books in Thriller.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Thriller — with scores between 7.5 and 7.6, closest to this book.
