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The Hunt for Red October
Tom Clancy
1984 · Thriller
How it reads
The Hunt for Red October is thriller (military techno-thriller, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.
It's set in the wilderness or at sea, in the recent past, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are war, power and politics and survival. In weight it's light and escapist — easy to fall into.
It opens a series. The ending resolves happily. It's a long book, and a real commitment. It's a mega-bestseller — the book everyone seems to have read.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something tense
- you want a book that pulls you through
- you want an escape
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy or heartwarming
- you want dense, lingering prose
- you want something you can finish this weekend
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- thriller
- Author gender
- male
- Author experience
- early career
- Setting: place
- wilderness or sea
- Setting: time
- recent past
- Mood / feeling
- tense
- Pace
- fast paced
- Tone / weight
- light and escapist
- Length
- long
- Narrative style
- third person, several viewpoints
- Publication era
- modern classic
- Popularity
- mega-bestseller
- Series vs standalone
- first in a series
- Themes
- war, power and politics, survival
- Ending style
- resolved and happy
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
The Bourne IdentityRobert LudlumShares: thriller, tense mood, light and escapist tone, fast paced- The Cardinal Of the KremlinTom ClancyShares: thriller, tense mood, light and escapist tone, fast paced
The Day of the JackalFrederick ForsythShares: thriller, tense mood, light and escapist tone, fast paced
The Pelican BriefJohn GrishamShares: thriller, tense mood, light and escapist tone, fast paced
One by OneRuth WareShares: thriller, tense mood, light and escapist tone, fast paced
The SurgeonTess GerritsenShares: thriller, tense mood, light and escapist tone, fast paced
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