SOURCE: "The Genesis of the Techno-Thriller," in Virginia Quarterly Review, Vol. 69, No. 1, Winter, 1993, pp. 24-40.

In the following excerpt, Ryan explores the origins and defining characteristics of the techno-thriller genre as popularized by Clancy's best-selling novels. Though Clancy is widely regarded as "the wizard inventor of the techno-thriller." Ryan cites literary precedents in the work of Jules Verne.

When Thomas Leo Clancy was a boy in Baltimore, he wanted to be a soldier. His heart beat for the stars and stripes. On good days he could catch the scent of sea spray from Chesapeake Bay. In his student years at Loyola College he carried no signs and made no audible protest. His mind was elsewhere, weighted stem to stern with the lore of the sea and warships. What he really wanted was to fight for his country in Vietnam. This didn't happen. His eyesight was, and is, too...