Tom Clancy, in the course of two decades, has single-handedly created a new thriller genre, franchised his name into audio, movies, and computer games, and sold over a hundred million copies of his military and espionage thrillers worldwide. One of only a select group of authors whose hardcover releases are launched with multi-million copy printings, Clancy is more than a writer, he is an institution. Comparing Clancy to animator and studio head Walt Disney, Jeff Zaleski wrote in Publishers Weekly that Clancy "is the producer of a distinctive and innovative body of work, a brand name much as Disney is."

Known for his hugely successful, detailed novels about espionage, the U.S. military, and advanced military technology, Clancy was proclaimed "king of the techno-thriller" by Patrick Anderson in the New York Times Magazine. Since the 1984 publication of his first novel, The Hunt for Red October, each of his...