I am currently in the process of re-reading all of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels. As patriotic and occasionally too hero-worshipping as they might be, they still are some of the best stuff I have ever read. After the first 5 novels (and about 5000 pages) and 2 more books to go, I'm wondering why the same story fascinates me again and again.

Probably a lot of Clancy's power comes from the scenarios that he creates and that tend to become reality, e.g. a terrorist flying an airplane into the Capitol building (in Debt of Honor) or the question of whether terror can be fought with war.