Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

"I swear - by my life and my love of it - that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine"

"Who is John Galt"

Thus begins the epic of Atlas Shrugged. I refer to this book as an epic as it cannot be classified as a novel and neither as a philosophiical treatise and surely, 1074 pages defend its definition as an epic.

Atlas Shrugged describes a world where prime movers go on strike. Prime movers are the creators, the intellectuals. Second handers live and feed off the creators. The question is why the creators allow the second handers to feed on them? Why has this kept happenning throughout the history? What will happen to the world if there are no creators or prime movers? Atlas Shrugged is a quest to understand why the world is controlled by second handers and what would happen to the world without the prime movers.

Crudely speaking, Atlas Shrugged defends selfishness by defining it as moral right of man to charge others for products of his brain. It does not limit selfishness to businessment alone but also includes artist wanting proper recognition for their work.

Atlas Shrugged has got a host of characters each with an independent view of what he/she is doing and the logic behind his/her actions. Here I would like to discuss the cast of characters but a little mistake on my part would spoil the book for future readers. I had to read the book twice to get the complete meaning and I plan to read it a third time in the near future too.

Atlas Shrugged is a must read for any serious reader but at 1074 pages with miniscule print, it requires serious effort to complete this book.

Debt of honor by Tom Clancy

"Fundamentally, honor itself is a debt, a code of behaviour, a promise, something inside yourself that you owe to the others
who saw it in you"

Author's Background
Tom Clancy has neither a naval nor an intelligence background.Still, his extensive research into military strategies and modern warfare has led to a new breed of thriller fictions. His books are usually, military simulations of What if? scenarios. USP of his novel is the breathtaking realism. He has lectured at the CIA and also been consulted by international intelligence experts.

Review
Jack Ryan is the protagonist of Debt of Honor. Jack Ryan is a character created by Tom Clancy and is the central figure in manny of his novels. He was never a CIA field officer but an intelligence analyst with a knack for financial markets. In this book, he returns to work for the Government as 'National Security Advisor' to the President.
The novel starts with USA and Russia destroying all of their nuclear missiles. Japan decides to take advantage of this situation and takes on the might of the USA in order to gain superpower status. Years of cut backs have left US army depleted and Japan takes advantage of this. Japan attacks American financial system alongside the US army. Japan occupies the strategic island of Saipan which it invaded in World War II and which was freed by the Allied forces. Japan has also developed nuclear warheads to act as deterrent.Also, India is in the process of invading Sri Lanka.
With financial markets in turmoil, economy creeping towards depression, navy crippled by a preemptive strike from Japan and engaged on two sides in Indian Ocean by India & Japan coupled with elections closeby result in chaos in US Government. America's response to each of these threats and the shift in balance of power worldwide forms the crux of the novel.
Debt of Honor is arguably Tom Clancy's best work and his most famous novel. This is because in it, he predicts a 9/11 kind of attack with an aircraft slamming into a major American landmark with devastating consequences. The only negative point about the novel is its sheer volume - 990 pages but if you can sit through it, it is worth it