'The Sum of All Fears' starts off rather slowly. The beginning deals with Jack Ryan's headaches as the number two man in the CIA and waging political battles with the President and members of his cabinet. Meanwhile, around the world, communist-arab-native American terrorists recieve manna from heaven- an atomic bomb. While most of the novel deals with preparing the bomb and Ryan's own personal and proffesional problems, The last two hundred pages are among the most thrilling ever written. The terrorists' atomic bomb is only the begginning of a much larger plan to bring the world, not just the USA, to it's knees. The payoff of this novel makes the whole thing worth while. In addition it acts almost as a manual for creating your own atomic weapons, should the need arise.