Op-Center Books in Order: How to read Tom Clancy’s series?

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In truth, this is not really some pure Clancy goodness. Tom Clancy’s Op-Center is a series created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik. They didn’t even write the novels. The first 12 books were written by Jeff Rovin. Then in 2014, the series got rebooted by Dick Couch and George Galdorisi.

The series talks about the National Crisis Management Center, also called ‘Op-Center’. It’s an organization with its own paramilitary response team that deals with domestic and international crises.

Tom Clancy’s Op-Center Books in Order:

I. The first Op-Center series in order

As I said before, there’s a first series entirely written by Jeff Rovin, published between 1995 and 2005.

  1. Tom Clancy’s Op-Center – Anti-unification terrorists in Korea trying to provoke a new war with North Korea. Op-Center must deal with it.
  2. Mirror Image – The new President of Russia is trying to create a democratic regime. But there are strong elements within the country that are trying to stop him. Op-Center begins a race against the clock and against the hardliners. Their task is made even more difficult by the discovery of a Russian counterpart…
  3. Games of State – It is the beginning of Chaos Days, a time when Neo-Nazi groups gather to spread violence and resurrect bad dreams. But this year, Germany isn’t the only target. Plans are afoot to destabilize Europe and cause turmoil throughout the United States. Paul Hood and his team, already in Germany become entangled in the crisis.
  1. Acts of War – Syrian terrorists have attacked a dam inside the borders of Turkey, threatening the water supply of their very homeland. It is the first step in a plan to force an all-out war in the Middle East. A new Regional Op-Center is now online in Greece, and its team can see exactly what the rebels are trying to do.
  2. Balance of Power – Spain is a nation poised to suffer its worst internal strife in centuries. Certain well-placed Spanish diplomats sense it. Op-Center intelligence corroborates it. All the United States and Spain have to do is find a way to avert it. Before they can, an Op-Center representative is assassinated in Madrid on her way to a top-secret meeting. Now all fears are confirmed. Someone very powerful wants another Spanish civil war – no matter what the cost.
  3. State of Siege – Driven by greed, a group of UN peacekeeping soldiers becomes involved in activities on the wrong side of the law. When their tour of duty ends, the mayhem begins. Calling themselves the ‘Keepers,’ the rogue soldiers devise a shocking scheme to get the world’s attention…
  1. Divide and Conquer – Shadowy elements within the State Department secretly cause tensions to flare between Iran and the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. They hope to start a shooting war to increase their own power and profit. At the same time, the conspirators decide to up the ante by deposing the president of the United States. In a treacherous scheme, they convince the president that he is mentally unstable, and a silent coup d’etat is within their reach.
  2. Line of Control – Cut off and without support, the Striker Team has to fend for their survival on the line of demarcation between India and Pakistan.
  3. Mission of Honor – A group of African militiamen kidnapped a priest and ordered all Catholic missionaries to leave the nation of Botswana. Op-Center finds out that the real purpose of the crime is a plan by outside forces to destabilize the government and seize the nation’s diamond mines.
  1. Sea of Fire – A half-dead Singapore pirate is plucked from the Celebes Sea in the Western Pacific, setting off alarms halfway around the world in Washington, D.C. Traces of radiation are found on the man, causing Australian officials to call in Op-Center for a top-secret investigation of nuclear disposal sites.
  2. Call to Treason – The Op-Center’s budget is slashed, leaving General Mike Rodgers in the market for a new job. When presidential candidate Senator Donald Orr recruits Rodgers to act as his military advisor, it sounds like a perfect transition. There’s just one problem. A spree of deaths may be tied to Orr’s presidential run and Rodgers must decide whether to sign on or shut it down.
  3. War of Eagles – The explosion of a Chinese freighter in Charleston Harbor is the first sign that someone is capping Chinese interests abroad. Now under the control of the Pentagon, Op-Center is unsure of its own future–but must root out the cause of the attacks before the entire world is affected.

II. The Op-Center reboot

So, nine years after the end of the original series, Op-Center got rebooted by Dick Couch and George Galdorisi. They co-wrote the first two, Galdorisi was alone on the third one then co-wrote the fourth with Jeff Rovin.

  1. Out of the Ashes – When terrorists detonate bombs in sports stadiums around the country-leaving men, women, and children dead or mutilated-the president executes an emergency order to reboot Op-Center. A renegade Saudi prince with ambitions of controlling the world’s oil supply has an ingenious plot to manipulate America into attacking Syria and launching a war against Iran.
  2. Into the Fire – When a team of assassins murders a high-ranking North Korean general and his family in their sleep, making it look like a robbery, events are set in motion that could shake the balance of world powers. Meanwhile, a U.S. naval combat ship is attacked by North Korean forces in the middle of a training exercise, and Commander Kate Bigelow is forced to ground the ship to avoid being captured. The crew takes refuge on a tiny island, trapped dangerously between the grounded ship and a fleet of hostile North Korean soldiers.
  3. Scorched Earth – General Bob Underwood is en route to the Syrian city of Al-Bukamal when a rocket-propelled grenade strikes the side of his Humvee and the heavily armored convoy comes under attack. The general’s bodyguard is brutally murdered, and Underwood himself is viciously beheaded by an ISIL leader. With everything in the balance, Op-Center must assemble both its domestic strike force, as well as its international intervention force to stay one step ahead of a ruthless enemy.
  1. Dark Zone – Former US Ambassador to the Ukrainian Douglas Flannery meets with an old friend and former spy near New York’s South Street Seaport. She is seeking his help to thwart a Russian plan to overrun her native Ukraine, but she’s killed. Within hours, Op-Center learns of the killing and alarm bells go off.
  2. For Honor – In 1962, at the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union sent a convoy of nuclear missiles to Cuba. While all eyes were on the Caribbean, not all of the missiles were sent to Cuba. A silo was constructed not far from Alaska. More than sixty years later, that silo and its lethal contents are intact. Now, Iranian scientists team with a Russian agent to bring those missiles to Tehran. When an intel officer at Op Center starts picking up hints of the deal, the government’s off-the-grid unit must track the unknown actors.
  3. Sting of the Wasp – It’s a beautiful day in Manhattan as excited tourists board the floating Air & Space Museum on the USS Intrepid-until a horrible explosion rips across the flight deck, showering the body parts of innocent people everywhere. The perpetrator is none other than Captain Ahmed Salehi, an Iranian mastermind whose last terrorism plot was foiled at the last minute by Op-Center. Back in Washington, unbeknownst to America’s enemies, director Chase Williams has been put in charge of a brand-new, top-secret covert attack team known only as BLACK WASP.
  1. God of War – After three attacks, the world is facing a devastating bio-terror event, and a game of brinksmanship gets underway as the major powers jockey for position. Back in Washington D.C., Chase Williams and his top-secret Black Wasp special ops team must find out who is behind these deadly attacks before war is unleashed-and millions of innocent lives are lost.
  2. The Black Order – They are known as the Black Order. Self-proclaimed patriots and survivalists, they refuse to surrender their values and beliefs to the left-leaning cultural and progressive forces threatening their nation. Military veterans and high-tech specialists, they’ve begun a savage war that includes public assassinations of politicians and celebrities and high-profile bombings, striking without warning or mercy. Only Op-Center’s Black Wasp can defeat these militant revolutionaries. But even as Admiral Chase Williams and his agents force them on the run, the Black Order possesses a weapon of mass destruction that they will not hesitate to unleash against millions of innocent civilians.
  3. Call of Duty – When the launch of their powerful new hypersonic missile ends in destruction, the Chinese government needs someone to blame. Was it a failure of engineering, or sabotage? The chief engineer on the project, Dr. Yang Dàyóu, is targeted as the scapegoat and arrested-unable to help his family as they are hunted down by the military. Op-Center’s Lt. Grace Lee is sent to China on a solo reconnaissance mission, but when she sees an opportunity to free the imprisoned scientist, she seizes it.

  1. Fallout – After successfully extricating one of Beijing’s top scientists from captivity and escorting him to America, the Black Wasp commandos find themselves targeted by Chinese assassins. The killers are not only highly trained but invisible, launching tactical strikes from multiple embassies in Washington, D.C. The Chinese squad has also infiltrated American intelligence and is aware of every move Black Wasp makes. Complicating matters, the new president of the United States seems willing to let Op Center take the fall for the mission that precipitated the crisis.

If you like our article about the Tom Clancy’s OP Center reading order, don’t forget to bookmark it! You may also be interested in SIGMA Force by James Rollins, Jack West Jr. by Matthew Reilly, Nina Wilde & Eddie Chase by Andy McDermott, Dirk Pitt by Clive Cussler.

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8 Comments

  1. I had a hard time keeping up w/the series after retiring on disability from the NSA from brain surgeries. I don’t have all the books after Sum of all Fears, and when we moved most were misplaced, thrown out or ruined when the cellar to where we are renting flooded. I might have one of the OP-Center books. Trying to find them is also a challenge!

    1. Try your local library. In some states, a local Library can obtainthe book(s) from another library in the state. Ask at the reference desks. EASY to join a library. Just bring a piece of mail (envelope w cancelled stamp) & yr name on it.

    2. If you are physically disabled your physician can hook you up with the National LiBrary Service, NLS. Your local library can assist you in facilitating this. Don’t take no for an answer. You should qualify. If you are a vet so much the better and not necessary. You will be hooked in to tens of thousands of booksc etc. Downl;oad to your cojputer and then to the thumbdrive for the reader. The reader also should be availale vis NLS, all things being equal. This is a service for the blind and handicapped. I am legally blind and have benefitted greatly. I read (listen) voatiously. Incidently almost all of the Tom Clancy books are available on the NLS website for free downloading. Your libarary should have someone in charge of the NLS probram and should be there to assist you to this end. Good Luck

    1. I’ve only read the first seven – so I can only speak to the earlier series. I suppose they could be read in random order. Each is somewhat standalone and fills in enough from earlier books to bring you up to speed. However, I would think you would enjoy them more if you read them in order. The personal stories and interrelationships of the principal characters develop over multiple books.

  2. I’m almost done with the first eight myself. Can be read in random order coz they give context from the previous books but I personally enjoy reading in order. I was also looking back at the time references, and I think that at least from Acts of War to Line of Control (ie Bekaa Valley to the India-Pakistan border), 5 books at least, is only a matter of weeks! Quite thrilling too.

    I am still missing 9 to 11 so I’m scouring resellers for them (I’m just looking for mass market paperbacks, even secondhand ones, which are two dollars a pop), then I have War of the Eagles and that completes the first set.

    Second set I only have Out of the Ashes, I might wait a bit since the others are relatively newer and could be more expensive. I mean relatively of course: I’d probably be shelling out 5-10 bucks for the newer ones, still cheap in the grand scheme of things.

    I’m also following Net Force, which is gladly still alive, and am 3 books shy of completing the Power Plays series (probably the least enjoyable of the spinoff series for me tbh, still sad that they were discontinued).

    1. Try going to use book stores or Goodwill. You can get these books for a lot less. I’ve seen the original Op-Center series at Goodwill or Thrift stores.

  3. Are the books connected? Someone gifted me “Balance of Power”, “Mission of Honor” and “Against all Enemies”, but I’m not planning on buying the ones before yet. Can I read them like that?

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