Believe it or not but a vast majority of readers have no interest drowning in materiel specs while reading a book.

Ridiculous, I know. I had the same reaction when someone recommended I read the abridged Moby Dick(without knowing I've read the unabridged thrice), because who wants to hear about all those random whale facts?

Random whale counterfactuals too - remember the insistence that whales are fish?

I don't remember it that way. I took it more more as being about the definition of "fish", and demonstrating that whalers don't think about things the same way that non-whalers do. It's not ignorance; he acknowledges repeatedly throughout that whales breathe air, and nurse their young, and other mammalian traits.

From a phylogenetic perspective, whales are fish.

So are we.

not a counterfactual. "fish" was a legal definition which allowed hunting.

yeah, they get called fish (something that swims, like modern military torpedo), but the whalers knew they were not

> Believe it or not but a vast majority of readers have no interest drowning in materiel specs while reading a book

But surely Tom Clancy fans DO like reading this stuff? There isn't much else!

> because who wants to hear about all those random whale facts?

well, me at least - some of the best bits of the book (one of my favourites)

Never really understood why people like Tom Clancy, it's not as if it's enjoyable to read about a bunch of mililtary hardware. At least with Dan Brown you've got a load of interesting mysteries and locations to get off on.

(more seriously: I think both authors understand their markets and are savvy about delivering what they want, critics be damned)

re: clancy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo8FhChnyq0