Rating:  Summary: Worst Clancy Book, Bad for Any Book Review: How can a great writer do 600 pages of pure snooze material? The Bear and the Dragon dragged on for a long time but was vintage Clancy for the last two hundred pages. This book could have been written in 200 pages and it still would have bored me to death. Maybe he is just to busy to research and write the quality novel that we had come to expect. A true disappointment.
Rating:  Summary: Disappointed - 2 year wait for this?!? Review: Before I discuss this book, I want to say that I have read every novel Tom Clancy has written and loved them all. I look forward (for years sometimes) for his next book. This book was a real disappointment. The plot was shallow, the ending was too easy, and everything was just too simple. Going from earlier novels of multiple plots that weave together to a grand combination... this book falls flat. I recently read an interview with Tom Clancy where he discusses this book. He mentions that this is the first book he wrote without smoking a cigarette. Perhaps, like the character Jack Ryan himself, he should sneak a few to help him with his thought process. The next novel Tom Clancy writes I will also purchase as soon as Amazon.com can ship it BUT, if its like this one, it will be the last time I buy a Clancy novel until I see everyone is raving about it!
Rating:  Summary: Clancy's worst ever Review: I couldn't have been more disappointed with this disaster. Clancy is my favorite fiction writer, and I loved his books up through Executive Orders. But this one was a total loser. Jamming a story in between Patriot Games and Red October was a lousy idea to start with. We already knew Ryan's history, and by definition there couldn't be anything substantive in the book. Besides that, we all knew the Pope had been shot. There were virtually no interesting subplots, just lots of sleepy dialogue that didn't go anywhere. There were more false starts in this book than in any previous novel. Not a single interesting plot twist or thing-gone-wrong. Jack Ryan is such a terrific character - can't we find out what happens to him NEXT? Did we have to go back in time with a poorly conceived, disappointly executed, flat-out BORING story? If you're a real Clancy fan, be prepared for disappointment. No questions this is his worst book ever.
Rating:  Summary: It was ok if ....... Review: If you are a Jack Ryan Fan, you might like it. Not a lot of action. Too much of " the way Clancy sees things". Great background information about the Ryan Universe and its recurring characters. All in all, its worth reading, but I'd recommend waiting for the paperback.
Rating:  Summary: Don't waste your time and money! Review: This book inspired me to write a book review for the first time to try and warn others to stay away from this book. If you're a Tom Clancy fan, don't buy this book! If you must read it, save your money and get a copy from the library. This book is boring, repetitive, poorly written, and filled with Clancy's politics. Time to retire the Jack Ryan character, Tom, and you might want to think about retiring yourself.
Rating:  Summary: Never buy Clancy again Review: Worse than his last book. He is either using a computer to write the dialogue or he has lost it. Does not even sound like english as we speak it. Embarassing. No plot, no action. No comparison to his earlier books. If the name was not Clancy, no publisher would have touched this. Maybe the worst novel I have ever read. Clancy and/or the publisher should give all buyers a refund.
Rating:  Summary: red rabbit Review: 618 pages of BORING. Just not up to his standard. Seems like length has become more important to Mr. Clancy than quality.
Rating:  Summary: Red Rabbit Review: Clancy's latest is a change of pace for the author, a drama and "fictionalization" of real events with very little suspense and action until the end, but even that isn't very much. I thought the book was great. It's a defenite improvement over "The Bear and The Dragon" without so much material that should not have made the final cut. The only problem is that Jack Ryan seems to be in it for no other reason than to have Jack Ryan in it, so until the last few chapters he does nothing more than talk to British intelligence people and his wife. Oleg Zaitzev, the Red Rabbit, and the Foleys are the real main characters here, and I think it would flowed a lot smoother had Clancy decided not to use Ryan at all, or maybe even have brought John Clark into the picture. There may be no suspsence but it still is fast paced and flows together nicely. I would not recommend this for first time Clancy readers however.
Rating:  Summary: Paid by the word? Review: I've read all of Tom Clancy's books and this one is by far the most mediocre. It almost seems that he was being paid either by the word or by the weight of the manuscript. He uses big words where they are not very appropriate as if he was using the thesaurus on his computer. The story is predictable and not that exciting. If he wanted to write a book about baseball teams he should have just done it instead of using it for filler. Altogether very disappointing book.
Rating:  Summary: Good start, slow finish Review: One of Tom Clancy's better recent efforts, particularly the first half or so where he puts together the story. A major improvement over Rainbow Six and The Dragon and the Bear. It is interesting to see the young, pre-president Jack Ryan starting out as a lower-level CIA analyst,and early investory in Starbucks, and follow the Foley husband and wife spy team set up their Moscow operation that will come to fruition in Cardinal In The Kremlin. The story begins to lag heading into the second half as the author tries, it appears, to stretch the story out so the book reaches a Clancy-size 600 plus pages. Clancy recent pentient for using mouthfulls of foul language at innopportune times truly drags the book down even while his command of detail for every situation remains intact. I do recommend the book for avid Clancy fans, but don't expect a it to rival Patriot Games, Cardinal In The Kremlin or Sum Of All Fears.
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