Rating: 
Summary: Editors wanted
Review: The book was not the best one that Clancy has written but not his worst either. He does a great job showing the reader how the military work and also the political side. The Chinese at times are shown a little too one dimensional but I have no problem with that. The last 200 pages are excellent in showing the US military in operation. As my title of this review state an editor would have been nice. The book runs too long at times and sometime it is repetitive on some issue. Such as the constant fixation of the CIA agent's "sausage" and Russian prostitution. I also agree with some reviewers that Ryan whining as President gets tiring. But overall the book is very good but not perfect. I also have no problem reading a long book but I do like them tidy.
Rating: 
Summary: waste of a weekend
Review: Really disappointing, although I've been a fan of Clancy since the 80's. Maybe that's why he gets the 2nd star. One of the things I really loved about Clancy's stories was the attention to detail and accuracy. It made the stories believable and realistic. You could tell that he really researched everything. Now I get the feeling that he's getting lazy, and just spouts what he feels like without checking facts. He and his publishers can afford to do it right, even the best writers need a disciplined editor, and readers deserve that respect. After the disappointment of "Special Forces," I'm done with him as soon as I finish this story (yes, it is that good).The plot devices in this one are more far-fetched than ever, with no attempt at explanations to make them plausible (Chinese politburo secretary visits secret CIA boyfriend every night and surfs internet with top-secret computer, but nobody asks questions?; Russia simultaneously discovers biggest-ever gold and oil reserves in northeast Siberia just as China runs out of cash, but nobody puts 2 & 2 together except the readers?) More strident than ever is Clancy's usual political whining and contempt of people he doesn't like ... "diplo-jerks," "pshrinks," "ivory-tower theoreticians" (who foolishly think preventing war is more important than the life of a spy). Pages and pages of Baptist preachers spouting about how the Chinese know God is powerful and are afraid because they will burn in hell. He says over and over that Chinese-Americans don't serve their government, can't be trusted for loyalty. Come on, how many white American spies are there? How many Israeli-Americans are spies? Not many, but sure a bigger percentage than Chinese. I don't know how many comments on the side about sex in the Oval Office and the "mess in Yugoslavia." Ok, so Clancy didn't like Clinton, I don't read a fiction novel so that I can be reminded 15 times of that. Proofreading is sloppier than ever-- "Leonardo di Vinci," "cui bonuo," "Paulo" as an Italian name (actually Paolo), just to name a few. Sure it's [picky], but it's the most obvious sign of poor attention to detail. Clancy's success has gone to his head, and he's lost respect for his readers. He cares more about his own opinion than creating a good story or putting out good factual information. That's two strikes in a row; I'll read his good oldies again, but no more new stuff. Too many other good books are out there.
Rating:
Summary: Close, but not quite
Review: While Tom Clancy's fascination for military technology led to his creation of the "techno-thriller", with each new book he also expanded the personalities and politics in his make-believe reality. Unfortunately, The Bear and the Dragon seems to lose its way by comparison to his earlier novels, like Red October or Patriot Games. Though the story runs along at a good pace, it suffers from repeated scene changes between Washington, Moscow, and Beijing, with a dateline that can disorientate. It is rendered even more difficult by the inclusion of enough characters-with-long-names-that-you-can't-pronounce to fill Carnegie Hall, an overload of acronyms, and minimal character development. Having said all that, Clancy's hallmarks are his ability to blend realism and authenticity with intricate plotting and razor-sharp suspense. The Bear and The Dragon achieves what it sets out to do. As usual, the plot is way over the top, with subplots erupting like weeping carbuncles all over the place, and strange characters being unpleasant to each other every few pages. Even so, Clancy finds time to insert his usual non-too-subtle lessons on the vileness of Communism, the (unfair) intrusions of the press on presidential power, the sexual perversions of Mao (and anybody else who's not 110% American), the poor quality of Russian pistol silencers (and anything else that wasn's built in hometown America), the folly of cutting a man's throat with a knife (apparently they "flop around and make noise" when you do that), and other similar Clancy-like topics. It goes without saying that The Bear and The Dragon positively bristles with intriguing state-of-the-art military hardware. We're never quite sure how much of it really exists, or how much is in Clancy's imagination. In honesty, we don't really care, just as long as Tom Clancy goes on amusing us. Though The Bear and The Dragon is not Clancy at his best, it's still sufficiently Clancyesque, and in this genre there are few better authors. Maybe next time he will make a better job of hiding his right-wing xenophobia. We've always known it was there, but it's better when it doesn't jump out and smack you in the face... ouch!
Rating:
Summary: Editor, Schmeditor...
Review: I've gotta say, I feel cheated. I spent a lot of hours and missed a lot of sleep slogging through 800 pages of buildup, waiting for the climax. I put up with repeated dialogue, excessive presidential whining, and buckets of racial epithets. I slogged through scene after scene of various commanders talking and thinking about the training level of their troops/tanks/helicopters, and only skipped over a few pages of all the scenes that brought us up to date on what's new with various repeat Clancy characters, but then went nowhere. There were a few compelling scenes and subplots in there, like a murder/espionage investigation in Moscow (that ultimately just goes too smoothly), and some nail-biting scenes involving some Christian clergy facing off against the local arm of the Chinese government. But on the whole, the first three quarters of the book are surprisingly boring. Sadly, when the shooting finally starts, you really do know just what's going to happen. You know the good guy's plan, and it pretty much happens that way, far too easily. American technology keeps the fog of war at bay, at least for our side. Various enemy leaders choose the climax of the book to come down with a fatal case of the stupids (not that the good guys don't do stupid things, too - but they aren't portrayed as mistakes in the story, but simply exist as devices to advance the plot along). When one final problem emerges, there's no doubt what's going to happen, as this eventuality and its resolution were telegraphed many hundreds of pages earlier. While it stirs the blood to watch the good guys inflict horrible punishment on the bad guys with their superior technology and training and moral character, it's not a true substitute for tension or surprise. Some serious editing could perhaps have saved the first three quarters of the book. The climax would still unfold to quickly and easily - but at least the reader wouldn't have invested so much time to get to it.
Rating: 
Summary: Worst Clancy novel yet
Review: I have to agree with the majority on this one, I wondered whether actually wrote this book! The repetitive dialogue, cliches, and profanity are not hallmarks of the earlier Jack Ryan dramas. In fact, Jack Ryan seemed different; does being President cause one to become profane, cynical, and less intelligent? Oh, yeah, I forgot...
I think Clancy needs a hiatus to reclaim the essence of writing about techno-political issues.
Rating:
Summary: a good page-turner
Review: I'm surprised at the number of negative reviews for this book; I found it to be a serious page-turner. This is my first Clancy novel and I can't wait to read the other books in the "Ryan" series. I was totally involved in the political intrigue that takes up most of this admittedly looong book, and the action at the end when all hell breaks loose was hard to tear myself away from. It is true there is a fantastic amount of rough language, and yes, this book is long enough to give Michener fans pause. (For me the long length is a plus: I am stuck on the bus 90 mins. a day and devour books, so am always having to buy or borrow new ones). With those caveats I can readily recommend this book. I look forward to giving it a more careful read after I have backtracked and read the earlier books in the series.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book for Clancy fans.
Review: Folks, if you have not yet read this book, and you're a Clancy/Ryan fan, you can safely ignore the dullards that gave this book a 1 or 2. This is classic Clancy. He has you following multiple plots, knowing all along that they're going to all come together in the end. Like a lot of other people, I enjoyed Jack Ryan a lot more when he wasn't the president. I too got sick of the endless whining about the trappings about being the president. OK, Mr. Clancy, we get it! You don't have to have him complain upwards of 50 times throughout the book about not liking being the prez. Sheesh. Other than that one gripe, I loved this book from start to finish.
I just hope his next book (Red Rabbit) is as good. I've read all of his books, and The Bear and The Dragon is by no means my favorite (Red Storm Rising still holds that place), but it fits nicely in the Jack Ryan series.
And to the people that complain about the language in the book ---grow the heck up. That's how people talk. Thank god Clancy hasn't gotten all politically correct on us like many other more hackneyed authers have.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy should stick to military and technical matters
Review: I will keep this brief - unlike Clancy. This book is the worse book that I have read from Tom Clancy. The characters are pretty one-dimensional. The Chinese in particular seem to have no saving graces. The book has a fairly racist characterization of the Chinese, in general. Filled with pointless sex. Extremely repetitive. How many times can he refer, for instance, to "sausage"? Clearly, expouses a very-right wing political view point that would never work were these characters actually running the country in reality. He should stick to his strengths and talk about miltiary technology issues as he has done in his best books: Red Storm Rising and Red October. This book was a complete waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: At Least Read before You Judge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: I cant believe all the people who gave this book 1 or 2 stars and didnt even read the book. How absurd! I admit parts of the book may have been left out, yet all of it is interesting. The final 300 pages are the best and if you do not finish reading the book you are only cheating yourself. So to everyone with short attention spans who complained about how boring the book was and did not even read the whole thing, you can always watch TRL on MTV.
One
Rating:
Summary: Big big disappointment !
Review: I realy loved every "Jack Ryan" book that Clancy wrote until this one. This one is one too much. "Jack Ryan" was consumed to its poor end. Enough. He should start thinking of a new hero, no Jack Ryan, no John Clark, but a new one, a fresh one.
The book was boring from page 1 until about 200 pages from the end. These last 200
pages were more interesting, but still, as a unit, this book is boring.
As a Clancy fan, I hope that he will return to himself next time.
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