The Bear and the Dragon

Rating:
Summary: Quite verbose
Review: I have been a fan of Clancy's for many years and have read all the Jack Ryan and John Clark novels. This one ranks near the bottom, just above Sum of All Fears. Six to seven hundred pages should be enough to tell almost any story. Ryan and Clark need to retire so Clancy can find a new story line. As Shakespeare said, "Brevity is the soul of wit." Unfortunately, this one isn't witty at all.

Rating:
Summary: It's a very disappointing sequel
Review: I have read the whole series of books in this series ( Debt of Honour , Executive orders being the last two) . The Bear and the Dragon is is messy fragmented book with a rushed and somewhat improbable ending to top off the huge waste of time spent reading it.
Clancy has managed to write a long book and yet fails to give his book a truly fleshed out individual to hang the book around . Ryan , Clark , Ding , Golokov are all here in cardboard cutout form - American technology works perfectly and Democracy truimphs - Clancy would have been better making this a book the one where the good guys get their (...) kicked -
Jack Ryan has become a cartoon character and the level of altruism on the good guys side is so sickly sweet that you should get your fillings checked before reading it.
Clancy appears to have gotten slapdash and lazy with much of his information/research/factoids being recycled from earlier books and in some cases twice in the Bear and the Dragon.
I loved the earlier books - they were imaginative and well structured - this one is not a fitting sequel

Rating:
Summary: The good and bad book
Review: This book was less impressive than the other TC works and in total, was a disappointment.

Yet, I did read all 1100 plus pages

It does have those great moments and what is a typical Tom Clancy plot- American military vs. bad guys military. But I found the first 700 pages worth devoting maybe 200 actual pages. The sexual overtones and interactions with the Chinese mole came across as amaturish and awkward. I also was annoyed by the many (probably dozens) of repeated scenes, comments, jokes, thoughts and one-liners. They are fresh once and after that - lame. A little help from the edit department needed.

I would summarize the book as a fairly predictable plot that lingers on too long and then comes to a climax in a seriously doubful and unrealistic finish, but the way it set up it was predictable. Almost like Tom was going on and on with the story and the editor said "Hey Tom, wrap this up we just passed a thousand pages" I know it is fiction and all but come on...the POTUS goes from watching the war on TV (CNN) using the military's UAV- Dark Star and wisking away from the *** only to land on a dry-docked Aegis class destroyer, and watching the "fireworks" with the boys? It just wasn't believeable or convincing. The action pages (last 2-300)seemed like retreadded notes from previous books. I had the sense of "I've read this before".

In the end however, Clancy is Clancy and the theme was pure TC.

I am going to backtrack a book and read Rainbow 6 and hope for more, but take notice if you are Tom or the publisher, I am going to buy another TC book.

Rating:
Summary: It Was Good Entertainment
Review: The Bear and the Dragon was well written in the classic Clancy style. That style of course is the mixing of miscellaneous plots toward the beginning of the book that evolve throughout the end of the book. Finally, when the reader is able to wait no longer, he combines all of the plots into a well-engineered global conflict. Clancy spent a lot of time on characters in this book, further developing Clark and Chavez's character history and future, and a lot of time was spent on Jack Ryan's presidential psyche and courage. Not only was this a military thriller, but a spy novel as well. Much of the United States' information came from a source within the Chinese government's headquarters building. An interesting direction was taken in this book assuming it continues to be followed; the United States and Russia became allies for the first time since World War II. Whether this relationship is enduring or whether the Russians were only serving their best interest will be interesting to see in the next Clancy books. As the Jack Ryan presidential administration is maturing it is growing shrewder in its political ideas and actions and will need to evaluate the situation and act accordingly. The next in the Jack Ryan series will surely be an interesting book if it follows in the footsteps of The Bear and the Dragon.

Rating:
Summary: Too successful to edit??
Review: This book needed an editor to say "Great book, we just need to cut 400 or 500 pages of the first 800, beginning with the politics." I am guessing when an author sells as many books as Clancy has, he can tell editors to shut up and publish it. It's too bad, because there is a good book somewhere in there. I actually agree with many of his political statements, but I don't need them repeated 10x in a fictional work.

Rating:
Summary: Horrible Waste of a Tree.
Review: "Quantity has a quality all its own" is a phrase repeated often in this book. Clancy seems to have taken it to heart in producing this 1100+ page work. There is a decent story here, but it is buried in hundreds of pages of political, economic, and social commentary that tends to be to the right of Rush Limbaugh.

There are at least 5 stories in the book...all of which are strung together with only the weakest of links. The same jokes are repeated endlessly, and while they are funny the 1st time, you tire of them after the 3rd. The familiar cast of Clancy characters is trotted out, some just to make cameo appearances. All these different people might as well be the same as they mostly share the same views and beliefs.

There is decent suspense and the mechanical magic we've come to expect from "technothrillers", but only the most diligent reader will reach the payoff. Whatever gift Clancy had earlier in his career seems to have left with "Clear And Present Danger".

Rating:
Summary: Clancy at his Best
Review: I thought this book was great. Granted it took a long time to develop, but the last 300 pages were smokin'! Keep it up Mr. Clancy.

Rating:
Summary: Typical Clancy - a page-turning techno-adventure
Review: The most fundamental questions to ask when reviewing are (I think), "Did I enjoy the book? Did I neglect TV for the book? Did I rush through household chores to get back to the book?" The answer to all three of these questions is a resounding "yes!" for this latest Jack Ryan offering from Mr. Clancy. The king of the techno-adventure is back in spades, offering up some high-tech wizardry that may not be exactly true, but will almost certainly be in the near future. In addition, we have some good old fashioned action and intrigue.

The book is about a war between China and Russia. We see the war coming a long time before the characters in the book do, because we have access to all sides of the conflict. It's fascinating to see Clancy maeuver his characters and countries into a position where war is inevitable. The battle itself is mildly disappointing in its detail (compared to, say, Red Storm Rising), but here is where we get to see nifty gizmos at work. Do they really exist? I'm inclined to believe most do, in a highly classified research lab somewhere.

Others have complained that the novel is less realistic than his others. I have to agree, but for different reasons than they offer. Red October and Clear and Present Danger, for example, were more interesting because they were highly plausible "could be" tales at the time. Unfortunately, the Ryan universe has a life of its own now, and Clancy is maintaining his own consistency with a timeline that is increasingly remote from "real life." The U.S. didn't have a mass-murdering plague and didn't fight a war with Japan in real life, but did in the Ryan universe. It seems to me that it's time for Clancy to retire this timeline and get back to more realistic scenarios. Finally, the book seems more overtly racist than his past efforts, which is a little disturbing.

So, overall, the book rates 4 stars - it was hard to put down, but the Jack Ryan universe is unfortunately running out of steam.

Rating:
Summary: Yak, yak, yak.
Review: I put it down after struggling through 600 pages of talk, talk, talk. A big disappointment after waiting for the next Jack Ryan story.

Rating:
Summary: One of the worst books i've ever read
Review: The premise of the book is good: China and Russia are at odds with one another over oil fields and gold mines in Siberia. The only other good part of the book is it starts out with an exciting beginning. From there it goes downhill very fast.

First of all, the President Jack Ryan, is constantly bitching about domestic politics; most of it is criticism of the left-wing. Do we really need to hear Clancy's rants about politics in a FICTIONAL book? A book about foreign affairs no less. I kept on rolling my eyes. I have no problem with Clancy voicing his opinion, but you'd think he'd come up with a more professional way of doing it.

Secondly, the whole scenerio is unbelievable. China attacking Russia?? And why does it attack Russia? Because of a trade embargo imposed by American citizens over the death of one fellow american and a cleric. Sorry Mr. Clancy, but your average american isn't as radical as you are and neither is the Chinese government.

I admit, I didn't finish the book. I got sick of the political viewpoints of Clancy that I kept on having to read plus I just gave up on the rationality of the actions taken by the characters in the book.