Rating: 
Summary: Bloody awful...
Review: This book was the worst Clancy book ever. I'd almost be willing to say this book was the worst one I'd ever read. The only reason I finished it was because it was a Clancy book and I kept thinking it would get better. It seems that the end of the Cold War has dried up material for Clancy because this one was reaching for some straws. Although the battle at the end wasn't bad but it didn't really have any suspense, you knew the US with its mighty technology would triumph over China. This one will make me pause before I buy the next Clancy book.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't belive everything you read!
Review: While this was not the best book that I have ever read, it still is a good book. If you are a fan of Tom Clancy's previous books dealing with Jack Ryan, you are sure to like this one. It is a little slow in parts, but what Tom Clancy book isn't? I would recommend, and have to my friends.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good, but it's starting to get eerie
Review: On the whole, i thought this was a rather good book. Clancy's reference to the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton scandal helped to bring it more into the real world. Somthing i'd like to mention though; It is starting to be a little scary how the things Clancy write seem to come true... there have been discussion about Russia joining NATO, just as in The Bear and the Dragon. I can only hope that America comes out as well in the story of Operation Enduring Freedom as the country does in Clancy's novels. God Bless the USA and Bless our boys in uniform.
Rating:
Summary: This book is garbage !
Review: I quite enjoyed 'The Hunt for the Red October' and 'Red Storm Rising', but this book is trash. Like Frederick Forsyth he has characters who are shallow as cardboard figures, but being strictly accurate in technical detail, and by telling a good 'could happen story' he made up for it. Not in this book. His xenophobic, arrogant, offensively erratic and ignorant descriptions of China were enough for me to throw it in the litter box after having read 100 pages. I'm not a Chinese myself, but having been in China as a mere tourist, I can't help but feel offended by all his nonsense. To recognize Tom Clancy's "today's China", you would at best have to go 30 years back in time. If Clancy had bothered to ever visit China, or indeed just open a book about China with pictures in it, he would have noticed that people do not walk around in uniform any more, women are not prohibited from wearing makeup or keeping their hair long, and you DO get other food than 'revolting, Chinese garbage' in the shops and restaurants. I also have problems believing that the Chinese have made a policy of throwing their new-born daughters in the village well, or that if someone has baby number two, it will automatically get a syringe with formaldehyde in the back of the head at the hospital. He actually goes as far as speculating if this will eventually mean the end of the Chinese race ! This kind of dribble is what you might expect verbally from an illiterate Billybob sitting on his porch cussin' deem commie bastards, but not from a best-selling author. This book should come with a warning on the backside, saying 'If you're educated enough to read this, you will probably hate this book'. Throughout the book the more inferior nations, like China, Russia and Japan, are described with icy contempt, where the only thought seeming to occupy the minds of the inhabitants is how much better everything is in America. I thought this kind of complex-filled, negative, inflated 'us vs. them' 'propaganda disappeared with Nazi Germany. It's authors like today's Tom Clancy who make foreigners hate Americans. God help us when he starts writing about the Muslims !
Rating:
Summary: Stupid-est villain ever...
Review: After having about half a dozen of his global conspiracies thwarted by Jack Ryan in the last few years, you'd think this villain would develop any sense of paranoia. Nope. Instead he becomes even bolder, despite the fact that every one of the conspiracies he was involved in had exploded in his partners' faces. Somehow because he came off unscathed, he thought he was immune. He was delusional up until the very last minute.
Rating: 
Summary: Someone get this man an editor, please!
Review: I'm only about 250 pages into this book and so far NOTHING is happening except a LOT of useless and unnecessary inner monologues and ridiculous dialog. If something actually happens, I might be willing to give 3 stars. Reading this book (so far) is like watching a version of a movie on DVD in which edited portions have been included. It's glaringly obvious why those portions were edited out of the final version - they do nothing to advance the plot or characters. Clancy needs to fire his editor because it would appear large portions of this book could go missing and nothing substantial would be lost. In fact, it might become a more interesting and fast paced read! Like others, I find the foul language and racial slurs totally unnecessary and somewhat distracting. And finally, liberals (even moderates) be warned. It seems Mr. Clancy has decided to use Jack Ryan as an outlet for his own very conservative views. Again, totally unnecessary to the overall plot (which I'm having trouble discerning at this point.) I hope it improves as I don't like quitting books in the middle!
Rating:
Summary: Where did Clancy go?
Review: Before "The Bear and the Dragon," you could count on a great story from Tom Clancy. Book after book proved that. It has even been trivial to recognize a series like "Net Force" in which the only thing it has to do with Clancy is having paid to put his name on the cover. The writing just isn't up to par. Then comes "The Bear and the Dragon." It is so filled with profanity and vulgarity that it is like driving down a road filled with potholes. The language is more than distracting for being unnecessary -- it's downright irritating. Dang, maybe he did have something to do with Net Force <grimace>. Then there is the hero, Jack Ryan -- the kind of man who, even with human foibles, is heroic and honorable and great fun to join as a silent partner in his adventures. In "Dragon" our friend Jack is reduced to a whining adolescent. Either Clancy himself has had a bad personal experience for which he's taking it out on us, his readers, or he recently lost what we now know to be one heck of a good editor.
Rating: 
Summary: Clancy fails to top his previous effort
Review: I must admit, the first time I read this book I was only able to get as far as page 300 before I stopped reading it out of disgust. I was offended by Clancy's use of racially derogatory terms - "little yellow friend" is one of the least offensive slang terms he uses. About six months later, I started up where I left off. And I must admit, the novel wasn't as bad (or offensive) as I thought it would be. The biggest problem with being one of the world's most successful authors is always trying to top yourself. Unfortunately, Clancy hasn't been able top himself this time. I really enjoyed his previous effort - Executive Orders. Even though it was close to a 1000 pages, it had a tight narrative and a fast pace. The same can't be said for his latest book - the pace just isn't fast enough, and it isn't very tightly written. There's too many points where his characters (especially Ryan), will start musing about topics that have no immediate relation to events in the book. For instance, there's one point where Ryan and his Chief-of-Staff have a discussion about Presidential affairs with White House interns. Huh? Another problem that I had is Clancy's failure in not allowing Ryan's character to progress. By the end of Executive Orders it was obvious that Ryan is now comfortable with being President, and that the country is comfortable with him. This is made very clear in a very well-written epilogue, where Ryan is holding a press conference with the White House press corps. But when we next see Ryan at the beginning of 'The Bear and the Dragon', he's still bitching about his job. Yes, being President is a dreadfully stressful job. But does Clancy have to emphasise that issue every single time Ryan appears? The impression I got (however false) is that Ryan has gone from being a heroic character to being a pathetic whiner. Another disturbing new trend is the excessive and inappropriate use of swear-words in this novel. It's almost as though Tom Clancy is trying to channel Kevin Smith - and trying to turn Jack Ryan into Jason Mewes. I don't think an author as good as Tom Clancy should have to use offensive language to prop up a story - no matter how weak that story is. In other words, leave scatalogical jokes to the experts, Mr Clancy. In conclusion, 'The Bear and the Dragon' isn't quite the disaster that most people make it out to be. I call it SW1 (Star Wars: Episode 1) syndrome. Everyone was expecting a truly great story, and they didn't get quite what they expected. It's obvious that Mr. Clancy is getting a little of weary of writing Jack Ryan novels. Perhaps it's time for him to focus on other novels in the same universe - perhaps another novel focusing on Rainbow Six? Now there's a sequel to Executive Orders I can live with!
Rating:
Summary: His Worst
Review: This was Clancy's worst book. Yeah, I didn't want to put it down - it was gripping - but it was wholly unsatisfying. It was simply too fanciful. The good guys got ALL the breaks (to a sickening extent) and the bad guys could do nothing right.
Rating:
Summary: A struggle to get to the end...
Review: "The Bear and The Dragon" doesn't even come close to "Executive Orders". For the first 24 chapters or so, you wonder when the story will finally take off, but it just goes on and on and on in low gear. I actually wondered if Clancy is paid by the page, or if there is some minimum number of pages to a book in his contract... If you actually get through the first half to two-thirds of the book, the rest is ok. I didn't expect the book to be as good as "Executive Orders", but I was still disappointed. Where EO was so captivating it almost read itself, with TBATD it was a struggle to get to the end.
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