Rating: 
Summary: What the hell happened?
Review: I'd really like to know what was going through the head Tom Clancy when he wrote this book. I really enjoyed his other books like RAINBOW SIX and THE SUM OF ALL FEARS, but this, oh man I hate to admit this but something went horribly wrong! I think he lost his touch. First of all, what the hell is a Su-31? Answer: acrobatic trainer. Now why would he include an acrobatic trainer in this book? I think what Mr. Clancy was looking for was Su-39! And the whole thing with America coming the rescue of Russia, I got one word, BORING! It would have been a lot more interesting if Russia was able to defend against a Chinese attack by herself, like she did during WWII against the Germans. Overall, this book was waayyy too long, I had to skip about a hundred pages while reading this book. That and this guy made a lot of military mistakes, I mean he gives lectures on Russian military technology to the CIA, and ends up making tons of mistakes in this book! And when he actually got to the part when Red China invaded Mother Russia, it ends up being only about 1/6 of the book!
Rating:
Summary: Time for Ryan to ride into the sunset.
Review: If you haven't read Hunt for Red October in a while, revisit it. You will find a Jack Ryan who is clever, brave, etc. -- but not the demigod he has evolved into. Why do Clancy's heroes all have to be so superhuman? Ryan is not just brave, but the bravest; the most brilliant (making millions in the market was too easy for him, remember?); the most righteous in every way. His wife can't just be a surgeon -- she has to be the top eye surgeon in the world, while also being young and sexy. Jack's buddy Robby can't just be a fighter pilot -- he has to be a top gun, rising to admiral etc. Even Robby's wife can't just be the wife of a Navy pilot -- she has to be a concert pianist. The peripheral heroes and heroines are likewise too perfect. It just gets tiresome after all these books.On the other hand, we could certainly use Jack, Robby, Clark, Ding, etc., in these dark days. But maybe that's another reason Clancy has become a little tiresome: in real life, our leaders and secret operatives just can't do what the storybook characters can.
Rating: 
Summary: Worse book I've ever read
Review: For starters Clancy needs a new editor. His current one is sloppy enough to allow entire sections to be repeated continously, such as Ryan questioning over how he got to be president. A more cynical person might suspect he was being paid by the word, or he suspects his audience are tired business executives who need to be reminded what is going on as their brains have disitegated due to chronic jet-lag. The characters are one-dimensional and Clancy shows the weakness of his convictions by making every hero anti-abortion and the bad guys pro-abortion (and to make sure you get it, he equates child killing, which is carried out in the book, with terminating a 3 week old fetus). This is clearly shown by a lack of courage over the whole issue. As one of the characters is expecting a baby, instead of making her question her beliefs, by giving her a down sydrome kid, the baby is of course alright as she's one of the heros. Originally I was going to finish the book before writing this review, but I gave up at page 600, as the plot started to get so bad I have better things to do with my time. So to summarize, the world would be a better place if Clancy never writes another book, so we can remember the excellence of 'The Hunt for Red October" and forget all the drivel he's written since the Patriot Games.
Rating: 
Summary: Not his best effort, Not high literature, not bad!
Review: I've read all of Clancy's previous books, and I've liked them all. Due to some of the reviews I've read, I wisely checked this one out from the library. I did finish this book, and I was relatively satisfied with it. If you have read every other Clancy book, read this one. If you haven't, don't bother until you have! When my father and I discuss pop literature, we always like to discuss different authors "formulas". To contrast Clancy, Dick Francis's formula describes a world (horse racing instead of Global techno-politics) from many different views, rarely using the same hero. The Bear and the Dragon simply is the next novel in the "Jack Ryan" formula. Clancy likes to talk about all different angles on his subject, but always uses Jack Ryan, back as the reluctant hero (can you be the reluctant hero forever?) All you fans out there intimidated by the negative review remember that this is the same formula you liked from book one.
I loved Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and every book after those two. Sure, The Bear and the Dragon isn't his best effort. You are going to want to skip to about page 200 or so because certain subplots are dull. But toward the end I couldn't put it down, which is what I look for in thriller novels. Personally, I would like Clancy to drop Ryan as the hero. However, if he puts out another Ryan book, I'm going to read it, and hope for the best.
Rating:
Summary: He's done it again.
Review: Patriot Tom Clancy once again delivers on a grand scale in my opinion. An armed conflict between Russia and China that had me wondering about the outcome of all the sub-plots til the end of the book. You have to work at reading a Clancy novel, but, I feel it's worth the sweat. The three-star rating is just in comparison with his other novels.
Rating:
Summary: This was a long book. A Very Long Book.
Review: This was a long book. A Very Long Book. An Unecessarily Long Book. Three hundred pages into the thing and the reader will still wonder what the basic plot is going to be. In fact, it turns out that much of the main plot is recycled from "Red Storm Rising." A country on the brink of economic ruin misguidedly decides that war is the only way of righting a politically corrupt economy; the USA must come to the rescue. However, in Bear/Dragon Clancy is able to bring in most of the characters from his earlier Ryan novels, whether they have a place in the story or not. One gets the sense that this will be the last Ryan gig, and the reader is at times thankful. Have no fear, however. The good guys are almost pathetically good, and the bad guys are one-dimensionally evil. It is a real sign of Clancy's earlier writing prowess, as well as the earlier prowess and power of his editors, that throughout the novel the reader expects a more complicated scenario than the one Clancy eventually presents. Twists that might have been masterfully exploited never appeared (was Nomuri's agent feeding him false information, for example), and nothing in the basic plot will come as a surprise to anyone who has read more than one or two other Clancy works. Another odd dimension to the book was the almost bone-jarring repeated turns-of-phrase. Everyone's "been there and done that," "seen the elephant," or "knows what they're about." Readers may wonder if Clancy has a chalkboard on his wall with a half-dozen macho-sounding stock phrases that he rotates through every 25 pages or so. In short, Clancy recycled one of his own plots, beefed it up with a great deal of interesting techno-babble, even more not-so-interesting political grandstanding, and turned out a 1100 page book that could as easily have been done in 300-500 pages...
Rating:
Summary: An Editor Please
Review: I too had to put this book down after about 250 pages. Do not think I could have read a book where every other page seemed to be a political diatribe of one sort or another. In between this there seemed to be somthing of an enertaining yarn, but will never know. Used to like his books as pure enertainment. Could not figure out what the point of this book was though. S
Rating:
Summary: dialogue problems
Review: Well I'll try to keep this short since there are so many reviews on this. My biggest problem was the dialogue: 1) Mary Pat Foley calls her husband "honey bunny" _every single time_ they talk to each other. Not just "honey", not just "hon", but "honey bunny". Please. You'd think they were in high school. 2) Phrases are used over and over again. I stopped counting the number of times where I thought "Didn't I just read that?" There was one where the same phrase was used twice on pages opposite each other (paperback). 3) Ryan's cursing. It just doesn't sound natural for him to be so potty-mouthed. 4) Ryan's whining about being the president. This is part of #2, but he said "and how the hell did I get here?" way way too much (i.e. more than once) One other thing (spoiler here):
The CIA's source of information in China I thought was a pretty good subplot. But I was anticipating something going wrong there (i.e. getting caught, etc). Everything was so smooth it didn't feel right.
OK that was longer than I thought it would be.. sorry :)
Rating: 
Summary: Good Read
Review: A good and pleasant read. 600 pages but reads fast. Those who are uncomfortable with morality or moral distinctions will be uncomfortable with this book. I myself am not and found the book excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Predictable politics a disappointment
Review: I've got all of Clancy's Jack Ryan books and have enjoyed most
of them. However, I'm TIRED of Clancy's politics. They can't even be
called right wing - more like blindly pro-government. Clancy
is given to using his books as anti-encryption propaganda,
presumably on the theory that the FBI and other government
agencies are as honorable and professional as the agents in his
books (and there was no one else trying to read unencrypted
email). It'd be nice if it was so. Unfortunately, one incident in this
latest book was so outrageous as to be macabre: after a
Chinese policeman shoots a priest holding a newborn infant,
a character comments that in the US law enforcement officers
don't shoot people holding babies. Apparently he has never
heard of Ruby Ridge. The Bear and the Dragon was an OK if predictable Summer read.
I hope that Clancy eventually aims for a higher goal.
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