Rating: 
Summary: Thorough, thought provoking, and consistent.
Review: Clancy, though accused of being "right wing" and numb to the intricacies of diplomatic exchange by others who have reviewed this book, has accomplished his mission with The Bear and the Dragon. It was made clear just how frustrating and trying diplomatic negotiations can be, particularly when one or both parties do not care to compromise. The manner in which the plot was set up and the Chinese communists were portrayed are very well-rooted in reality; their unwillingness to conform to human rights standards as well as copyright and trademark laws and treaties are indefensible (both in reality, and in this work of fiction). Furthermore, amid accusations that Clancy is "right-wing," even racist, one must remember that this is a fictional work, and the author is attempting to paint a picture of the world in his work. To condemn him for allowing his characters to call others "tree-huggers" or "chinks" or what have you is childish; perhaps you should read some Harry Potter instead. Language and nuance were never really Clancy's forte, rather the technical aspects of combat ruled his novels. This manner of character development and plot line reveal to me that Clancy has grown in his ability through his thirty-plus literary works. The Bear and the Dragon is a must-read, even for you left wing, bunny huggers.
Rating: 
Summary: Conservative, not realistic of the real world
Review: Tom Clancy never served in uniform but continues to write books about those who did. While one can do this in fiction with a certain amount of research, it seems as if success has gone to his head. Special Operations soldiers are not as he portrays them. I heard Clancy speak at Ft. Campbell, KY addressing members of Task Force 160 (the Nightstalkers) and 5th Special Forces Group and he was condescending to the very men he writes his fiction about. If you want real spec ops fiction, read the Brit Andy McNabb's SAS books; Bob Mayer's Special Forces stories; heck, even Dick Marcinko is more realistic than this. No slam on the author personally, but let's differentiate between fact and fiction and what one knows and has lived.
Rating: 
Summary: Threw this one away
Review: This is probably the last Tom Clancy book I will buy. I have been a fan for over 10 years and have loved all his other books. But this one was very dissapointing. The character development is weak, there is very little action, the amount of boring scene descriptions is staggering, and the political soapbox is obvious. He has reduced Jack Ryan to a boring politician. I have been reading this book for over a week and have only gotten about a quarter of the way through. I doubt very seriously if I will even finish it. I never thought I would come across a Tom Clancy book that I couldn't care less about reading. I think he has lost his touch.
Rating:
Summary: The Bore and The Drivel
Review: Some oft-heard quotes on Tom Clancy: 1.Tom Clancy is right wing-Big Deal!The man's entitled to his opinions! 2.Tom Clancy is anti-asian(from Debt Of Honour onwards)-Once again Big Deal!A lot of Asians are anti-American.Racism has always been a 2-way street. Never mind the man's politics.There's 1 reason why I and legions of Clancy fans buy his books:He (used to) write ripping yarns! Which is basically the only criteria I use to judge his books.From The Hunt For Red October onwards I have been all too aware of his biggest short-coming:2-dimensional cardboard-cutouts as characters(will we ever see a good-guy character in a Clancy novel who DIDN'T graduate at the top of his class,distinguished himself in the Army/Navy/Airforce/Wall Street/Diplomatic Service/CIA who was then drawn to Government service out of his sheer love and patriotism for his country?) ...TC carved out his unique niche in a genre which his books practically defined:the techno-thriller.Why?The man spun exciting yarns that kept you riveted.Geo-political thrillers on a scale few authors attempt spiced with meticulously researched tech-stuff on Nuclear Submarines,intelligence gathering,military hardware etc. What is absolutely unforgivable about this book is that it is a bore.It's as simple as that.If you're going to people your book with good guys so perfect they're boring,villains so cartoonish you even stop anticipating their downfall,then you...better have a slam-banging,rip-roaring pulse-pounder of a plot to drive them. The menace so palpable THROUGHOUT the last good Clancy I read(The Sum Of All Fears) is evident in less than a hundred pages of this book(the scenes leading to the murder of the Papal Nuncio and the Chinese cleric). And that is pitifully little in a book that weighs in at more than a 1100 pages.
Rating: 
Summary: Could have been another exciting read BUT...
Review: Having read all of Tom Clancy's books in chronological order, I have always been inclined to ignore his blatantly extreme conservative views for the sake of getting an exciting story in return... these huge novels were always a nice read on the beach, at least. In "Bear & Dragon" though, Mr. Clancy's right-wing outlook on life has gone completely over the top. His repetitive mentioning of those disgusting "tree-huggers", "chinks" and "rats" really turned me off, as did his boring excessive macho talk and two-dimensional view of the female gender. Also, I couldn't help to notice that Mr. Clancy all at once seems to be fascinated by having his main characters use the bathroom... no problem with that basically, but his fixation on nature's call wore kind of thin by the time I reached page 300 or so. On top of that, poor editing (John becomes Jack) and stereotyped characters spoil much of the reading fun that this book could have provided.
Rating:
Summary: Coarse - Rude - Far Too Long
Review: This can not possibly be the same Tom Clancy that wrote Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, et al. This book was filled with coarse language and Neanderthal attitudes. Yes, it does possess some of those grab-you-by-the-collar-and-pull-you-in moments, but, mostly I was put off by unnecessarily salty language and blatant racism. Perhaps Mr. Clancy needs a good vacation...
Rating: 
Summary: RED STORM RISING II: Russia's Revenge
Review: At first glance, the 1,137 page count seems daunting, but while Tom seems insistent lately to include every single decision and detail that leads up to whatever war the book involves, it goes by pretty quickly. It comes off as a remake of RED STORM RISING: aggressor Communist nation makes a move on NATO territory to steal oil, but modernizes it with using China as the invader and Russia as the victim. The Jack Ryan Administration continues to follow the path of common decency and creative occupations for some of its staffers--First Lady Cathy is still doing eye surgery at Johns Hopkins, the kids get taken to school in a VH-60 Blackhawk helo, Jack wants out of the job despite actually running for election, and his VP (who shall remain nameless for now) has certain ideas about how Air Force Two should be operated when ferrying him around the country. There's also a bit of a tirade on missile defense from the POV of Al Gregory, who's working on the problem aboard the Aegis cruiser USS Gettysburg.
Rating:
Summary: A mixture of fantasy and trash I call "fanta-trash"
Review: (OK, that's a line from "The Critic", but you get the idea). I used to be a Clancy reader but my interested dwindled when he started the slide into Dean Koontz, Clive Cussler (does anyone else see Jack Ryan as a ripoff of Dirk Pitt?) turning-it-out-to-finance-the-lifestyle hackdom. I thought the premise of this sounded interesting, so I bought. When I finished it (and that was only because I believed it _had_ to get better) I walked over and threw it in the trash. Clany strings together 1200 pages of breathless techno-babble with what seems like quotations from the armament company brochures and military PR demos plus his racist diatribes, his politics whacking you over the head like a 2 X 4 and the President abandoning his NECAP post during a nuclear attack because he can't deal with the idea of ordering the inevitable counter-strike. In the real world, he would be impeached as a coward; here, he gets lauded. This book is crud. Maybe Clancy is still a good writer, but he's been Dilbertized and is now publishing work of marginal quality, likely because his editors won't argue with Write-It-In-Capitals-Please Tom Clancy. He's in love with his characters and thinks twenty pages of internal dialogue fascinates us as much as him. This book could be trimmed by AT LEAST 500 pages. Even the clash-of-arms descriptions, once entertaining what-if scenarios, have become ludicrous to the point of parody. One almost expects John Clark or Mary Diggs to pick up a Chinese M-98 tank and twirl it around like the old Superman comics. Examples: - A 2K software fix turns an Aegis missile cruiser into a ballistic missile interceptor; - One platoon of M-1s destroys a Chinese heavy tank brigade without taking a single loss; - One American fighter flight of four planes shoots down thirty-five Chinese planes without a single loss; - Less than twenty F-16s destroy _three hundred_ Chinese tanks in a single attack;. Yes, I know, Gulf War Turkey Shoot, blah blah blah. I have the Discovery Channel too. This isn't reality or even entertaining disbelief. It's also not the same war being described. Save your money, don't buy anymore of his books. Demand better and don't fork over any cash until you get it. Maybe his readership will decline and that will give his editors the cojones to stand up to the guy and tell him to start trying to write stuff with merit. I don't know what his fans get out of reading his books, but reality _definitely_isn't part of that equation.
Rating:
Summary: Great Techno-thriller that Liberals Will Hate
Review: Clancy's novel has flaws of redundancy and excessive length, but it is an excellent thriller using the latest technology as a backdrop. Most remarkable, it expresses philosophies that ring true and are shared by many Americans -- that Liberals will find politically incorrect and try to censor. Consider that in reading the negative reviews, and read it for yourself instead of allowing their censorship to succeed.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book If You Need To Start A Fire...
Review: ...it would burn for a long time. Here's two sample sentences from the same page (19pb): "Sh*t, he thought." [Actually, this is it's own paragraph.] "[...] then came into the Oval Office to tell the President what his (Ryan's) decision and/or position was on an issue, so that he (Van Damm) could then [...]" If you think this is great writing, then this is the book for you because there's lots more just like that. Personally I suspect writing such as this wouldn't make it past an 8th-grade English teacher, but that's just me. And then, as others have mentioned there is the blatant racism and (American) elitism. This is the first Clancy novel I've read since Sum Of All Fears and I was shocked at the change that has seemed to come over this man in the intervening years. I'm an American, and proud to be one, but much of the dialogue in this book makes me embarrassed. It's the kind of thing that makes people around the world hate us and I can see why. Hey, I'm something of a liberal, but I've always enjoyed Clancy's novels, despite their conservative bias, until this one. At least half of this book is just Clancy spewing his over-the-top political dogma at us. And the "love scenes" are just plain awful -- no one would talk like that. I wish he'd stick to the technical stuff he is great at, and I wish they had a 300-page, $4, "bad writing omitted" edition.
| 
