Rating: 
Summary: Am I reading Harold Robbins or Tom Clancy
Review: The Bear and the Dragon novel was a success because it was one more Clany novel I couldn't put down. There was one point, though, I had to stop and check the cover to make sure some one hadn't slipped me a Harold Robbins book. Clancy's books are read by those who love his techno-babble and the action connected to it. If I wanted to read about "Japanese sausage", and excessive trash talk, I would have picked a different author. I am disappointed with Jack Ryan's turning into such a hot headed potty mouth. It is unfortunate Mr. Clancy fears his book can't stand on its own merit, that he must infuse it with excessive vulgarities to sell. As usual Mr. Clancy has used technology to his best advantage and given us all a thrill of feeling like we are there. I just don't know if the negatives out weigh the positives.
Rating: 
Summary: Mr Clancy is getting sloppy
Review: I am French and I try to improve my skills in English. In that regard, I have always found Tom Clancy's books useful for their abundant delivery of modern American lingo (Do they really talk like that in the Oval office ? Didn't they clean up their act after the Nixon's tapes ?). I have also to admit that Tom Clancy is a good plotter (even thought he takes his time to unveil the plot, but I like it that way). His books appear to be extremely well documented as far as military technology is concerned (I cannot really judge that, but I have been told so by a French warship captain). The political opinions displayed in the books are so right-wing by European standards that it is almost amusing, in a perverse sort of way, to read the mind of a conservative American, especially when his ideas are presented as those of the average citizen. It is almost like watching Hank Hill in the satiric cartoon "King of the Hill", with Jack Ryan as the King of Capitol Hill... For me, the Chinese are less "Klingons" than these people. But, in his last works, Mr Clancy is getting more and more sloppy with his research. In his previous book "Rainbow Six", he had the summer Olympics in Sydney taking place in a very hot weather...without realising that Sydney is situated in the southern hemisphere and that the games were played in late austral winter. In this one, I noticed several mistakes but I will only mention two big ones : apparently, Mr Clancy believes that Mao Jackets are still the top of the fashion in Beijing, even for young ladies with good jobs. Maybe before writing about a foreign country could he at least watch some TV news ? He seems also to believe that all Europeans use Euros when they talk about price, even Russians, who are not members of the European Union (in the current real world but it is also the case in the near-indeterminate future described in Tom Clancy's book). Tom, your characters constantly praise hard work as an American virtue. May be you should follow their example for your future works.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy this book!
Review: This is the most boring Clancy book I've ever read, and I've read all of them! Fully half the book is taken up getting to the point of the story, with constant references to how difficult (and boring) POTUS' life is, constant references to how important secrecy (not to mention Clancy's pet phrase "need to know") to all the players is, uncalled-for and cryptic FBI references to characters' nicknames (SWORDSMAN, SURGEON, who are these people??!!). I'm sorry, Clancy's early novels were very interesting and readable, but his recent work has become verbose and uninteresting. Why does Clancy find the need to explain every little detail of every minute situation (which most Americans can imagine anyway?)? I can't recommend buying this book, it's a waste of valuable reading time.
Rating:
Summary: Excruciating...
Review: I can't believe how long this took me to get through. And I can't believe this is the same author of Red Storm Rising and The Hunt for Red October. Rainbox Six was a pretty rough read, but this one has it beat by a mile. Don't expect any real action before, say, page 750 or so, and even then it's tame. Do expect extremely long and boring dissertations by Jack Ryan as to why he hates being president. And lectures by his friends as to why he should be. Do expect everyone to know everyone else. Nary a character is mentioned that Jack or Robbie or someone else doesn't "know" or has "heard of." Avoid spending your money on this massive, yet boring, book.
Rating:
Summary: Sorry Mr. Clancy
Review: The Bear and the Dragon has as usual in Clancy books, a huge gallery of people, a somewhat intricate plot and countless lessons in US politics, US economics and howto's and hownotto's in running large nations. What was well written and part of the plot in "Debt of Honour", now feels utterly boring and book-wise landfill. I've read every single novel Clancy ever wrote, and for every one, the underlying message just gets clearer; Americans are pure, christian, moral, fair and competent. All other nations and/or cultures are perverse, corrupt, lazy and outright stupid. So, when something really Bad happens because of the Other Guys stupitidy/laziness, Uncle Sam sends some of his Competent Moral People to save their sorry butts. And when battle erupts, only the Other Guys die. Repeat until fade. What's with Tom Clancy and smoking/se*/alcohol anyway? As a European I cannot for the life of me understand why he even bothers writing about it like it was sensational. I smoke and drink and have se* all the time - it's not what I want to read about in a book like this. The persons in the book are unusually one-dimensional, even for Clancy. Robby Jackson's father Hosiah and General Bondarenko are the only characters with a minimum of spark. All the others fail to stand out and just vanishes into nothing as soon as you turn the page. Too bad, because Clancy have done this better before. The technical research used to be Clancys hallmark, but even here he manages to disappoint me. The Red Baron did NOT fly around in a Fokker Trimotor! The trojan horse in Mings computer also confused me. I don't think it would have worked as easy as that. They have firewalls even in China. All in all this was a disappointing book, partly because Clancy doesn't seem to decide whether he has a parallell universe to toy with, or a could-be future of the world at hand. For example, he makes a couple of references to the Clinton/Lewinsky affair, but I cannot see where Clinton fits into the timeline of the Jack Ryan books. There are no twists to this book whatsoever, no cliffhangers at all. Even the ICBM at the end of the book is predictable....
Rating:
Summary: Get To The War and Save The ....
Review: The last quarter of this book is the most entertaining. The war between China and Russia is exciting and devastating, probably the most memorable sequence Clancy has ever committed to paper. There is still the problem of the first three-quarters, though. Anybody seen Police Academy? How about any of the sequels? This feels like that. Clancy's earlier books have been entertaining, even memorable (but not serious literature, don't even think so), but this is "Red Storm Rising 2". The first three-quarters features a couple of decent subplots but more often bad ones. The investigation subplot with the FBI agent and Russian cop was one of the entertaining and interesting ones, but hearing Ryan gripe for page after page about how tough it was to run the country and how the Asian economy was going down the tubes and on and on, etc. was boring and repetitive, to say the least. The subplot with CIA man Nomuri creating a sexual liason with a Chinese secretary was just an excuse for attracting the male testosterone crowd with some lewd, perversive writing. Even though Ryan is a great man, formerly a marine and a patriot, I still have trouble believing he could be elected to the presidency as an Independent. I don't have anything against Independents, I am one. But this country is too much split down party lines. And I would have bet Ryan was a Republican. After all, in Executive Orders he said he was pro-life, and a reporter remarked his appointments to the Supreme Court were very conservative, none on Fowlers' and Durlings' list (I had them figured for Democrats), Republicans like the military getting more money (He was an ex-marine), he had a bunch of guns in his house in Patriot Games, plus he was rich. I think that Ryan is now a mouthpiece for Clancy's right-leaning politics, even though he says he is an Independent.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book I don't know why everyone keeps dogging it!
Review: This is the third Tom Clancy novel that I have read. I was a little unsure about reading it because of all the negative reviews that I have read. I am glad that my interest in President Jack Ryan was greater than my doubts. I finished this book in about eight days. This is not for the weak of heart it contains over a thousand pages. What I didn't like. I was disappointed that the novel jumps ahead to where Jack Ryan is reelected President. I would have liked to read about that process and him having an opponent. Clancy could have talked about campaign reform and all that good stuff but it didn't happen. Clancy gives you the flashback highlights about how Jack got reelected. The only other thing that I didn't like about this book was that Ryan called the Chinese "Klingons" about 80 times. The first time was funny but come on come up with a different term. What I did like. This novel is a good continuation of Executive Orders and I feel it is a better book. Why? One thing there isn't 100 pages of technical blow by blow combat that really has no bearing on the rest of the characters. The assasination attempt on Golovko chairman of the Russian SVR was a good plot. It progressed well and it had an interesting development of FBI agent Mike Reilly. The Chinese angle was tremendous and interesting and showed how cultural differences between two nations can be a major problem in understanding each other. I felt Clancy explored and explained this very well. I also liked that there were opposing viewpoints within the Chinese government. I felt that this made this book very realistic and not comic bookish. Clancy also gives plenty of historical, cultural and detailed background information. What maybe important to you. If you don't like sex scenes in your novels you maybe a little offending by this book. I think it contains about 3 sexual explicit scenes which in my opinion could have been deleted but they also did prove a point. If you are on the ultimate polical correct nature you will be offended by the use of racial slurs toward Asian people. Their is more vulgar language in this book than in Executive Orders but it is reasonable placed. All in all this is a fantastic book. If you like Executive Orders I believe you will like the Bear and the Dragon. It is a faster pace book. This book is a little lower on the Jack Ryan end so if you want to read a lot about Jack it is not in here. The conclusion I felt was better than Executive Orders and Rainbow Six. Not that I liked or disliked the conclusion but I felt that Clancy did not rush the ending like he did on his previous two novels. It is a little preachy on Clancy's views but hey it is his book to write anyway he chooses. This is a work of fiction and I think that people tend to loose sight of that when they read Clancy's books because they are so believeable.
Rating:
Summary: The Bear and the Blowhard
Review: It's obvious that Tom Clancy now has the clout to overrule his editor on any changes, because this book has some serious, serious flaws, ones that could easily be fixed with a mouse and a delete key. I skipped past pages and pages that had nothing to do with the plot (like the pregnant FBI agent - yawn). This book had a lot more to do with Tom Clancy telling you about his feelings toward Jews, homosexuals, the media, the Washington establishment, beer, computers, services other than the Navy, law enforcement, you name it. Cut out the dialogue and you'd have the Republican platform. I'd suggest checking this book out from the library and reading pages 1-~150 and then skipping to about pg. 800.
Rating: 
Summary: America Prevails
Review: even though it was a very long read,with lots of buildup I still found it a good book. The plot building to war was a very good one that would be possible, the positions taken by the countrys were beleiveable, and the ultimate conclussion was quite probable. It was lengthy and the true action was in the last 300 pages, but the Jack Ryan "John Wayne" style was visable and made for a good read of fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Why, Oh why do I give my money to this man.
Review: How many times must we see the same cut and pasted text? How many times must we meet 'Perfect' people (4.0 GPAs, PhDs, The Best of the Best, the absolute integrity, Halleluja I have been saved by the Prince of Peace, Jack Ryan) How many times must Jack whine about being President. Alright Tom, we get the point, "Those who desire power are the worst ones to excercise it", but Douglas Adams made it better. How many times must we be reminded that abortion, homosexuality, other religions, anything other than the American way, is the ENEMY! Damn those slant-eyed creeps! Why can Clancy not do even the most basic research. Ryan meets Tony Blair (The Prime Minister of the UK) and how does he speak? "Ok, old boy, we'll have to give them a good thrashing." I expected him to break out into "God Save the Queen" and start playing cricket over high tea! A simple piece of research would have been to listen to a single interview with the man if you are going to bother including him in the piece. I have read every one of Clancy's novels, starting with a pre-publication copy of the Hunt for Red October, and all that I can say is that he is getting lazy. He simply doesn't care anymore. It is a shame, but there we are. Now, if you want a good read I would recommend Larry Bond (who co-wrote Red Storm Rising). One of his books is the size of this one, but there is a good 900 pages of story to the 800 pages of the book. In summary, BAD will be staying as pristine on my bookshelves as it is at the moment. I doubt that I will dog-ear this one by reading and rereading as I have with all of the others (except the excerable Rainbow Six. Why, Oh Why don't I learn that when things go downhill for an author I should stop giving him my money?)
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