Rating: 
Summary: Really poor effort
Review: As a previously devout Clancy fan, I found this book to be boring, excessively sexist, racist, and a complete waste of my time. It was so bad I vowed to never again buy a Clancy book. If you liked Hunt for Red October or Cardinal of the Kremlin, DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Not at All Realistic
Review: One does not need even an elementary knowledge of Chinese politics - just plain common sense, or maybe a regular news habit - to know that there is no such thing as a "Minister without Portfolio" in the Chinese Politburo! This is a British concept. It is all fine and well for an author to use his imagination when writing science fiction or Tolkienesque fantasy; it is a disaster when people like Clancy aim to make their stories realistic sounding while relying only on their own imagination. Clancy knows zilch about China to spin a yarn worth the telling.What makes some authors (like Crichton) stand out is that they have a sure grasp of the facts, and then use what expert knowledge they have to write a story that either reflects a really possible scenario in the real world or sometimes even predicts it. To use one example, a fine author once used his specialised knowledge about the coming technological breakthroughs in naval air power to write a story - in the early 1930's - about the Japanese attacking the American naval base in Hawaii. This book was written by an Englishman, I believe, at least ten years before the Day of Infamy. It was little known at the time.......but not so in Japan, where the book was used in the naval officer cadet college as a text. Some of Clancy's older stories - like "The Sum of All Fears" - rise to this level. This one doesn't cut it, although he is in fine form describing the technical minutiae of weapons systems, etc - as usual. I also suggest that from now on Clancy write three or four of his stories at a time, and bind them all together as one, although this means the publisher must overcome the considerable technical difficulty of printing a novel that runs to four or five or even six thousand pages. Why this? Some of Clancy's books read like this kind of tome anyway, as most readers know by now. They drone on and on and on......and by the time you're half way through you forgot what happened at the start. By the time you're done with the book you feel less entertained than uplifted by a sense of achievement and relief - something to brag about.
Rating:
Summary: Last Stop for a Former Clancy Fan
Review: "Meet the Good Guys. Meet the Bad Guys. Good Guys beat Bad Guys." There. I just saved you from the 1,000+ tedious pages of absolute filler that surround this simple (non-) story. I used to love Clancy's books, from the intriguing, relevant plots to the detail and research put into combat and technology. Clancy hit his peak with "Debt of Honor", a book that ended with a gripping cliffhanger that turned out to be an eerily prescient parallel to September 11th. The follow-up, "Executive Orders", had a tall order to fill in concluding this setup, and while ultimately disappointing, it at least bore some of the hallmarks of past Clancy. That book's main problem was the implausibility of the antagonist group - let's face it, Jack has beaten back just about every real-world enemy that we have today. I'm surprised that he hasn't gone mano-y-mano with S.P.E.C.T.R.E. or the Galactic Empire yet. "Rainbow Six" tried to break the cycle by getting away from Ryan and focusing on Clark, but it came off like an "Op-Center"-esque ripoff. But none of these disappointments come close to this clunker. I am not exaggerating when I say that NOTHING INTERESTING HAPPENS in this book. New spy characters are inserted in hostile territory. . . and then plant a computer virus to steal sensitive Word documents while never even coming close to being caught. (There's nothing quite as exciting as a lead spy character whose weapon of choice is a modem) Ally countries are threatened and attacked by rogue governments. . . but then beat them back like swatting a fly. And the ultimate - a good portion of the book focuses on the details of how TRADE NEGOTIATION sessions work. If you've been looking for a book that captures the spirit of being trapped in a lengthy meeting at work where you have no interest in the topic, then Christmas came early for you this year. It really is time for Clancy to throw in the towel on this series. The old characters are out of fresh ideas (if I hear Jack complain one more time about how he never wanted to be the President, I'll scream) and the new ones are flat and boring. Unfortunately, I see that the next serving of Clancy will focus on Jack Ryan, Jr., fighting bad guys in future as a second-generation hero. Maybe the Galactic Empire really will come into play soon. . .
Rating:
Summary: Tedious, vulgar
Review: At over a thousand pages this book is tedious, even for the verbose Clancy. Profanity abounds, as does sex, neither for any useful purpose except to add pages. Three or four hundred pages could be deleted and not affect the story. Even when the story finally gets interesting in the last quarter of the book, it is not up to Tom Clancy standards. The war is too simple and too easy. The American techno-whiz-bang makes the whole thing a "no contest". While American technology really is amazing, to believe that there would be virtually no casualities is not believable. The few American losses appear to have been thrown in at the last minute. We just shot down 60 Chinese airplanes? Hmmm, maybe the good guys should lose a plane, too! Definitely not up to the quality of his early works.
Rating: 
Summary: average for Tom Clancy
Review: The Bear and the Dragon is average for Tom Clancy, but it's certainly better than Rainbow Six, which preceded it. There's more Jack Ryan in this one by comparison to Rainbow Six, but The Bear and the Dragon just does not quite get to the level of Clancy's better books. Still worth reading and enjoyable though. Not as involved or complex as Clancy's books are at their best.
Rating: 
Summary: Too far along to quit
Review: After about 600 pages, I realized that I was not having any fun reading the book, but I was too far along to quit. Clancy's best novels (Red Storm Rising and Clear and Present Danger to name two) were filled with action and suspense, not chapter long diatribes about such issues as abortion, population control and domestic politics. I see that Clancy is trying to move in a different direction with his writing, but it just comes of as contrived and preachy. A Marine buddy of mine has a saying which fits Clancy's writing very nicely, "you are a one trick pony, do the trick!" Until he returns to his former style, I will be passing on all his future books.
Rating:
Summary: Failed attempt to continue the Jack Ryan series
Review: I've been a fan of the Jack Ryan series but this one is surely a dissapointment. The main problem is Tom Clancy's ignorance of China. If only he has been to China in the recent years, he will find things vastly different than he depicted. Instead he depicted China the same as Russian in the 70s which makes the novel looks much less real and repetitive.
Rating:
Summary: Former Tom Clancy Fan Subjected to a Boring, Book
Review: I used to be a big Tom Clancy fan but this book has ruined him for me. I have read all of his books and loved Red Storm Rising, Red October, Cardinal, etc. but I cannot fathom how the same man who wrote those books wrote this over-the-top, [book]. It is obvious Clancy knows absolutely nothing about China and did no research whatsoever. I can only hope he farmed this book out to several staff writers and then stamped his name onto it; that would be the only semi-redeeming reason. Furthermore, Clancy's attitude toward and misportrayal of the Chinese in this book makes me seriously doubt his "knowledge" of Russia and South America in previous books. His portayal of the Chinese is straight out of some 1950's McCarthy proganda film.
As so many other reviewers have commented on the tired plot, offensive epithets, Ryan's diatribes and the tediousness of the book, I will only point out some of the inaccuracies and, like a previous reviewer wrote, "laughable" potrayals of the Chinese that show Clancy has know idea what he is talking about.
Even though I read the book 18 months ago, these are some of the things still fresh in my mind: 1. The Japanese-American CIA agent's cover job is as a computer salesman. His big "in" with the Chinese is that he has computers with programs that can actually make 'Chinese ideographs' appear on the screen! This is in the year 2000, remember.
- The Chinese have always had computer programs that can type Chinese characters. At least they did when I first went to Taiwan in 1987 and the mainland in 1994. Maybe someone should tell Clancy that Microsoft makes Windows in Chinese. 2. The Chinese politburo secretary (Ming) who is seduced by the Japanese-American CIA agent still wears bulky Mao suits. 3. Another reviewer pointed out how ridiculous it was that the CIA agent seduces Ming, the Chinese secretary by taking her to a Western restaurant where, Clancy writes, she has the best food she's ever tasted (spaghetti alfredo, I think). Clancy points out this is because it is better than the "garbage" available at Chinese markets.
- Utterly unbelievable 4. Clancy also has his agent take Ming to 'Friendship' stores that are off-limits to Chinese. - this might have possibly been true in the late 70s or early 80s but NOT in 2000. 5. Ming, a government secretary from Beijing swears at people is some sort of gibberish ("Pak Gai!"). I can only guess it might be Cantonese but it is definitely not Mandarin. 6. The husband of the lady whose 'unauthorized' baby gets a needle stuck into its head is named "Quan." Quan is an important character in the book. The problem is "Quan" is not a Chinese name. It might be Vietnamese. 7. I can't even comment on the whole killing "unauthorized" babies thing. Especially when the soldiers do it in front of a CNN crew. Basically the list goes on and on.....
Rating:
Summary: Not Clancy's best
Review: As Tom Clancy novels go this one isn't up to muster. It lacks the mystery, intrigue, and surprize that Clancy is known for. Clancy books usually start you out down one path for a while and then you find out that this was just the setup for the main story. This book doesn't do that at all. The end of the story is anticlimactic as well. The other strange thing I noticed was a distinct repetition in phrases. This may be a literary 'feature' but it sure felt out of place to me. This book is not bad but not worth the full cover price. Try it at a discount or better, used.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting idea, but slow moving and a bit trashy
Review: The Russians discover huge gold and oil reserves in Northern Siberia and the Chinese are suffering big economic setbacks. When trade talks with the US turn into an ideological disaster, the PRC Politburo decides to invade Russia and seize the opportunity to save their economy, and thus their individual jobs. Fortunately, the CIA has recently developed an excellent source within the upper level of the Chinese government, and thus they are able to thwart the ambitious and arrogant plans. At over 1,000 pages long, this is a nice hefty book to sink your teeth into. The problem is that it takes over half that for any action to *begin* to develop. But my biggest complaint is the smuttiness and foul language that seem to be everpresent in this book. The romantic relationship that occupies much of the first half of the book borders on sleazy, and doesn't add to the story. And while I realize that many people can be foul-mouthed, I felt this was used in excess, especially since some of the other Clancy books I've read were thankfully tame in this respect. In other words, it's not the kind of book I'd really like my kids to pick up and read - and I don't care for it either. In spite of this, once it finally got to the action (the last 100 or 200 pages) it was quite exciting, although rather unbelievable. Its one thing for the USA to thoroughly whip Iraq in a few days, but quite another thing to do to China.
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