Rating: 
Summary: Tom Clancy gets worse by the day
Review: i have always been a fan of his earlier books but it seems that tom clancy is losing his touch. it seems that his vocabulary is limited to the few f words and those lousy, lousy really lousy sex stuff... if you want to read tom clancy read his earlier books. he should go sell his insurance instead of writing books that are full of stereotypes. had there been things such as -5 stars, i would think that he fully merits it. too bad the minimum bar is a star. i wonder who send it to the bestseller list. i must have been one of those blind fools.
Rating: 
Summary: Several shortcomings, but good fun nonetheless
Review: OK, so there are a lot of typos in the book (and many of my pages were printed crooked - what's with that?), the ending was not as detailed as it should have been, and that famous Clancy multi-threaded story line never quite developed as well as it has in the past. Still, it was great fun reading a book that had enough parallels to current events to occasionally cause me to confuse the two, if only for a minute. Besides, it was much easier to keep track of the Russian names than it was in Red Storm Rising (grin).While I can agree with many of the comments presented by earlier reviewers, 1's and 2's should be reserved for truly horrible books, which this is not. The Bear and the Dragon is obviously not Clancy's best effort from a detailed literary standpoint, but it still probably ranks as one of my three favorite Clancy reads because of its timeliness. Definitely worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Romantic Japanese Sausages
Review: Clancy is known for his generous understanding of technology and unique ability to apply it to cool dramatic stories where Jack Ryan nearly always saves the world. Clancy is not known for his romance writing. During the romantic interludes between a Japanese/American CIA agent and a Chinese assistant to the People's Politboro, I found myself going eeeYhuuuuuu more times than not. Multiple references to Japanese sausage was nauseating and basically summed up the entire novel when reference to the sausage was the last line in the book. Clancy can do much better and should leave the romance to others. This is by far his worst novel to date. What happened?
Rating: 
Summary: The Tradition Continues
Review: Tom Clancy shines again in this masterful, realistic spin on the world of "what-ifs" that we live in. One of Tom's biggest assets is to combine both present technologies and current theories and weave them into a plot that I have to continually remind myself is fiction. Tom Clancy is known in his past works not only for his immense grasp for technical details but also for his serially written novels. After reading several previous reviews, I can only guess that some people made a mistake in attempting to grasp this fine piece of literature. I have personally read all of Tom Clancy's novels, in order, and I awaited the day that this book hit the shelves; as I remember, it was near my 16th birthday. Here I am, just 16, and I am engrossed in Clancy's works. If I can grasp his plot schemes and technical details, others can too. Otherwise, close the book, and return it to the store so others like myself can enjoy this fusion of past, present, and future military suspense.
Rating: 
Summary: Warfare, or is it advertisment?
Review: 1028 pages total, 600 pages with no substance. It would have been a good read if the book is thinner. There is nothing much to anticipate given the author portray of the competency of the Chinese armed forces. The battle described feels more like some US military hardware advertisment. I hope Mr Clancy can do better next time.
Rating:
Summary: ... another embarrassing work from a former rising star.
Review: .... As many reviewers have described, this novel consists of 750 pages of mind-numbingly repetitive and simple-minded set-up and 250 pages of action. The ratio in his excellent books "The Hunt for Red October", "Without Remorse", and even "Red Storm Rising" is reversed. Mr. Clancy should stick with the horse that got him this far. An as is becoming all to common with Mr. Clancy's work, he ends the novel with none of the attention to detail that he became famous for, but with the brevity and thoughtlessness of a freshman reaching the minimum word limit on a creative writing term paper. In a bizarre vein, Clancy continues to try to expand his use of romantic scenes in this book. His description of intimate encounters parallels his description of the detonation of a thermonuclear device or the operation of a submarines trailed antenna array. Hire a ghost writer for this stuff! On a less humorous note, the level of vulgarity has risen dramatically in this book. Jack Ryan (POTUS, for you acronym wienies), the leader of the free world and hero to all right thinking Americans, can't utter a sentence without including some vulgar reference (either sexual, racial, cultural, ... whatever). Neither can his Vice President. Nor his Chief of Staff. Nor any other character in this book. I understand that talk gets salty amongst military types, ... or amongst most any type. But why rachet the level of vulgarity to such a level that it becomes the feature of most conversations, rather than a literary condiment? Stay away from this book unless you are the most die-hard Clancy fan. I used to fall into that category, but he's lost me for good now. His work has degraded to mere slop, particularly with the last two efforts (this one and "Rainbow Six"). Dave Carter Carmel, IN
Rating:
Summary: Wish I had read the other reviews before wasting my money
Review: I bought this book with great anticipation as I am (or was) a great Clancy fan, having bought ALL of his previous books. What a let down! Clancy is trying to be something that he obviously isn't. He tries to over-build his characters (one whole page of a character's thought processes is not uncommon - of course, liberally laced with vulgarities. he should leave the pseudo-literature work to the experts). I am appalled at his blatant stereotyping of China (fried panda penises? People in Mao suits roaming the streets? pleassseee...have you, Mr Clancy, visited China lately?). His writing borders on bigotry and perhaps crosses the line into racism. Ahh...the quintessential American right-wing cheer-leader, advocating hegemony; unabashedly ethnocentric. George W. would have been proud.
Rating: 
Summary: I really tried to like this novel.
Review: I just couldn't. Maybe Clancy has tired of writing exciting novels. I certainly tired of reading The Bear and the Dragon. A friend recommended that I read this novel because of the recent diplomatic problems with China and the American spy plane. The book pales in comparison to the real drama. Jack Ryan has been a great character in the previous novels. In this one, his age shows badly. He's a character that has lost his shine. In the story, Ryan has reluctantly run for and been elected to the presidency. He doesn't really like his job. By the end, I wish he had just resigned. Clancy uses abortion in a very inflamatory way to paint the Chinese as horrible people. Clancy should have saved his opinions on this issue for a letter to the editor. Instead, he should have written a compelling story. Skip this one. If you're new to Clancy, read his earlier novels, like Red October. They're much, much better stories.
Rating:
Summary: This could have been so much more.
Review: I have read all of the Clancy novels, usually buying the latest one within a couple of weeks of its release. This one leaves a lot to be desired. I think the reason that I like Clancy's novels is the plausible plot lines, current for their times, mixed with the detailed explanation of military technology and procedures. In this one, the technology is still there, but the plots leave a lot to be desired. I'm also used to all of the plots being resolved in the last 150 pages, but I can't stress enough how disappointed I was in the ending of this one. If a novel is good, I'll usually find an excuse to keep reading it. This one was engaging enough to keep reading, but when I got to the end, I found myself wondering why I had bothered staying up late. I will keep reading Clancy novels, but if I get another stinker of an ending like this one, I will consider taking a pass on any future novels. Maybe it's getting too difficult to keep the suspension of reality now that Ryan is president, and we had to rebuild the government from scratch a couple of books ago.
Rating:
Summary: That's the last of my money Tom Clancy will get
Review: If you didn't know Tom Clancy's personal politics going into this book you will know them afterwards. I tend to lean to the right, but the numerous references to Clinton/Lewinsky go too much even for me, especially considering there was never a Bill Clinton in Clancy's alternate universe. This book was needlessly long. Without the constant melancholy reflections by President Jack Ryan about how his life had changed and what a prison the White House is this would have been a couple hundred pages shorter. Another hundred pages could have been trimmed from the predictable military engagement described in ultra-technical detail at the end of the book. We believe you know alot about military hardware, Tom (after all, someone gave you that nifty captain's baseball cap in your picture), now give us a break...
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