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The Bear and the Dragon

The Bear and the Dragon

List Price: $27.95
Your Price: $19.56
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Where's Tom Clancy and Who's This Guy
Review: I've been a big fan of Tom Clancy ever since Hunt For Red October and I have to say that this is by far his worst book ever. The plot was so predictable I knew the end before I'd gotten halfway thru. The characters are beginning to resemble cardboard cutouts, without anything to make them human. Maybe Tom just needs to take a break, much like he had Jack Ryan do between Sum Of All Fears and Debt Of Honor. A couple of years to recharge his mental batteries and regain his edge.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bomb
Review: I am a long time Clancy reader and a former fan. The story line was excellent. But first, the reader must get by all the profanity, bigoted, racist, and chauvanistic remarks and action.

The right wing "whining" by Jack Ryan became very tiresome very early. Give me a break. Yes, the whole world knows the extreme Republican Right Wing knows what is right for EVERYONE. And the rest of the public is too stupid to know what is best for all concerned.

Clancy has great story ideas. I hope he can catch a clue and go back to writing great books and forget his extremist right wing tendencies.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: How the mighty have fallen
Review: Tom Clancy used to write really good books but his last few have been on a downhill trend. I gave up on this at page 196!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The first Tom Clancy book I couldn't pick up...
Review: As a person who studied foreign policy and military affairs in college, I always found Tom Clancy's books extremely interesting and factually accurate. Unfortunately, while he's keeping up with technological changes, this book was incredibly slow and much more overtly political. I agree with other reviewers about the unkind view of the Chinese in this one too. If you are new to Clancy's work, skip this book and go back to read the Cold War classics. I never did read the last 30 pages of the book -- I simply stopped caring what happened.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Clancy has been better.
Review: I have read all of Clancey's books starting with The Hunt for Red October. Unfortunately, this is not one of his better works. It is slow to develop, makes too many references to previous books, and asks the reader to believe a quite preposterous notion of the our Chinese friends. If I had to rank the Clancy books: 1) Hunt for Red October, 2) Patriot Games, 3) all of the rest, Last) Bear and the Dragon.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not Red Storm Rising but not bad
Review: Mr. Clancy has published yet another example of why he is the king of the technothriller. Filled with military minutae, it delivers an enjoyable, if not smooth, read. At 1028 pages, it may me overlong, but Clancy is able to use that length to put you in the heads of those who make the decisions and those who pull the trigger.

I've heard people complain that Clancy shouldn't keep bringing back the same characters, but I appreciate the continued presence of characters like Robby Jackson, Dan Murray, and the Foleys. Even the recurrence of Gennady Bondarenko is fitting. Clancy has created his own universe, and keeping the same characters adds continuity.

As far as this being a racist book, some people need to lighten up. Was Debt of Honor a racist book when the military characters referred to the Japanese as Japs? Or was Red Storm Rising a racist book when it referred to Russians as Russkies, or Reds, or Ivan?

In short, it was a solid effort by Clancy. He needs to step out of the box some more, as he did with Rainbow Six and Without Remorse, but the book delivered an enjoyable read, bad parts aside. I gave up looking for the perfect book long ago, but I still appreciate a good read.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I get a pat on the back just for finishing it...............
Review: The plot was good as usual. Nobody knows more technical stuff than Clancy and his assistants. But this book is just too damned long. He could have whacked about 300 pages from this book and the reader wouldn't have missed a thing. If you've read all of Clancy's novels to date, you'll have to read this on too just because it's Clancy.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Lame Plot!
Review: Looks like others have said it all already, but I wanted to add my thumbs down. Boring, repetitive, absurd plot. In the real world, the Chinese are looking for innovative new ways to defeat the United States -- but you won't see any of that here. Clancy's Chinese are DUMB and PREDICTABLE. All too many of Clancy's own infantile political opinions shine through in this book (and who needs that). Worst of all, it's a 1000 page book, and the war doesn't even start until page 800. Get an editor, Tom! In short, I was glad someone gave this to me as a gift, because I'd be very angry if I'd paid money for it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Disappointed in other Reviews
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I was disappointed that other readers did not get the same enjoyment as I did.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: unBEARable and DRAGsON
Review: Give the Chinese a break. I found Clancy's redundant attacks on Chinese views and policies to be offensive. As a subway reader, I felt compelled to put a brown paper cover over the book to hide what I was reading. Sounds hypocritical but I kept hoping there was a point to the China-bashing. (There wasn't!)

As an aficionado of Clancy's action writing I continued on with the book; however, I was dishearted at the often repeated paragraphs that were anti-Chinese. It appeared to be more a book on what Tom likes and doesn't like. Maybe Tom needs to travel abroad a little bit more.

Villains should be people not countries. Find a bad person in a country's heirarchy and make us hate HIM. Readers can't hate the entire country!

And finally, have someone proof your books for consistency and repitition, this book could have been reduced two to three hundred pages.


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