Rating: 
Summary: Tom are you there?
Review: I have read everything written by Tom Clancy to date, including the collaborations with other authors. I am wondering if he gave the authorship of this book to one of them. His writing of late, especially this book, has been very below par for him. Was completely bored with Jack Ryan and his whining. His seduction scenes read like a clinical study. The investigation in Russia read as an ringing endorsement for the FBI. Nor did he at any point tie in Bart Mancuso, and Robbie Johnson. What did they do? What intergral part did they have in any of this if at all. All right Clark and Chavez came on the scene but did absolutely nothing to aid the Russians. Only as observers. Give me a break when I was first introduced to these two characters and subsequently reading about them, they have always been men of action. I understand about Clark getting older and wiser, but Chavez is still young. I was eagerly anticpating this new novel, was happy when it was given to me. Began immediately to devour it, but after the first few hundred pages had to put it down for it was leaving a very bad taste in my mouth. Mr. Clancy please go back to doing what has made you a very highly praised author. Bring back the Machiavellian and suspenseful plots.
Rating: 
Summary: Past Prime
Review: Tom Clancy's latest effort shows that he hasn't had a new idea in years and with each book goes back to the same tired source that has clearly become barren through overuse. In addition, this book is blatantly racist. characterizing Chinese people as 'chinks' repeatedly. I wonder if more than just Clancy's writing skills are waning in his tiresome refernece to woman as sexual objects and far too frequent vulgar language. Clancy clearly sees the world through the eyes of a 14 year old -- good here, bad there. This black and white doctrine of his has always been simplistic, but was excusable in his earliest efforts in context to the times.
Rating:
Summary: Can someone tell me what happens in the first 400 pages?
Review: I've loved Ttom Clancy's books ever since I read Executive Orders one summer three years ago, but this latest book is just bad. I haven't gotten past the first 250 pages yet because it's just sooo boring. I've looked at the last several hundred pages and they look good, though. So if anyone actually had the will power to sit through the first 400 pages and would like to tell me what happens in them, I'd like you to e-mail me, because I think I'm just going to restart this book at page 500 and finish from there. Another thing about this book is that the United States gets into yet ANOTHER war. Since Sum of All fears, the United States has been involved in three(almost four) wars, gone through three presidents and has had nearly it's entire government killed. That doesn't sound like the America I know, that sounds like Romania(which, in retrospect, is an insult to Romania). Also, this stuff is supposed to have taken place all in a four year period(since Fowler was elected, resigned, and then Durling being killed in the year of the next election.) It just.... I don't know, if Tom Clancy wants to write a seriese of books that continue where the previous book left off, he needs to read his previous books and get his facts straight first. He also needs to stop with the 500 page buildups.
Rating:
Summary: Mr. Clancy Does it Again...Too Bad
Review: Once again Mr. Clancy has crammed a good 400-500 page book into 1,000 pages. While I devoured The Hunt for Red October, Red Storm Rising, Cardinal...etc, I have found his last 3 works major disappointments. I actually cried when the US sub sunk in Red Storm Rising. Now, I would be happy is someone would ask Mr. Clancy to sit down and be quiet and let Mr. Ryan or one of his minions DO something other than pontificate on ultra conservative, right wing, table pounding non-issues.
Rating:
Summary: The Final Chapter in the Gospel According to Tom
Review: I have read every single Tom Clancy book: Without Remorse and Red Storm Rising are in my favourite 10 books ever. However The Bear and The Dragon is most probably the last time I will ever bother picking up a Tom Clancy work.The slow decline in his writing from the average Debt of Honour through to the awful Rainbow Six now to this terrible book shows a real lack of inspiration. It reads like a bad adaptation of a feature film script that you would buy on a supermarket shelf. The weak plot is substantially *enhanced* by pathetic dialogue. I found myself picking through keywords while skimming over the entirely verbose passages. This book has too many references to product placement, venues and locations that have nothing whatsoever to do with the plot, and only serve to what, get Clancy a free lunch? He has obviously outsourced much of his writing to ghost writers and given them basic plot outlines - "write about the upcoming tension between China and the USA, and lets bring up Siberia's resources AGAIN, because nobody realises that's going to be the next big thing; and also mention how I can't stand Democrats and how if I were running the world, I would..." This book gets two stars PURELY because it was marketed well. Other than that it is absolutely terrible. Tom Clancy needs to get a new publisher and write a good, tight story about something interesting and suspenseful which has at least believable dialogue... I would highly recommned to all readers of this review, DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!
Rating:
Summary: Terrible, terrible, terrible......
Review: I was totally blown away by Clancy's early work, culminating with Clear and Present Danger. After that, only Debt of Honour has managed to satisfy me. I think there's an inherent problem with the technothriller genre: Clancy was the first to do it and after all of his readers have learned an astounding number of facts and tactics about submarines, tanks, covert warfare, the spy trade etc. There really isn't that much to put in the next book except the same stuff plus the new inventions that were made since last, right? Okay, but the problem seems to be that new tech stuff isn't invented nearly as fast as we can read the books that describe them. And then there's the subject matter, the conflict. Clancy has covered every conceivable type of conflict, some several times and they keep getting thinner. Meanwhile, the books only get thicker, if anything. How come? Well, in this particulat volume we spend lots of time inside Ryan's head, and he's a regular guy all right, his thoughts are extremely shallow, if honest. The dialogue is equally droning and repetitive. Clancy also seems to think that, having exhausted the military tech stuff, his audience will be equally pleased to hear about catholic religion in China, presented in clancy's new droning style. It is all SO boring. I read through it, each night thinking "OK, war's just about to breeak out, tonight's the night..". And finally, war did break out....on page 700 out of 1000. 200 pages of buildup would have been ample. the worst part for me, though, is not the tasteless product placement on behalf of compaq PCs, victoria's secret's, and Smucker's Marmelade, of all things, not the appearance number 10,000 of Clark and Ding who, as always, sweep aside all opposition all the while repeating themselves endlessly ("Hang a big roger on that, Mr. C"...). no, the worst part is that in this book, the US of A gets it their way from beginning to end. there's no mole inside the US administration (or the security detail, making Executive orders a worthwhile read), no assassination of top ranking CIA officials (a real horror in my favorite Clear and present Danger)...just the Americans using sateiltes, agents literally in the Chinese Politbureau's pants etc., getting everything served on a silver platter....not my idea of a thriller. In short: don't waste your time on this book and, if you must, don't waste your money. You can have mine for free. So sad to witness the continuiing downfall of a once good writer..
Rating:
Summary: Not his best work
Review: Not bad but not up to par with earlier work. Plot is conceivable but too detailed (read: boring middle 600 pages) and I guess we forgot about congress and other minor details when declaring war on another country. At best, it passes the time - BTW - some seedly crotch novel stuff, he should get help from Danielle Steele or something.
Rating: 
Summary: Winning Story
Review: Exciting solid story that's believable and potential; I wish he'd get help when writing dialogue for women.
Rating:
Summary: The Bomb and the Drag On
Review: Simply stated - what an awful book! The initial sequence grabbed my attention and proceeded to smash my hopes to bits. A number of items really irritate me about Clancy's work and this book contained all of them, and then some. Here are some examples - does any American in any virtual Clancy battle EVER get killed, or at least injured? Will Jack Ryan EVER realize he's the president and deal with it? Do real people really talk like that? Why are the Russians and Chinese way more interesting than ANY of the Americans? Why do dozens of Spetsnaz officers take a bullet but Rainbow Sixers walk off into the sunset and the next novel? I cannot explain the number of times I was ready to put the sleeve back on the book, drop it on my shelf, forget about it forever, only to remind myself that I paid money for this thing and better finish it off. And when I was done reading it? Furious! This book was a reunion of fellow Clancy character alum's getting back together for, hopefully, the last time. Explain to me - why do you take compelling characters, like Ryan, Robbie Jackson, Clark, Chavez, et. al., drop them into a convoluted plot(?), mix them all up so they all talk marine-speak, strip every bit of dignity from them, and expect us to care if they live or die? I cared more for the poor Chinese soldiers and politburo members in this book than ANY of the characters I've grown to know during the last 10 years. And finally, as if all of the above weren't enough to drive me to drop Clancy once-and-for-all, I had this book figured out after about 100 pages! Tom, unless you can come up with another beauty like 'Without Remorse', I won't feel sorry leaving you at all.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good.
Review: O.K. so it wasn't his best work ever. But it is still TC and he's the best. There were some things I could have done without (Ryan's whining about being President, Japanese sausage). But still it's classic Clancy and worth buying. In fact, I had a hard time studying for some finals because I was busy reading Clancy.
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