Rating: 
Summary: Very Slow read
Review: I have been an avid Tom Clancy fan since "The Hunt for Red October." I have read all of his single-author books and many of the earlier books for which he is a co-author, but I had to really work to read this book. I must admit that I was not greatly impressed by "Rainbow Six" when I noticed an increased tendency for Clancy to include more foul language than he had in earlier works. One thing I miss is his clean concise writing and character action and development. I felt like I could read his books and enjoy their inherent complexities and character development without having to work my way through character after character swearing with and at each other. This book also delves into sexual encounters quite early. I greatly enjoy Clancy's other books, but this book is a very bad read. You may call the dialog in this book reality, but I can do without it in my pleasure reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Tom Clancy's worst
Review: I'm a big Tom Clancy fan and when I did see his latest book "The Bear and the Dragon" I couldn't wait to buy and read it. Looking back at it, this is my worst buy ever. I live myself in Asia (as a European) and really, Tom Clancy should have stayed out of Asia, because his views of Asia are biased, racist and simply WRONG. Besides this, the book is just never really starting of and very dreadful. I expected much better from Tom Clancy..
Rating: 
Summary: Bear Up, He's Dragon This Out To A Thousand Pages
Review: In over 1000 pages Tom Clancy gives us a simplistic,an un- realistic view of international relations and conflict. As an entertainment it is first rate (although too long). Filled with action from the first page to the last, it is typical of what readers have come to expect from this revered author. Don't however expect this book to expand your understanding of international relations or American politics. In this respect the author has, very seriously, dropped the ball. Read it to be entertained, not educated.
Rating:
Summary: TC should go back to his old day job
Review: Long time TC fan here. I have to say his work has been slipping for some time. His latest book is not only boring, it is long and boring. TC needs let Jack Ryan and all of his friends die off and start a new setting w/ new characters... or go back to his old day job. Where will Jack be next if TC is allowed to continue, president of the world? Getting back to the story, it lacks the depth and intrigue of his earlier works like Red October, etc. The plot and characters are extremely transparent. I think at this point TC is putting out a poor story and living off his repuation from past works. I would not recommend this book to former or new TC readers. If you do want to read this book, save yourself some $$ and wait for people like me to dump our hardcover books off at the second hand book stores! -Lee (a former big time TC fan)
Rating:
Summary: Very slow up to page 300 or so
Review: Tom Clancy likes to write them thick (1028 pages) this one is very slow up to about page 350 or so then gets pretty good. The ending takes up only one short chapter though and I would like the excitement to last a little longer.
Rating: 
Summary: Slower moving than previous work, but good
Review: A well written, but somewhat slow moving book compared to past efforts. This one is far more concerned with the internal workings of power than with the trappings of a "techno-thriller" i.e. long descriptions of weapons and combat actions. Only twords the last thrid of the book does Clancy really get going, but it's still a very invloving story. Jack Ryan for president in 2004 folks, he's be better than the shlub's we have running now
Rating:
Summary: Clancy's Cosmology
Review: The line between Jack Ryan and Tom Clancy is becoming thinner and Ryan is the one who suffers. This is not a techno-thriller of the type Clancy invented. It is more like a tour of the Cosmos with the guide's observations about how things would be better if he and Jack were in charge. The Bear and the Dragon opens with 200 pages of set-up that a lean and mean Tom Clancy would have handled in a few muscular paragraphs. Aside from establishing that there is a lot of corruption and incompetence in Russia and that Chinese counterintelligence and technical security personnel are pushovers for the CIA, we have nothing to show for our first few hours of reading. The remainder of the book moves a little better, but I needed a lot less product placement by the producers of Jamaican coffee (so expensive that even POTUS and Tom Clancy dilute it with lesser varietals). As usual, you pick up some technical insights-- a ballistic missle travels faster than the shock wave from high explosives-- but Clancy needs to introduce us to some heroes so young and hungry that they dream of Folgers to wash down the snakes they eat.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy's Best Work in Years
Review: Power derives from the ability to define. Global Power is the ability to define and geive effect to one's vision of how the world should run. THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON works as a thinly veiled bit of "advice" for incomong president George W. Bush. He needs to clean up the cesspool of domestic corruption created by the Clinton/Gore administration, and he must be prepared to face a renewed external threat posed by the rise of Communist China and the renewed Russian communists. In THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON, The Russian Communists are funded by a global organized crime network, anvd the Chinese were aided enormously by traitors in a prior administation who sold US nuclear and other secrets in exchange for personal favors. Could Tom Clancy be making a statement here about the Clinton Administration? Thhe nearly hysterical reaction of liberals to this book (they almost all hate it intensely) suggests that they certainly see fictinal President "Jack Ryan" as a noble pro-American president who is a complete opposite of their guys, Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Conservatives seem to see it too, since they love th novel and often comment that they hope George W. Bush is like "Jack Ryan". While 'Jack Ryan' is a man who clearly understands power, he is not one to get drunk on it. His domestic agenda is broadly aimed at devolving power out of Washington, DC, and returning it to the states and the people. 'Jack Ryan' sees government as a necessary evil, which is best at defending the nation from enemied internal and external. The character of president Jack Ryan embodies what people admired in Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy. This is far better than any recent Tom Clancy novels. It is a complex and multithreaded spy novel that's worth of at least a few feature films--assuming that anyone in Hollywood is interested in producing movies that don't denigrate American patriotism, or which are not pro-Marxist. Unlike most spy novels, this one is clearly based on modern geo-political realities, and contermporary methods of espionage. In other words, the events in this book are very plausible. Will George W. Bush rise to meet the international and domestic challenges that will almost certainly be presetned during his term in office? He has his work cut out for him as doubts about his leadership ability mount during the challenges to his election victory. In THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON, the action is well paced, the characters are intriguing, and the plots move in parallel. It's a great read. While it is unlikely that George W. Bush will turn to Tom Clancy for advice on matters of foreign or military policy, one hopes that he is smart enough to surround himself with people who understand political as well strategic realities, and that the United States does not lose the ability to define the emerging World Order.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Clancy! Excellent Story.
Review: I have read all of Clancy's novels, and this one ranks right up there with his best. Although it is over 1000 pages, I never noticed. It is a very fast and exciting read and I highly recommend it to conservative, Clancy readers. Since Clancy deals with a lot of social and political issues - keep an open mind if you're not politically conservative. The only thing that would have made this a better novel is if Clancy had not rushed the ending. It seemed that he was trying to finish the book as quickly as possible and I think the book would have been better if it was not rushed, maybe around 1200 pages. Great read, though. I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Not As Bad As Some Want You To Think
Review: As a long time Clancy fan I have to express my dismay at much of what I read here. THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON is not a bad book. Far from it. Clancy has set the bar high with his previous work but TBATD hardly falls on its face in trying to reach those heights again. Admitedly there are some negatives. We all know by now that Jack Ryan didn't ask to be President. There's no reason for us to be constantly reminded of that fact. Also, Jack's newfound 4-letter vocabulary gets old really fast. There's no excuse for the presence of that crutch. So this is not a perfect book. But I have to cut Clancy some slack on the other points people are making here. So what if he inserts his politics into Ryan's character. Has anyone ever thought that Ryan wasn't a reflection of Clancy's ideals? Ryan's political viewpoints, which naturally do come out since he is the President, take nothing away from the actual STORY, thank you very much. I disagree with Michael Crichton's politics but when I read his books that becomes totally irrelevant. And the story's pretty good. Once again Clancy mixes together an incredible brew up international intrigue and conspiracy to a satisfying boil. The regular cast of characters returns to duty and Clancy smoothly slips in some old faces from Ryan's past. The conflict and hotspots are realistic, and that Clancy can find yet another way to bring the world to the brink of disaster is to his credit. You can criticize all you want but in the end THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON is a winner, and Clancy is still the master. The Ryan universe is not dead, and I look foreward to one or two more releases to complete his story. A solid Four Stars.
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