Rating: 
Summary: Very Good Scenario
Review: This novel, the latest in Clancy's series, is very well written save for the fact that he goes into a bit too much detail at times. It is a great novel for anyone who wants a book that they will be reading for sometime, and especially for fans of the Jack Ryan series. The last section of the book is particularly suspensful and Clancy really well portrays the internal politics of the communist Politburo in China.
Rating: 
Summary: The Bear and the Dragon
Review: Should be renamed the sloth and the draggin. I have never seen such redundancy in a novel. It could have been handled in 400 pages;it certainly did'nt need 1050. And dirty language! 100 pages could have been eliminated by cutting out the cuss words. What a disappointment compared with "Red October"!
Rating:
Summary: Terrible sequel, very disappointing
Review: I had high hopes when I picked up this new Jack Ryan book. I've already learned that Tom Clancy occasionally loans his name out to hacks (the Op Center series), and that he "co-authors" uneven and misguided books like _A Study in Command_. But here, at last, was a real Clancy.
No, it's not, in the true sense of the term.
Technical and grammatical mistakes abound. On page 505, he not only USES the word "fungible" incorrectly, but he has his character go out of his way to DEFINE it incorrectly. "Fungible" means "replaceable by a similar item," such as one boxcar of wheat which can be replaced by another boxcar of wheat. Clancy incorrectly writes that "fungible" means "re-usable," such as when a gold ornament is re-melted into a new item.
A Johns Hopkins doctor wrongly advises a pregnant woman she can, without any risk to the fetus, take "two drinks tonight to celebrate. After that, one or two a week."
Clancy goes deeper into the repeated use of base sexual profanity, explicit sex, and racial stereotyping. He closes the book with a sexual reference. He goes even more rhapsodic with the deification of the "warrior."
Despite the glory of the warrior, Clancy's President Jack Ryan is disappointing to those who knew Jack before. President Ryan tends to shoot from the hip in making major policy decisions. He "borrows" cigarettes like a teenager every chance he gets -- to the point one thinks Clancy is getting paid by the cigarette industry to glorify their product. President Ryan allows the use of racial slurs in the Oval Office.
Even worse, this President Ryan is irresponsible. Near the end of the book, at a time of grave danger when presidential leadership may be most needed, Jack not only intentionally places himself in a physically dangerous place, but out of effective contact with the government and people. He just _has to_ be back with his warrior buddies, and invite them all "to the White House, right now, for some drinks on the house.... 'I might be drunk before you get there,' the President thought. And sure enough, with an international crisis still on-going, Jack calls a buddy and announces "How about you and me drain a bottle of something?" and proceeds to get "about half in the bag by this time, and if the media found out about it, the hell with them.... 'That,' Ryan thought, 'calls for another drink.'"
It's one thing for a President to get a little high, and quite another thing to do so intentionally when there's an obvious international crisis to deal with.
The whole tone of this book suggests that Clancy is laughing at his loyal readers. "Put the name Clancy on the cover, and they'll buy it," I imagine him smirking. If Clancy continues this way, he'll discover he's managed to trash his name with the reading public.
Rating:
Summary: His worst effort to date
Review: I don't believe that Clancy even wrote this dog! The language could fade wallpaper, boring, boring, boring. Page 250 and the best I can say is I've had a wonderful eduation in the purchase of undergarments for Chinese women. If Tom did indeed pen this effort, looks to me like he's fresh outta ideas. A waste of money and time. Sorry.
Rating:
Summary: The Bore and the Draggin'
Review: Hey Tom, do you think you can make your next book move a little slower? I can't keep up with this one. I'm at 300 pages now, and I think maybe a week has passed in your book. Slow down, man, I'm getting white knuckles.Oh, and while you're at it, could you please throw a few more four-letter words into the text the next time around? You didn't quite fill every page with them. You came pretty close, but not quite. Better luck next time in your endeavors to make all of your characters pottymouths, including the President. Oh, and a few more sexual references too, so next time I won't feel disappointed when there isn't some overly-descriptive account of a sleazy activity going on. But I must commend you. It sure was a good idea to fire that editor of yours. After all, conciseness, cohesiveness, reader interest, and plot flow can all take a flying leap, because, hey, you're Tom Clancy, and you HAVE to know what is best for your book by now, don't you? I have every hope that your next book will surpass this one in length, which is an important goal. Because, the longer the book, the more valuable literary substance it will obviously contain. So try for 2500 pages next time. We fans will love it, and it will give us the opportunity to pump up those triceps while we're at it, and between reading sessions, it can double as a footstool. Lastly, next time you need to drop more obvious hints about your political leanings into your story. You were way too subtle this time around. Next time, devote a whole 50-page chapter to the words "Vote Republican!," repeated over and over in 72-point type. That should get the message across to those who didn't quite get it in the current book. Follow this advice for the next book and you'll have a real winner!
Rating:
Summary: Something happen! Please!
Review: I bought this book because, hey, it's Clancy, so it has to be really good (like "Clear & Present Danger," "Hunt for Red October") or at least a moderately good book that will make a better movie (like "Patriot Games"). I have now slogged through 328 pages of this thing (about a third of the way through the book), and I'm bored out of my mind! Come on, come on, make something happen already! This book is moving at an absolutely glacial speed. There are hints of a few things going on that could build up to something exciting. I figure that that will probably come to fruition at around page 850. I don't usually review a book before I've finished it, but I don't know if I can stick with this one until the end. And that's probably a more telling review than if I had waded through this until the end before writing the review. Clancy, you blew it. Big time. I even loved "Executive Orders," your last proper novel. But this one is in SERIOUS need of an editor. Don't just write an 1100 page book because you can. Engage the readers a bit in the process, please! I recommend taking a speed-reading class and a couple of No-Doz before attempting to tackle this bloated tome.
Rating: 
Summary: great read to ongoing saga
Review: A fun, fast read that is well suited for Clancy's ongoing Ryan saga. Sure, the plots and characters are incredible and somewhat overblown, but what do you expect from fiction? True fans will be as pleased with this one as always. It is a gripping read and a mind-blowing ride. HYPERWAR is incredible and could be a storyline unto itself. Read this - you will not be disappointed
Rating:
Summary: bear and the dragon
Review: What were you thinking, Tom Clancy? At 10028 pages this book is much too heavy for the "I only have time to read before I go to sleep crowd". My husband loves Clancys books, but holding THIS tome aggravated his carpal tunnel syndrome causing the book to fall on his face cutting off his respiration and might have resulted in unlawful book death had I not detected the lack of snoring. He refuses to pick the book up again, so we will have to make do with the audio version. My advice is to take S. Kings advice: If the book is too big---make it a serial---or, make it part one and part two--if the story is good, we will be there to buy the book. At this size, The Bear and the Dragon is too dangerous to read!
Rating:
Summary: Not the Clancy we learned to love
Review: Man, this was worse than going to the dentist. Not only does Clancy subject the reader to 1000+ pages of drawn-out plot and completely unrealistic coincidences, but he somehow thinks we'd all like to hear him spout off on right-wing politics. Add in the fact that this book has less action, more rambling, and generally a lower level of writing than what we've been used to, and you'll find this book a poor piece of work. The facts seem a lot less well-researched, too. Several times I found myself wondering if Clancy had done the same kind of superior research and technical investigation that he did on his early books. Dammit, I used to LOVE this guy's stuff, but they've gradually become less and less enjoyable fiction and more and more long pontifications of Clancy's personal political opinions. Maybe he's got so much money now that he just doesn't care and wants to spend the rest of his life writing conservative political crap and lecturing his readers on his social theories, but he's lost one customer here who bought every book up until this one. Sorry, Tom, but you really blew it on this and I won't be buying your product again.
Rating:
Summary: Oprah's Book Club For Men
Review: Okay, all of you...put the Clancy books down and step away from the cash register. I mean if he won't bother to write them, why should we be buying them? It's Oprah's Book Club for Men - "Must...buy...new...Tom...Clancy...book" Move on, you can sure tell he has. This is another dim-witted over-politicized, shallow thriller about our dear old Jack Ryan. The thing is, I feel really bad that Jack has to put up with being put in these situations again and again to sell books. I'll suspend disbelief, but Jack Ryan as President? Please. The early books were truly great, very gripping and fun to read, but God help me if I buy another one. Fool me once, shame on you...fool me 14 times... 5 to 1 the next book is ghost written.
|
