Rating: 
Summary: Great per pound value
Review: Dear Tom, So how does Jack feel about hangnails? Does Jack like corn? Perhaps a chapter or two in your next book on these topics would be appropriate. I think that these may be the only aspects of Jack's inner self that have not been covered.And by the way, does anybody over the age on ten say "'puter?" Having been in a "High-Tech" company for the last ten years, maybe I'm jaded, but I've never heard anybody say "'puter" -- besides my 6 year old nephew that is... Anyway, I almost swore off Tom Clancy after "Rainbow Six" which is arguably the worst book I've ever read. I gave him one more chance with the Bear and the Dragon. To Tom's credit, he toned down his anti-"liberal" rhetoric where he only demeaned himself in his sometimes naive attacks. He also improved the plot -- while similar to some of his recent books, I still found it an engaging plot. However, as every other reviewer has noted: WAY TOO LONG. I gave the Bear etc. a second star for the action sequences. Tom Clancy is still one of the best when he stays focused on action.
Rating:
Summary: Page long paragraphs
Review: About 200 pages of real "book" in about a thousand. Paragraphs nearly a page in length with more than one subject. Just plain bad grammar. A sorry atempt at expressing a philosophy - on everything from religion to mushy politics. And those 4 letter words! Sick and more than enough. My first and last Clancy book.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Great Clancy Adventure
Review: Apparently I am the minority in the customer reviews, but I agree with the editorial review, finding this book highly entertaining and fairly plausible. The scenario that Tom Clancy presents is not an entirely unrealistic one, and the technology he gives the US Armed Forces is not in the distant future by any means. If anything is unrealistic about Clancy's scenarios it is their overwhelming optimism, but that, too, is enjoying to read. Clancy takes this latest Jack Ryan adventure one step above and beyond anything he has ever done before, and any longtime Clancy fan is likely to highly enjoy this novel, as I did.
Rating:
Summary: The Longest Book
Review: Clancy's first and maybe best "Hunt for Red October" was 382 pages, the story was tight and exciting, "Bear & Dragon" is 1028 pages, about 3x necessary to tell the story, tell us Tom does Putnam pay by the pound?
Rating: 
Summary: Another gripping Clancy story
Review: After reading some other reviews I wonder if we read the same book. Clancy was true to form with this book. The plot had me hooked from the beginning. Clancy did a good job of illustrating the dangers and frustrations of governing and the benefits of a well funded military. His choice of China as the "enemy" in this book is rooted in the truth (probably more than people want to admit). I won't say this book is my favorite ever, but the only one's better were also written by Clancy.
Rating: 
Summary: A real stupid book
Review: One of the most boring and stupid books I`ve read in a long time. Full of ignorant remarks. From Mr Clancys observation that asian girls like westerners because they are better "equipped" than the asian males, via people saying Comrade Doctor etc to each other in Russia, ten years after the Soviet Unions fall, to the "fact" that american girls are slimmer and healthier than the rest of the world(when we know that they are sicker due to overweight than the rest of the world). Well, a writer can write about his white supremacy but when he writes as boring as Tom Clancy does in this book it gets completely uninteresting. Just pure typewriting and after 350 pages I had to give up. Yes, and I spell terrible...
Rating:
Summary: Clancy disapoints an avid fan!
Review: I have been a fan of Tom Clancy since the 'Hunt for Red Ocotber' and 'Red Storm Rising', which I have read numerous times. Actually, I have reread every 'Jack Ryan' Tom Clancy book that I have bought or checked out from the library. I even took the time to reread Executive Orders for the third time before reading 'The Bear and the Dragon'. At least the third reading of 'Executive Orders' kept me on the edge of my seat. I ususally read one of Clancy's tomes in a few days. The first 300 pages of 'The Bear and the Dragon' took me over one week to read. This title never grabbed my attention at all. It must have taken me six weeks to read this novel. I would not rush out to buy this book. This is one that I feel I should have checked out from the public library; and not have added it to my personal libray.
Rating:
Summary: It's about time!
Review: When Executive Orders came out in 1996, I snapped it up right away. I had it read less than a week after it came out. When Rainbow Six came out two years later, I did the same thing - and I thought it sucked. I've been waiting four years for a new Jack Ryan book, with Clancy scattering Rainbow Sucks and Net-Force and Power-Play and God only knows what else in between. So, when I heard that a new Jack Ryan book was coming out, I anxiously awaited it and bought it the day it came out. I thought it was great. I thought that Clancy did a great job of showing exactly how tedious the office of President can be, though I did question making Robby Jackson VP - after all, most Presidents don't make their best friend VP. However, over all, I thought it was probably Clancy's best since Without Remorse.
Rating:
Summary: tedious and unfocused
Review: Tom Clancy has always delivered a great plot, but with The Bear and the Dragon, the plot can be told in about 50 pages of the 1028. Characters, who continue to enter the novel even on page 800, are too many; the plot is tediously expanded with overdone details of military equipment. The plot becomes hard to follow and takes concentration when reading - when all one wants is a good, fun plot as Clancy has delivered in the past. And the overuse of the "f" word gets old.
Rating:
Summary: Piece of Trash
Review: Boring, long drawn out sleepy book. Thank goodnes I can speed read. I feel sorry for those of you that have to suffer through the tedium of this thing. From racial slurs to swearing that just doesn't fit the situation. The only highlight was the new pig bomb; and the other pig, Ming. Japenese sausage? How freaking juvenille. This book smells of a ghostwriter, or Clancy is out of original thought and is done.
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