Rating: 
Summary: This Book Stinks!
Review: I used to love Tom Clancy as an author. I waited months to get my copy of the Bear and the Dragon. I even went to a bookstore across the street from my job, stood in a long line and got Mr. Clancy to sign my copy. After reading about 190 pages or so, I threw the book, with autograph, in the trash. This was one of the worst books that I have ever opened. The profanity, vulgarity and explicit sex scences were too much for me. I could also mention the typos and the strange languge, i.e., "honey-bunny." This was not a good book! I am sure that some could argue that I should have completed the book before I formed his opinion. Believe me, I tried. However, when Mr. Clancy had Mary Pat use a vulgar four letter term for the male sex organ, I knew I was through. This was the third time the term had been used. Needless to say, this is my last Clancy.
Rating:
Summary: Please stop now!
Review: The quality of the Jack Ryan books has reached a new level of crapdom. I don't feel like reiterating the consensus opinions about this one but I feel like throwing all of my Tom Clancy books away now. He has let the quality of his writing hit new lows.This book has forced me to come forward and hopefully help those of you who are thinking of buying this one. I would have given you mine but I left it in the hotel room so the maid staff can enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: Just plain bad
Review: I have read all of Tom Clancy's books, but the Bear and the Dragon is just bad. 3 reasons made me not finish this book. 1) Repeated harsh ethnic slurs against the chinese. How many times can you read "chink" "slant" or "barbarians" before one gets really offended. Makes me think that Clancy really doesn't like the Chinese. Never heard him talk about the Russians like that in his other books when they were the enemy. 2) Clancy has made Ryan into a whining cry-baby. All he ever does is complain about government and the fact that people don't call him by his first name. 3) Just plain boring. Sorry to say that this book not up to par with Clancy's other novels. I really enjoyed them all up to Rainbow Six, which I found to be only OK.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy Sells Out.
Review: The down hill slide Tom Clancy has begun continues. The Bear and Dragon, is arguably his worst work. It holds the potential to be great but fizzles in the end. Clancy has a problem writing for Jack Ryan character. The Plot continues where Executive orders stopped. But, Jack is constantly whinning and moaning that he is president. He ran for re-election didn't he? So it doesn't follow that J.R. seems so victimized. I have begun to think there actually was supposed to be a book in between this one and Exec. Orders. All Tom Clancy fans be warned. This book is a waste. Tom has sold out Jack Ryan for some cheap cash.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Review: "This is Clancy at his best - and there is none better," is written in the book description on the dust jacket. I can name many authors such as Harold Coyle and Michael DiMercurio, who consistently put out much better material than this long, contrived, repetitive waste of time and paper. The Bear and the Dragon is basically a combination of the plots in Red Storm Rising, Debt of Honor, and Executive Orders, just with different antagonists and updated military equipment. For the entire book I felt like I was reading chapters that I had already read in his previous novels. In addition, the book was so predictable that I knew at around page fifty how and why the war would begin, and how the winners would go about achieving victory. Needless to say, I felt it was a chore to read the remaining 975 pages, and I am very surprised that I willed myself to finish the book. It seems to me that Clancy stopped writing good books when he got to Debt of Honor. I did not think he could write something worse than that, but he just did. I do not mind an author inserting their political beliefs into a novel, but the way the entire story was written makes me question whether Clancy intentionally meant to expound his right wing ideas and make writing a techno-thriller his second priority. I also felt that Clancy's book came very close to plagiarism. With a couple differences, Eric L. Harry basically wrote the same book two years ago when he published Protect and Defend. Stephen Coonts also wrote a similar book, Fortunes of War, except Japan is the antagonist instead of China. The basic plot is the same. Combined, the two similar novels are still over a hundred pages less than the unoriginal The Bear and the Dragon. If you have not read this book yet and are pressed to do so, get it from the library, as it will be an incredible waste of money to buy it. It would also be a waste of money to buy this book in paperback at a used book sale for a penny. The library is the way to go, and I am glad I went there. By the way, the misleading quote on the dust jacket should be changed to, "This is Clancy at his worst - and there is none worse."
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh.
Review: Been there, done that. A long rehash of what we've seen before - foreign country underestimates U.S., war starts, U.S. crushes foe. Yada, yada, yada. Some things ring very hollow: I don't think I need to see the two most senior people in the CIA calling each other honey-bunny; the same goes for Jack Ryan and his 'babe' comments to his wife. He rants, even more then usual, on Social Security, "tree-huggers", gays, and women (his Secret Service agent Andrea Price-O'Day). At 1024 pages, there is way too much character development and not enough action. Finally, the whole reason for the conflict - the death of a couple of foreign diplomats, *they're not American, Tom*, is quite a stretch.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy - get a life
Review: I read the reviews before I bought. I should have believed them. Having eagerly awaited the next dose of the Jack Ryan saga, how excruciating to find that Clancy's opinionated view of the world just gets more self-indulgent. It is depressing to see a once capable and pacy writer degenerate into pushing his clumsy ideology on the reader. Fortunately I kept reading and now have caught up with the mind of the great one. America, and Americans, are clearly flawless human beings. Unless they are in public service. Because public servants can only be in public service because they can't hack it in business. All Americans have great relationships even under the highest level of stress in their work. Their wives are always beautiful even in late middle age - their careers are always energetic. American soldiers are peerless - both in their skills and personal qualities. Clearly those who last year ended up captured by Serbia because they couldn't read a map, or who left the action in Kosovo to the British because their lives were too precious to lose, do not exist in Clancy's world. Any dying is to be done by expendable Russians who appear to get the Clancy stamp of approval now they have embraced free-market capitalism. No American is sleazy - or self-serving - or inept - or poor in judgement. How sad when 5 years ago Clancy was offering characters of complexity, and American characters with serious flaws. One then adds to this a turgid and repetitive style and an obsession with coffee - is the author on a fat sponsorship deal and paid every time he mentions it ? The best service anyone could offer potential readers would be a quick summary of the first 600 pages so that readers could get cracking on the action. Because unlike in previous work, where plot and character development were worth reading even when the action level was low, in this case all that 600 pages does is depress the reader at how blinkered the Clancy view of the world has become. By the end I was cheering for the bad guys.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe abridged was a good choice
Review: Since The Bear and the Dragon was the first fiction audio cd I have listened to, I was worried that I wouldn't like an abridged story. It sounds like it was the better choice for this particular Clancy work though. From what other reviewers are saying, the hardcover was filled with repetitive minutaeu not really necessary to the storyline. I can't speak for the quality of the full hardcover novel, but as an abridged audio cd I thought The Bear and the Dragon was good, maybe even my second favorite Clancy story behind The Cardinal of the Kremlin.
Rating:
Summary: Did TC do this on purpose?
Review: While reading this book, I couldn't help but wonder if Clancy purposefully screwed up this book to keep us all off his back for future Jack Ryan adventures. Afterall, it is so distasteful and unrealistic in parts, what other conclusion is there to draw? I guess we could assume he's bored with Ryan and just forgot to do research, or maybe he became fanatical about using this book as a political forum and nothing else mattered, or perhaps he is just simply an angry man. Whatever the reason, the gratuitous sex, the excessive profanity and vulgarity, and the dim-witted antagonists (wasn't Roscoe P. Coltrane a character somewhere in this book?) all seem blatantly uncharacteristic of Tom Clancy. It seems to me that he doesn't want to do another Ryan book and had to piss enough of us off so we don't flood him with emails for a sequel. I wouldn't give this book a complete TURKEY rating, but compared to his previous books, it is glaringly loose (was there an editor?), heavy-handed, and, in my opinion, offensive. Because I want to remain a Clancy fan (is there anything better than "Clear and Present Danger" and "Executive Orders"?) I'm choosing to believe that "Bear" is a calculated, intentional screw-up, rather than believe that Clancy has turned himself into a distasteful, uncreative, run-of-the-mill author.
Rating: 
Summary: Two good parts, lots of filler
Review: I'm one of Clancy's biggest fans, but now only of his earlier work. Tom seems to take himself too seriously, each of his recent five or six books was a disappointment to me. The Bear and the Dragon has a great premise (China invades Russia, the US helps out). But it's about 400 pages until anything HAPPENS. Actually, there are only a couple dozen interesting pages in the book. The great story teller needs to get back to his roots and tell good stories.
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