Rating: 
Summary: Five Novels Stitched Into One -- Only One Is Interesting
Review: The Bear and The Dragon combines five novels -- one about a murder mystery in Moscow, one about espionage in Bejing, one about Chinese-American trade diplomacy, another about economic development in Siberia, and a final one about major power conflicts. Of the five, only the last bears any resemblance to a Tom Clancy novel of the calibre of The Hunt for Red October, but that final novel in the book still manages to fall short of the former standard of this author. The book is incredibly bloated, boring (until the last 256 pages), annoyingly repetitive, predictable, and full of gratuitous sexual and racist references.If you feel you must read this book, begin on page 773. You won't miss anything you need to know before then, if you do. That's the point at which the Clancy-like novel begins with the usual gee-whiz technology and action. That last novel is fair-to-middling for a Clancy effort. As to the bloat in this book, Clancy did not need to write the other four novels to write his usual one (the last one in this book). He simply padded the book to make this more like War and Peace. Well, it's not War and Peace. Clancy doesn't begin to show the skill to work in that direction. The story is simply so improbable on its face that it's hard to imagine anyone finding it interesting. He likes to develop everything around a theme of the evil Chinese leaders. He demonizes Chinese leaders in the PRC more than most people darken Hitler today. As to repetition, you will get references to the sex habits of fictional and former Chinese leaders many dozens of times more than you will care to read them. The word, puke, must appear more than 200 times in this book, as an example. As for bloat, there must be 150 uninteresting pages in this book about Ryan sneaking a cigarette when his wife isn't around and not liking being president. As for predictability, every single person and technology you read about in the book shows up in the later action in one of the two ways you would most have expected. I was very disappointed. I found it hard to imagine that I stuck it out to the end. I suspect that most people will not. If you do decide to read this book and decide you dislike it, like me, ask yourself why you did not pay attention to the hundreds of warnings from people who have read the book. That may help you to understand why you act impulsively against your own best interest. If you do read the book and like it, I suggest you consider why others may not have. That may help you understand more about your taste in books. Then, you will be better able to distinguish the books that you will like in the future that most other people do not. Resist this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Tom Clancy - Time to retire the Woodentops!
Review: And off we go again - the US combining with Russia to save the World from the Yellow Peril - though decidely less racist than the recent Patrick Robinson novels.
Jack Ryan and his usual band of wooden characters (can a country really be governed by such a small number of people?) take on China aided by Russia and their 51st vassal state- the UK. Due to financial problems over its bad image, China goes to war with Russia to take over the East Siberian oil and gold fields, and tries to fulminate confusion by assassinating key figures, who are ultimately saved by US staff working in Russia, a la Sydney Poitier in The Jackal! To confirm that they are bad guys, Clancy also has them kill a Christian priest stopping a peri-natal termination of an illegal second child. Of course you have to assume that the US way of unlimited children is correct, and that the Chinese policy of one child only is evil. The US is permitted to interfere in other sovereign states affairs, but woe betide anyone who questions the American Way of Life. The monotonous repetitions of US/ Christian moral standards and virtues, (or are they Clancy's?) becomes tiring, and trying to force those values on the rest of the world is stone age colonialism at its best or just pure arrogance. The Ugly American personified. You knew from the start the Bart Mancuso will eventually give orders to sink other subs, and John Clarke will go off hand-to-hand, whilst declaming the virtues of the 3rd SOG, and Ryan's little family of the FBI/ CIA/ Dept. of Defence/ State and the Treasury will all talk nicely to each other, share all the relevant information, help the Russians, kill the bad guys and fly the flag high whilst bearing homage to mom, God, apple pie and the Constitution. It is rather like watching the Thunderbirds - an old TV puppet show, were you could see the strings controlling the heroic Tracy family as they spoke and moved. Reading a Clancy novel now feels like the hearing the same one-dimensional lines, and watching the same two dimensional movements - as the characters are strung across the pages by an apprentice puppet-master. One had the feeling that Tom Clancy himself was getting bored with the book, as the early detail of the first 300 pages, with some genuine character development of Nomuri and his Chinese lover, fell away to the usual weapon specs and tactics, with the ending being predicatable and sparsely written. Like Dale Brown, Larry Bond, Patrick Robinson and the other military writers, the US weapons alway work, everyone wearing a uniform is a hero, and anything opposing them is either copied or useless. One wonders if these writers ever get closer to China than visiting their local Chinese restaurant, reading "Wild Swans" or perusing an old copy of a Lonely Planet Travel Guide. CNN triumphs again as the media champion, living proof of the limited attention span of the average American citizen. A few references to the Echelon eavesdropping system are not expanded, ignoring the constant violation of privacy, while the FBIs own Carnivore system is not mentioned, and other names are just dropped as the pages turn over, while the books spends a lot of time on describing the war as a video game, with a mixture of conscience and congratulations as the enemy are mown down on screen just as in an arcade battle. No-one seems to want to write about Islamic terror groups anymore, African freedom fighters, Irish armies or neo-Nazis thugs, not wishing to upset those fanatics or risk an encounter with an old Toyota car with a Semtex back-seat, or exposing the behaviour of Mafia or Yakuza gangs, so China is by default now always the enemy. China may not be perfect, but look at the US 40 years ago, Russia 20 years ago, or the UK during the Victorian era, were they not great places to be? Tom Clancy has come a long way since the "Hunt For Red October", but now he seems to be running out of ideas. Maybe Jack Ryan and the gang should retire, and a it is time for a new cast to appear. He and his fellow myopic military authors should also read and understand that there are many countries out there, with their own cultures and values, their own ways of doing things, and that they are just as important as his precious American Way of Life.
Rating: 
Summary: Clancy's winning streak continues!
Review: This book, telling the tale of Jack Ryan, Clancy's fictional hero from most of his previous books, really is a classic. After Rainbow Six, which tended to have a more closed, focused story, this book is again very diverse, with many plots and subplots. Truly a great work of fiction. Long may Mr. Clancy write!
Rating:
Summary: Boooring...and waay too long....
Review: I agree with most of the other reviews here. I am a big Clancy fan but it has become apparent in his last few books that he has begun to take himself a little too seriously. I have had this book for at least three weeks and I am still having a hard time getting past the first 300 pages. The techno-geek stuff that was so much fun in the past is almost totally absent. Now all we hear about is politics. And if you don't think Clancy is rambling on and on about his own political beliefs, well..... His books just aren't much fun anymore, I'm sorry to say. I think I'll go back to a nice fast-paced Patterson or Koontz novel <sigh>.
Rating:
Summary: A Book too far !!!
Review: Clancy's beauty is his knowledge of technology. His descriptions of military hardware and its uses are the reason i read his books. He's become enamored with the spy business, much as W.E.B. Griffin did in his Semper Fi series. I really never did believe that the Marine Corps founded the CIA. If I want spies, I'll read Ludlum. Rainbow Six was bad, this book is punishment. Don't buy it and maybe Clancy will go back to what he knows. 800 pages of set-up for the war that everybody knows is coming.
Rating:
Summary: POTUS ? SWORDSMAN? Jack Ryan ? Oh Please, Give me a break...
Review: I struggled through the first 180 or so pages of this very very excrucitaing book. I did not mind the endless repetitions, the unworthy whines of POTUS(!), very loose, very offensive, very vulgur way the whole darn globe was talking..did not even mind the racial coloring of the book...But then along came Jack Ryan alias POTUS alias SWORDSMAN complaining about ABORTION....That was the moment I tossed the book away. I mean what the hell has that got to do with Chinese attacking Russia ? And who wants a president that whines his days off.. I could not believe it was the same Jack Ryan. May be movie makers should consider Anthony Hpokins (a la Remains Of the Day) instead of Harry this time- if some one is incredibly stupid to make a mpvie based upon this pile of junk that is. If you havn't read this book yet - SAVE YOURSELF THE AGONY ! All the bad reviews about this book are right. I wish i had read them BEFORE i wasted my money on this book.
Rating:
Summary: Worse Tom Clancy novel ever
Review: I WAS a big Tom Clancy fan until I read this book. His last couple of books have been getting less gripping and readable, but this sets a new standard for poor writing. It is just plain bad--and very boring. He must now publish books without an editor--there is a lot of repetition (like every scene between Jack and Arnie) and other scenes just go on endlessly. He used to have a lot of good detail that used to make any poor writing more palatable--and actually one of the great, distinct items of Tom Clancy's books, but now he has also gotten lazy. There are some hints of interesting classified information, but Tom must have lost all of his contacts in the government and has replaced this detail with horrible caricatures of foreigners and his biased political views. Time is better spent re-reading Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and Cardinal of the Kremlin. Do not read this book.
Rating:
Summary: simply underwhelming
Review: The last time I tried to read a Clancy book, I put it down half way through it, never picked it back up; finally gave it to a friend who wasn't able to read it either. This book is about the same way - i'm into it about 250 pages and it is BORING, BORING, BORING. I can't think of anything good to say, so i'll stop here. I won't waste my money again buying another Tom Clancy hardcover. He goes on the list with Patricia Daniels Cornwell and Ann Rice.
Rating:
Summary: President Clancy - oops, I mean Ryan - Speaks
Review: Clancy's losing his perspective. It appears that, having reached wealth and acclaim, his personal mission has changed from making bucks and appealing to his market, to using his books as a pulpit from which to vent his political viewpoints. I can't believe I'm beginning to dislike Jack Ryan, Clancy's mouthpiece. Every time the scene shifts to the Oval Office, I know I'm in for another whining, crabbing session from Ryan, who as of page 200 has done NOTHING but sit in the office and complain!!!!! Get a GRIP, Tom.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy going downhill
Review: I eagerly ordered the latest Clancy title with the expectation that I would be as entertained as with all of his previous books. Rainbow Six was gripping and I simply could not put the book down. This latest novel is dreadful and I was on page 528 when I realised I was utterly board with the turgid pace and style of prose. It picked up towards the end but finished in a cop-out manner. It would appear that this was written to simply meet a commitment with a publisher
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