The Bear and the Dragon

Rating:
Summary: Not quite up to the previous standards
Review: I will be the first one to admit that I am a huge Clancy fan, I buy all of his books the day they come out. While doing a great job of manipulating the readers emotions over the happenings in Communist China, the book does seem overly long, with a rushed ending. I would have liked to see some of the loose ends wrapped up better. There were a lot of typos in this book. With as much money as Putnam is going to make off of this book at $28.95 per copy, pay an editor (or run spell check for God's sake) before printing hundreds of thousands of them. The scenes with the Rainbow troopers were covered too lightly, and the bedroom scenes were covered too heavily. I can't complain about Clancy's political posturing, because I happen to share most of his views on politics. I really enjoyed this book, but it is not as good as his previous efforts.

Rating:
Summary: Tom! What Happened?
Review: I was there the first day this book was avaliable, bought it 10 minutes after the bookstore opened, and 600 pages into it on my vacation..... I wish I was at the dentist, or something less painful than reading something that is NOT up to his typical quality of writing. This book plot has some good ideas, but with VERY POOR editing and an obnoxios obsession to try and make Jack Ryan a "President of The People" the book fizzles and dies. The racist and obnoxious actions in the White House around Ryan turns you off to the book instantly and the slow pace at which the plot unfolds really makes it difficult to get to what Clancy does best. Talk about Tanks, Guns, Blood, Guts, and Glory. Unfortuately when you get to it, It doesn't compare to previous works like Red Storm Rising, which after reading 10 times is STILL a page turner for me. This book drags and dies, although I finished it I would be hard pressed, even as a die hard Clancy fan to recommend this book to anyone. I think it's time to move on to a new set of characters or to something similar to what he did in the Red Storm Rising. PLEASE TOM! HELP US!

Rating:
Summary: The Bear and the Dragon
Review: I thought this was a good book. If I can read a 1028 page book in three weeks it has to be pretty good. I'd like to see more action with Ding and Clark though. They are two of his best characters. Ryan's choice for a VP was excellent and any true Clancy would agree. This isn't the greatest book he's ever written but it wasn't a bad one. Another good book is The Lion's Game by Nelson DeMille.

Rating:
Summary: Did not meet my expectations
Review: I am a die-hard Clancy fan, so it's difficult to write a weak review. In short (and it wasn't) I should have read the last 200 pages where Clancy is at his best - classic "on the spot, feel's like you are there" battlefield tale. Engaging, realistic, detailed - first rate stuff.This "grande novella" took forever to pick up steam - about 800 pages of background is just too much for this fan. I kept waiting for the action...I liked the Ryan persona, and the CIA spy thread, but the rest of the detail and character development was lost on me. John Clark and Rainbow Six's appearance on scene was contrived and didn't feel right to me.I expected better quality from TC...but I will, of course, be signed up for his next one. Guess you can't do a gold medal every time.

Rating:
Summary: Need more cussing
Review: Hey Tom I think you need to use the F word or GD a little more. Every other sentence was just not enough. Normally I can read a Clancy book in 3 days. The last 2 I have had to make myself finish. This one should have gone straight to paper back.......

Rating:
Summary: if a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters...
Review: A rambling, incoherent, confusing jumble of racist cliches. This is what happens when someone is paid by the line and their VISA bill is due.

Rating:
Summary: If you can get through the first 900 pages it ain't bad
Review: Just finished it and threw it on the stack of the rest of my clancy collection. Looks to be the thickest one yet, although the stories have changed from "techno-thrillers" to Tom Clancy's view of the politicians of the world. He devotes hundreds of pages to setting up a storyline which is blown through in just a few pages. All and I found it disapointing, longing for the days where Jack Ryan was a small character and Jon Clark wasn't an old grandfather. I think there needs to be a new story line, his first books weren't so closely sequenced, and quite frankly a lot more enjoyable to read.

Rating:
Summary: Not his best work
Review: I am a die-hard fan... look forward to each and every book, and Clancy doesn't seem to write fast enough for me. Even as other people would chop 1/3 of the text out and complain that they're too long.. I like most of them as-is. Except this one. I agree with some of the other reviews which say that all of a sudden, there's too much profanity. Also, I felt like I was reading more political propaganda than a real novel. Clancy needs to get off his soapbox... could the book BE anymore against a woman's right to chose whether or not to have an abortion? That's only one of the issues I got bored hearing about. Mostly, the plot was good, the execution poor. I cheered when Jack Ryan became president, and he's become such a whiner. One of the other truly great characters - Clark - is being played down. Its too bad. There are so many other books by Clancy more worth the time. Normally I can't put the book down and devour it in 3 or 4 days... this one took me 2 weeks. I hope the next one is better.

Rating:
Summary: Clancy needs an editor!
Review: This book was entirely too long. As someone else said 400 not 1K pages. In addition, the only suspense in the book was waiting for something truly interesting to happen. This book was Euclidian--it went from point A to point B in a straight line. There were no plot twists. It seems the only inner conflict for jack Ryan is the hemmed in feeling he has in being President. After this book and the last one (Rainbow Six), I will wait until the reserve list in my local library drops to zero before I pick up the next Clancy novel.

Rating:
Summary: Bye TC, it's been fun...
Review: I have for years read and re-read everything Clancy. When the cold war was on, there was an obvious enemy to deal with, and mostly, the Soviets were even made out like real human beings, with feelings and all. But then the cold war ended, and TC's books became increasingly weird with wars with Japan and stuff. I was quite disappointed in Rainbow Six, with its hilariously unlikely scenario. When I saw that the new TC was a Ryan book, I though "awright!". So I bought it, and I'm somewhere in the middle of it now. I'm trying to think if I've ever been so disappointed by a book before. I really don't think so. There's been mention elsewhere about "foul" language, and while I usually don't mind (hey, I'm a user!) it just looks gratuitous here. But what really irks me is how Ryan went from being a thinking man in the Agency to a narrow-minded, mean-spirited president. I guess once the reasonable plot ideas dried out, TC decided to let his characters be vehicles for preaching his own, way-over-the-top right-wing politics, racism and all. I guess I am going to finish it, since I bought it, but TC has made his last buck off me. I'll get my fix re-reading his early, quite brilliant stuff.