Rating: 
Summary: Pity There's not a ZERO Star Category
Review: Turgid, tepid, tautological, terrible. Predictable, profane, putrid. Chauvanistic, racist and reactionary claptrap by a Clancy who has exceeded his use-by date. Success has obviously bred contempt for his readers. Thank goodness it was a present - it's only unfortunate that my son wasted his money on this dreck.
Rating: 
Summary: The Bore and the Drag On
Review: Good Grief, it takes nearly seven hundred pages to get going! It is too long and drawn out, not nearly as clear and concise as it could be. How many times must we hear President Ryan refer to his wife as "Babe", enough already. It is time to develop new characters, Ryan has lost his fire! He is no longer an interesting character. Tom Clancy- start fresh with new characters please!!!
Rating: 
Summary: What Happened????
Review: My eyes are fooling me! First of all, I read for entertainment, not to write reviews. But what has me confused is the fact that when I checked the reviews of TC's new book before I bought it a couple of weeks ago, the average rating was 4 1/2 stars. Now it is down to 3 stars, and by the look of things it is headed even lower. I'm glad that I read the book without some of the comments written before mine. I, like almost everyone else, have read all of his previous books. I by no means think that this was his best work. I especially cringed at the language. Note to Mr. Clancy: There is NO need to use the "f" word in every sentence. I choose as my friends those who use more dignified language in their everyday speech, and I plan to use this same rule in choosing authors in the future. Clean it up! In contrast, as entertainment, the book was fast moving.....if you like the behind the scenes information. I did seem to notice that there was a gigantic political message here. I also noticed that unlike every other book of it's genre, there were no failings of the main "heroes". It was too perfect. So, as far as realism, the book fell flat. The bottom line though, is that this book was entertaining. I don't get to read as much as I once did, and so if a story is gripping enough to hold my attention, I am pleased with the result. The ending left much to be desired, but was sooooo much better than the ending of "A Man in Full", the last book I read, that I can't complain. Anyway, this is the first review I've ever written, and I hope it helps someone. Like another reviewer said, wait for the paperback! Overall though, worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: A Solid Effort from Clancy
Review: My guess is that those people who have enjoyed most of Clancy's previous works will find that The Bear and the Dragon is classic Clancy - lots of pages, a large number of characters to keep track of, voluminous technical jargon on weapons systems, an evil government (and the leaders who run it) to serve as the antagonist, a protagonist in Jack Ryan, and a good story. While some find fault with the book due to one or more of these characteristics, anything less would not be "a Clancy." The reprise of Jack Ryan as the central character is welcome. As the reluctant president, he serves as an interesting contrast to the candidates in the current election. The story itself was well within the realm of possibility and moved along quite well, despite the length. It was truly an enjoyable and worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: Where is the old Clancy?
Review: I think that Tom Clany is either over the hill, or just not working hard anymore. There was a point in his career where i loved nothing more than to be reading one of his books. But now, he makes everybody so wimpy. Where are Ding and Clark???? In my opinion his two strongest characters, they are left behind in the field!!!!!I want the old Clancy, or i want my money back.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy's dud
Review: This is TC worst book to date. His characters are not developed and as usual he repeats the same thing over and over which does not develop the story. The worst part is that he paints Ryan and the USA as all good guys with the best toys. Not to give away the ending but to only lose 1 Tomcat while defeating all of China is the most preposterous thing imagined. I also got sick and tired of reading how Ryan hated to be president. To add insult to injury (not to mention price of book), TC felt obligated to make references to Bill Clinton's presidential woes. TC also felt, as seen in his recent books, a need to get on his personal pulpit, to expound his beliefs, whether religious, abortion, or otherwise. I wish he had just developed the story with the kind of vigor he used in expousing his personal beliefs. Definitely a waste of time.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved it
Review: This book grabbed me and held me like only Red October and Red Storm Rising have in the past. The plot is intricate and yet very easy to follow closely. Some of the complaints I've read on this board leave me scratching my head. Calling the Chinese leaders Klingons isn't intended as a racist comment - it is intended to illustrate that the Chinese worldview and the American worldview are so dramatically different that it is very difficult for them to empathize with each other. As the book illustrates, this creates potentially volatile miscommunications. I also wonder about those that say Ryan has become a whiny wimp. Ryan has always - back to the beginning - been portrayed as an everyday man in situations he perceived as being way over his head. He comes through these with a combination of intelligence and plain old good luck. That formula has never changed. My one disagreement with Clancy is his notion that more and more technology will make winning wars this easy in the near future. With the current state of our military, I doubt this is the case. The book is, however, a work of fiction and the series really hasn't even remotely paralled the real world since that nuke went off in Denver. Therefore, his fantasy Nintendo type war doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. I would encourage anyone to read this book without reservation. The fact that I am so tired today from 3 straight nights of virutally no sleep is the perfect testimonial to how exciting this book is.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the Clancy of old...
Review: I found this work to be less than what I have come to expect from Clancy. The basic elements that have made him so popular are still there (expert plot development and the ability to run multiple story lines without confusion) but this book seemed formulaic and not a little bit angry. There seems to be an underlying asian xenophobia in the writer that isn't there when he writes of Russian or Arab enemies. I wonder why? I still love Clancy but I am hoping for more in post-presidental Ryan.
Rating:
Summary: Ultra-conservative, much?
Review: I'm not usually one to criticize the literary efforts of another, especially a very successful author as Tom Clancy, and to be perfectly honest, Mr. Clancy is quite talented. He can weave a multi-layered story and somehow still hold the reader's interest over the course of a thousand pages or so. But with that kind of ability and talent, it's wasted on his own political agenda and closet prejudices. I have not yet finished reading this book and I will finish it for the sheer stubborness and satisfaction of completing something I've started but this latest effort is disappointing on so many levels. It starts out as a whodunnit murder mystery and quickly evolves into a presidential temper tantrum that somehow never ends (grow up, Jack. You're the fictional leader of the fictional free world, for crying out loud), a lengthy dissertation with a focus on racially slandering every ethnic group on the planet, and a forum for voicing Mr. Clancy's own love of the military and disdain for anything else. It's hard to enjoy a book that refuses to acknowledge the fundamental and universal truth that all men ARE equal. He's infused all the characters in this book with a primitive and cavemanlike attitude and does no justice to any of them. China may be a communist country, but once upon a time not so long ago, America still had slaves. The next time Mr. Clancy publishes a novel, I will follow my friends and colleagues and not bother reading it. It isn't worth it.
Rating:
Summary: 800 pages of superb Clancy...
Review: ...however the book is over 1,000. It seems as if there were two Toms writing here, one with the exceptional movie-in-your-mind action and tight plotting of the first books but often another who repeats previously used quotes and comments and who uses an annoying quantity of dialog expletives (mostly the same anglo-saxon one) to fill space. One would at least expect the Russians and Chinese to use ethnic epithets. Further, some of the technology does not ring quite true. Even though it is all gee-whiz, it is today gee-whiz and not post-2000 gee-whiz with the assumption that both the Russian and Chinese intelligence community have been asleep the whole time and that their information security and compromise detection is non-existant. Still a steady read and lasted nearly four days. Despite apparently being proofread by a machine, when it was good, it was very, very good...
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