Rating: 
Summary: Formulaic, yes, but *what* a formula!
Review: Another massive missive from TC. Sure, there are typos and grammatical pratfalls aplenty, but nothing excites like this master when he's cranking up WW III with a cast of no less than 85 characters. Grab your atlas, get online (the better to look up all those munitions), and let your palms get sweaty.
Rating: 
Summary: Back on Track
Review: With "Executive Orders," one wondered if Tom Clancy's future novels might continue to devolve into misguided political and economic preaching, but with "The Bear and the Dragon," Clancy is back on track with plenty of action and realism.When Clancy discusses espionage and military tactics and hardware, he speaks from knowledge and makes it interesting. Tom Clancy doesn't write great (literary) novels, but this one, like most of his, is great escape reading. It is probably more exciting for those of us who have read "The Sum of All Fears." I won't say why, but if you read "The Sum" before "Bear & Dragon," you will be glad you did. Nomuri and Ming are a charming pair I hope to read more about.
Rating: 
Summary: What is this a comic book?
Review: Clancy's latest effort is disappointing to say the least. Jack Ryan, a character who has formerly shown the ability to act and think rationally has turned into a whining fool with absolutely no tact. The story was transparent from the beginning and the bad guys aka the Chinese, were portrayed as incredibly stupid, naive and arrogant. Now I know the west has a perception of asians as sneaky and often racist towards foreigners, but we have never been accused of being absolute idiots. I have been an avid Clancy reader since the Red October, and I have never been disappointed before. But this time around, he definitely let me down. In the past few novels, while the USA has come out on top, which is expected, at least the bad guys managed to get in a shot or two to keep things interesting. In this current effort the Chinese act as complete morons and the reasoning behind it is stereotypical and very thin at best. Bottom line: Tom Clancy took one of his best characters and turned him into a right-wing religious freak with no tolerance or respect for any non-anglo culture.
Rating: 
Summary: Disapointed ....
Review: I would always look forward to the Clancy books but sadly, this is no longer true. Completely disjointed, shallow, simple plot with no real satisfying ending. Barely worth reading for die hard fans, but wait for paperback.
Rating: 
Summary: Clancy goes for the Climax of the Jack Ryan series....Again
Review: I preface this this review to say that I have read all of TCs books (excepting opcenter or Netforce) and I have been and still am a big fan of the author. However I think the continuous story of Jack Ryan which started with Red October has grown stale. Honestly I figured TC to have given up the Jack Ryan series years ago. This could, or rather should have happened after either Sum of all fears, Debt of Honor, or Executive Orders. The book itself is entertaining enough but it sorely lacks two things. Originality, and more distressing, believability. The trend that has appeared over the last few books is TC keeping every significant character from his other works and including ALL of them in this one. This has made a pretty decent 500 page book into a 1000 page monstrosity. I even noticed the reintroduction of a character from Cardinal, and that book was written 12 years ago! This has made this book overly complex. Just keeping up with whos who makes this book less than really enjoyable. All in all I wish Jack Ryan would go away. TC should either create a new and unrelated series or split off with another character from an earlier book. Personally, I would like to see the story line of John Clark in the heyday of his early (1970s) CIA career.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: "Bear" is a worthy addition to Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan epic. You can tell it's good when you find virtually all of the sub-plots in the book compelling and interesting. Clancy did an especially good job of connecting the big developments in the book to the ordinary lives of real people -- showing how ordinary people can sometimes change the course of history unknowingly. Clocking in at 1028 pages, "Bear" just flew by. If anything, it was too short. Of course, Clancy can be accused of sticking too close to the "formula" in this book. The prospect of major conflict between big powers, though titilating for most of the book's early section, quickly becomes blase in the Clancy universe. Didn't the same thing happen in Debt of Honor and Executive Orders? Though Clancy introduces fascinating new characters and leaves us wanting to know more at the end, I for one sure hope Clancy's next novel is not about the next "War of the Year" that Ryan has to deal with. Having taken a break from Clancy for a while (dropped Executive Orders midway through and skipped Rainbow), the first thing I will surely do is go back and read what I missed. This guy is still good!
Rating:
Summary: DULL......
Review: ...what the early Clancy books never were: Boring.
Rating:
Summary: The Bore and the Dreadful
Review: This not as much a review as it is a warning. The Bear and the Dragon is by far the worst book Clancy has ever written. Rainbow Six could be excused by being in reality a backstory for a computergame, but this is supposed to be a novel. Now Clancy has never been an expert user of metaphor, simile, charcterization or even grammar (I'm neither, but then I'm not a native speaker) but he's always been worth reading because of his knowledge of politics, technology, military and his intelligent plotting. This is sorely lacking in this novel. The Sum of all Fears was the best Ryan book - The Bear and the Dragon is the worst and hopefully last. 800 pages of boring build-up to 200 pages of predictable warfare. Throw in some old friends, some small twists and a bit of Rainbow Six and you have this book. If you enter all of Clancys books into a computer, and ask it to write a new Jack Ryan novel, The Bear and the Dragon would be the result. Consider yourself warned.
Rating:
Summary: Former fan tortured
Review: I think the author has forgotten why people buy his books and it's not so we can read his opinions. Within the first 100 pages, there are several bashes against the current US president and many derogotory comments regarding environmentalists, abortion rights people, gun control advocates and others that traditionally stand against the Republican party. All this before the action starts but it doesn't stop until the end, 900 pages later. There's more bad language here than there was in his first 1/2 dozen books together. He used to be an author who wouldn't stoop to the use of gratuitous profanity but "the f word" now gets dropped every few pages. Anyone who has read an interview with the author knows he's a Republican and that's fine but I didn't buy the book to read his views. I didn't mind the way he used to do commentary in the books, it fit the story. Now, you'll be going along in a good part and get hit with a political view that sticks out like a sore thumb. There's a good story here if you're willing to wade through the wordiness, cursing and political attacks. Clancy was one of three authors I would buy hardcover fiction books from, he'll be lucky if I buy paperback next time.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyed it
Review: Despite the whining about Clancy's lack of political correctness in this book by some other Amazon customers, I read the Bear and the Dragon to the end. I enjoyed reading it and would encourage others to read it. Sometimes it's even good for a book to be non-PC because then readers can see what the world is really like: not through the eyes of some lib.
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