Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: Very much a Clancy thriller, but not the techno-thrillers like his earlier works. While the first 700 pages are a bit of a drag at times, the final 300 pages move at a nice clip. Too bad the conclusion is a bit similiar to another of his earlier books. (His other recycled idea involves the press being in the right place at the right time, setting the stage for world opinion.) Maybe if the first part was limited to 300 pages and the last to 700 pages, this might have been another great Clancy story. Though satisfied with the overall story and writing, the Jack Ryan character is becoming rather unlikeable, unless you're a die-hard right wing, old school GOP, card carrying, gun totting grumpy old man. By far, Clancy's worst effort in an especially great story line.
Rating: 
Summary: Not even up to Op-Center standards
Review: Sorry, but Tom has been mailing these in for awhile now, and this one is just beyond belief. At least 300 pages too long, packed with errors and inconsistencies, and worst of all, the Jack Ryan that I used to enjoy has been transformed into a foul-mouthed shrew, obsessed with sex. Please, can /anyone/ imagine an American president saying to the British prime minister 'Thanks pal!'. And the 75 references to 'Japanese sausage'? Ending the book with that??? Not to mention the endless and shrill political diatribes in which we get to learn yet again that Clancy despises tree huggers, abortion, liberals and queers. This was a sad, sad effort. Or rather, lack of effort.
Rating:
Summary: Chew Some Ice, or Write A 1000 Page Novel?
Review: I wrote a review of this book last week that was not published. I suspect that my review was screened-out due to my use of a word that Mr. Clancy uses repeatedly in his latest novel "The Bear and The Dragon". Amazon's screening is admirable in this regard. If only Mr. Clancy's or his editor(s) had used some measure of this screening in publishing this very poorly constructed story. As many reviewers have described, this novel consists of 750 pages of mind-numbingly repetitive and simple-minded set-up and 250 pages of uninspired action. The ratio in his excellent books "The Hunt for Red October", "Without Remorse", and even "Red Storm Rising" is reversed. Mr. Clancy should stick with the horse that got him this far. And once again, he ends the novel with none of the attention to detail that he became famous for, but with the brevity and thoughtlessness of a freshman reaching the minimum word limit on a creative writing term paper. In a bizarre vein, Clancy continues to try to expand his use of "love" scenes in this book. His description of intimate encounters parallels his description of the detonation of a thermonuclear device or the operation of a submarines trailed antenna array. Hire a ghost writer for this stuff! On a less humorous note, the level of vulgarity has risen dramatically in this book. Jack Ryan (POTUS, for you acronym wienies), the leader of the free world and hero to all right thinking Americans, can't utter a sentence without including some vulgar reference (either sexual, racial, cultural, ... whatever). Neither can his Vice President. Nor his Chief of Staff. Nor any other character in this book. I understand that talk gets salty amongst military types, ... or amongst most any type. But why rachet the level of vulgarity to such a level that it becomes the feature of most conversations, rather than a literary condiment? Stay away from this book unless you are the most die-hard Clancy fan. I used to fall into that category, but he's lost me for good now. His work has degraded to mere slop, particularly with the last two efforts (this one and "Rainbow Six"). Dave Carter Indianapolis, IN
Rating:
Summary: The Bear and the Dragon (ABRIDGED)
Review: Was disappointed in the audio book, is that the plot/sub plots that Tom Clancy has perfected in previous books is lacking to say the least. How can I believe that the US & Russia would totally disarm their nuculear missile capabilities and leave China as the only nation with missiles? The Jack Ryan character is weak & hardly the main character of the book. The NEC salesman (Japanese Sausage) and Ming seem to be the main characters of the 1st 2 tapes. Clancy tries to recover by interjecting his famous technical jargon, but it falls way short of previous novels (I think all the gizmos have been invented and used in previous novels). Darkstar, so what! If the US is the superpower of the world, we are projected as short on bombs, missiles, and a so-called anti missile defense system. If this novel is supposed to stir concern over our military capabilities, then maybe he is right on the money. It's time for Clancy to start a new set of characters, since these are getting lame & boring since he started this trilogy with Debt Of Honor. I am glad I only had to listen to 6 hours on audio tape, I don't know if I could read 1,000+ pages if it was going to be 250 pages devoted to the "Japanese sauasge".
Rating:
Summary: If Clancy were a student, he would get an "F" for this work.
Review: Mr Clancy, this was a bitter disappointment. I had hoped that after the disaster that was "Rainbow Six" you would have made a little more effort this time around. * You have turned your main character, Jack Ryan, into a know-nothing Buchananite Libertarian that has nothing for disdain for the people that serve their country by working in government (except for soldiers and cops). Not to mention that he swears entirely too much. * You have shown an apalling lack of attention to detail regarding the geography of the DC area, which is a shame as you live so nearby. NOTE: A north-bound ship, heading for the Washington Navy Yard needn't pass under the John Phillip Sousa bridge... You meant the South Capitol Street bridge... which isn't a drawbridge. * Your plots are thinner and thinner. * Your addition of gratuitous sex scenes is an indicator of a lack of imagination or immaturity * Your combat scenes are ludicrous * Your overuse of Secret Service codenames was silly. * People (even us awful slackers in government) rarely refer to the President as POTUS, and even more rarely do they refer to the First Lady as FLOTUS. In closing, your work was overwrought, over-written, and just plain ol' poor. It is obvious that you didn't do much research for this novel, and that you REALLY do need to reunite with Larry Bond. [...]
Rating: 
Summary: Major Disappointment
Review: Usually a 1,000 page Tom Clancy book is an occasion for much rejoicing, but this was as big as a disappointment as I've had since I found out my Dad was Santa Claus. To summarize: 1) Nothing happens for almost 800 pages. By my count, there are three "action" scenes before page 780-- and one of them takes place in the first 10 pages! In the meantime you have to suffer through a lot of people sitting around talking or thinking about the same topics over and over and over . . . (yes, Jack, we know you hate being President-- but then why did you run for reelection?) 2) When the action does start, it's Executive Orders all over again, with the poor Chinese playing the role of the UIR. Remember when Clancy wrote about an enemy that was formidable (e.g. Red Storm Rising)? Not anymore. The US is smart, everyone else isn't, we win. Oh, and our guys are so arrogant, it hurts. I find it interesting that no one joins our armed forces who's incompetent (or even slightly less than perfect). 3) The plot was too contrived. The decision-making process really bugged me. The decision to let Russia into NATO is made over coffee without any consultation with the other members. China decides to invade Russia in one meeting without any serious considerations as to the consequences. The US decides to fight China and then seem surprised to learn that China has nuclear weapons and might use them! The special forces are sent in in a seat-of-the-pants decision. (Of course they pull it off without any training; this coming immediately after a Clancy novel (Rainbow Six) that preaches the necessity of property preparation and training for special operations.) Please tell me the world isn't run like this! 4) It's time to retire some of these characters. I used to like Jack Ryan. Now he's a whining, ultra-conservative, male chauvanist, (semi) racist (the Chinese are "Klingons"?) jerk. Clark was once a dark, mysterious character-- now he's a boring bureaucrat. In Clear and Present Danger, Ding was awesome-- now he's as exciting as my next door neighbor. Robby Jackson is pathetic (you're not a fighter pilot anymore-- get over it!!!). 5) The "new" characters who had potential disappear. The Chet Numera plot could have been exciting, but after being the main character to start the book, you don't hear from him in the second half (which, given the cheesy sex dialogue, was almost welcome). The Russian cop was cool, but that plot just dies off. (At one point, the KGB agent who was caught was going to cut a deal to double-cross the Chinese, but that was never followed up). And the Italian sharpshooting cop? He could have been great but there was no reason to include him at all. Hopefully this was a preview to the next novel with him as the lead, ala Without Remorse. 6) I don't want to hear about Clancy's politics. Please keep them out of the books. It appears to me as if Tom Clancy has spread himself too thin, with supervising his cheesy "Op-Center-esq" paperback series, his non-fiction books, his computer game company and whatever else he's doing. I feel ripped off and taken advantage of. Please Tom, get back to what made you great!
Rating:
Summary: Definetly not one of his best books
Review: I preordered this book in February, and could not wait to get my hands on it. When I finally did, I was somewhat disappointed. The dialogue is not the same as in his other books. The characters are weak. The plot is great, but the treatment of countries and people is not. Overall a good read, but a disappointment for a true Clancy fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Great, but not a return to the classics
Review: The Bear and The Dragon is truly a great tale of espionage and warfare. However, for many reasons it pales in comparison to Clancy's truly classic works, such as: Sum of All Fears, Clear and Present Danger and Debt of Honor. First this book is almost 400 pages too long. The true military conflict does not occur until the 600s. To compound the problem, after all those pages of build up the conflict abruptly ends and you are actually left wondering if the book is missing pages after number 1,028. Also, the content of this book is full of sexually explicit language, sexual inuendo (some implicitly referring to a President Clinton who would not exist in the Jack Ryan presidency/legend Clancy has created), perverse "facts" that are oddly coupled with pro-life mandates and sentiments. The strange sexual "facts" become even stranger as they are repeated, ad nauseum, by several different characters in different settings and situations throughout the book. If one can look past these shortcomings (and get through the novel in less than a month), one will find a clever and interesting story.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I'm a big fan of Clancy's fiction and non-fiction, but I can unreservedly say that this is his worst book. The storyline is an uninspired rehash of Debt of Honor and parts of Executive Orders; the dialogue is eighth-grade (with way too much completely gratuitous profanity and crudity); the sentence structure can best be described as torturous, with far too many overlong compound sentences. The characterizations are incredibly offensive to women and Chinese, among others. Don't get me wrong; I'm not PC by any stretch, but the continuous misogyny and racism here was hard to stomach. Did I mention repetition? There's too much rehashing of events from previous books, and a large number of places where Clancy liked a bon mot enough to reuse it several times ("flower of 1975 technology", for example). The worst part for me: I know he can do better, as demonstrated in Every Man a Tiger. It's obvious that no one made an attempt to edit this book-- there are an astounding number of grammatical errors, and a good fiction editor could have tightened up the story immensely. I'll get his next book from the library.
Rating:
Summary: Non-suspenseful and laborious
Review: This may be the last book of Clancy's that I read. Normally, I read one of his books straight through. Took me over a week, and I had to work at getting interested. Ryan has become self righteous & goody two shoes. Over and over Ryan character tells us how he hates being President, but someone got to do it. He doesn't want to get use to people waiting on him, he just wants to be a regular guy. And he owes it to the American people to take the job. And I agree with the reviewer that was turned off by Pat & Ed and their honey bunny. PLEASE!! The end was an exercise in reading page after page of military gizmos.
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