Rating: 
Summary: Still a cut above the rest
Review: Tom Clancy's latest is true to form. For diehard fans of JackRyan, John Clark and other Clancy characters, The Bear and The Dragon is a must read. Clancy flawlessly develops his intricate plot from multiple angles and the use of techno-speak is just enough to be factual without actually becoming an annoyance. The book is quite a long read at 1000+ pages, but its hard to put down nonetheless. Don't plan on buying it unless you have a little freetime! A couple minor criticisms arise from the several typo's I found while reading the book (editor's fault?) and a more racial slant in describing the villian of the book, China. While the Soviet villains of yesteryear's Clancy novels were easy enough to hate for their ideology and actions, I don't really find it necessary to throw in racial stereotypes to make a convincing villian. But, as I said, these are minor criticisms and I anxiously await another Clancy novel after devouring this one.
Rating:
Summary: Good Stuff, but uncharacteristically stupid in spots!
Review: Tom Clancy's newest continues the Jack Ryan Saga into the twenty first century with a war between China and Russia. I looked forward to this a lot as a hardcore Clancy fan. For the most part, it was good- good action, well developed plots and characters, the technical scenes he is known for, etc. However, there are a few problems which I hope do not recur in future, as I have never seen them before. First, the book was full of typos. Second, Tom, you aren't a romance writer- the "sausage" schtick was funny in its banal stupidity. Finally, quit giving sermons through Ryan- you used to not do that in the early books. And don't make the Chinese out to be buffoons! Where is the intelligent adversary for the US that the USSR was in the early books? But hey- it had a lot of the Clancy flair to it- and it was very gripping. Also, the spy parts were perhaps the best he's ever done since Cardinal of the Kremlin. So read it- you'll enjoy it, although its not the five star caliber of his early books, Hunt for Red October and Cardinal of the Kremlin.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much baggage
Review: The "Ryan" series is starting to suffer from too much "historical" baggage, and it shows in this book.Almost every character from the past Ryan books (except maybe Marko Ramius, unless I missed him) figures in this story, and the history of the Ryan timeline has diverged too far from reality for the story to be plausible. Pass on this one, or at least wait for the paperback.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Effort
Review: In essence, if the reader has read Clancey's prior efforts, the reader has already read The Bear and the Dragon. It is time for Clancey to move on to a new theme or re-kindle his plot development skills shown in The Cardinal in the Kremlin. Sadly, each story line reaches a conclusion hundreds of pages after the conclusion is evident to the reader. This has not been the case in previous Clancey efforts. As to the publisher, it would be nice if they hired a proof-reader for Mr. Clancey's next book.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the plot?
Review: Somewhere in these 1,000 pages there is a decent 250 page book trying to get out. A sentence here, a paragraph there. The problem is that we gotta read the whole thing to get the little that is there. A wonderful job of padding by Mr. Clancey. And phew, do real people cuss as much as these guys do?
Rating:
Summary: I drifted
Review: I have never drifted as much with any other book. Meaning I would start reading, and while I'm reading I would think about other things. I drifted! The novel should have been condensed to about 600 hundred pages. Recommend....The library, even if you have to wait for weeks.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay --tending towards sloppy
Review: Tom Clancy is getting lazy. Many times in TBATD different characters make identical observations or comments --looks like Tom's got the Copy and Paste functions sorted out on his Macintosh. The editing also leaves much to be desired. The manuscript was obviously passed through a spell checker, but there were lots of word-choice and grammatical errors that interrupted the flow of things. Others have also commented on the abrupt ending and it's true that for a book of over 1,000 pages, the ending seemed quite clipped. Overall, I enjoyed The Bear and the Dragon, but for Clancy it was a middling effort. I am also praying that Jack Ryan is done being such a whiner and complainer.
Rating:
Summary: Ryan is back
Review: This is a good basic story, classic clancy, and a nice continuation of the Jack Ryan saga. Excellent use of existing trade and economic relationships to make the story and reality sync up. I think its the weakest of the group though, it reads as though it was written a chapter at a time, with some sloppy editing. Reading the same chunks of dialog used by the same groups of people 4-5 times in a row gets a bit distracting, and since this comes up several different times in clearly intended comments on contemporary politics, very tiresome as well.
Rating: 
Summary: This one Stinks
Review: This has to be the lowest for Clancy. Having read all of his novels, some are fun and some are rather boring but this is dumb. It is also shallow and insulting to men, women, professionals, Chinese, Japanese, Russians and just about everyone else. The dialogue sounds like something ten or eleven year old boys would write. Foley referring to his wife, the CIA Director, "Not to busy for you baby...". "Okay, honey-bunney". How about this-"Women were all the same. Treat them in the right way, and they turn to wax in your hand, to be kneaded and shaped to your will." Clancy always has some clunkers but The Bear and the Dragon is gagging material.
Rating:
Summary: Once more unto the breach
Review: This latest Jack Ryan novel was an absolute page turner. Clancy did an excellent job of tackling the problem of negotiations between two groups of people with fundamentally different perspectives. Keeping this back from a 5 star rating is that his last few Ryan novels have been formulaic. Some foreign power tries to mess with America. Halfway through the book Ryan is surprised that someone would try to hurt his country and he sets in motion the plan that keeps the book in your hands until the end. It would be nice to see Clancy return to what made Red October so great. Then, the US won on superior ingenuity than on superior military will. Maybe that's just a reflection of the new world order where the US is seemingly unmatched in the arena of warfare. Overall a fantastic book and must read for all who consider themselves Tom Clancy and Jack Ryan fans.
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