Rating: 
Summary: A six hundred page novel crammed into a thousand pages
Review: I have been reading Tom Clancy since Naval Institute Press published The Hunt for Red October. It is sad to see his writing getting progressively worse. He still does action sequences as well as anyone, and he still puts care into plotlines leading up to these sequences. He also tends to insert irrelevant political tracts, sections of character-building which essentially repeat the same passage from fifty pages previous, and long drawn out bits of plot development which are not really necessary nor particularly interesting. What he needs is a good editor, but his publisher is unwilling or unable to do edit his books effectively. The result is that as his books get larger we get more of what he is bad at rather than what he is good at. After Rainbow Six I was giving him one last chance, and he failed. We are better off re-reading Patriot Games or Cardinal of the Kremlin, written at Clancy's peak.
Rating: 
Summary: Well
Review: I'm not going to summarize this book for you, but Im going to describe something. As readers, we have all had that feeling that is hard to describe with certain books. That feeling that makes us stay up till 3am, just so we can finish that last chapter, that feeling that makes you late for work, cause you have to get past that certain part. Well, this is one of those books. And, if this review can off you anything, it's not to miss reading this book
Rating:
Summary: He's doing it again...
Review: After Debt of Honor, his last great book, Clancy has gotten into this flag waving, chest thumping, zealously patriotic theme. I feel like I'm reading a recruiting poster. Tom, wherever you are stop it! Make your characters real again!
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Summary: Thumpertk
Review: WOW just finished what a book.. Fast moving from the start and wildly entertaining!! Tom Clancy at his best. This book kept me glued to the pages could hardly put it down!! Way to go Tom!
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Summary: Not since ¿October¿
Review: Mr. Clancy started with Captain Ramius, Jack Ryan, Admiral Greer, and many other "people" that readers of his work have enjoyed since 1984. With "The Bear And The Dragon" Mr. Clancy has not only proven he is the master of this genre, he has again achieved the level of "The Hunt For Red October". Even better, instead of a comparatively quick 387 page read, he has delivered a sweeping 1,028 page saga that includes some of the best writing he has ever done.This book should appeal to many more readers than just those of us who enjoy the "Techno Thriller" genre. This work has enough of the engineering details about the players in the gambit he has created, but they do not overwhelm the story. The technical narrative is more concise, will appeal to more readers, and does not drop to the level of a tedious multiple page description of an atomic weapon exploding, that an earlier novel subjected the reader to. This book is more refined, the elements better allocated, as to make this an extremely engaging read without the story being dominated by any one element. President Jack Ryan has become a player on Clancy's stage that is better developed than any previous appearance he has made. Mr. Clancy clearly decided to take character development up several notches as well as expanding it to a much larger cast. The First Lady, the Ryan children, and the Secret Service Agents are individuals, not just subject matter to be dispatched with an occasional line. President Ryan is a Chief Executive who is as unconventional as the circumstances that brought him to office. We are allowed inside his thought process and are not relegated to observer status. A visit he makes to "Satan's Playground" did not need to be in the story, but like the added depth the participants in the story received, Mr. Clancy adds a variety of asides, be they a visit, a conversation, or an impression visually noted. This book is a great novel. This work does not need to have any adjectives like "Techno" or any other modifiers added to place it in a familiar genre. The book is just one great piece of fiction, and even that word is limiting. I just read the non-fiction work "Godfather of The Kremlin", Mr. Clancy's work of fiction is anything but imagined when he touches on the same topics. President Reagen commented about the work "The Hunt For Red October" as, "a great yarn" if I remember correctly, I wish he could read this work.
Rating: 
Summary: Asleep at the wheel
Review: I can't believe that other reviewers are rating this highly. It really falls down with respect to his other books. Weaknesses: * Other books (particularly Cardinal of the Kremlin) have elaborate spy-counterspy operations. In this one, an overtly foreign agent walks in and finds crown jewels completely unguarded. Unbelievable. Also, does China really let foreign news vans drive around unmonitored? * Russia is given a free pass on Chechnya and the Mafia, even as China's lack of respect for human rights is savaged, in order to justify the plot. * Several characters repeat the same aphorisms and quotations to the point where it's distracting. None of the quotations are attributed, an odd lapse for a detail man like Clancy. To me it looks like Clancy's suffering from the grandiosity that many writers of ongoing series fall into. I thought his switch to John Clark in Without Remorse and Rainbow Six was a cure for that, but apparently not.
Rating:
Summary: Better than recent Clancy, but...
Review: When someone sees you holding a book and asks you what it's about, typically you say something like, "Oh, it's about a mad sea captain trying to kill a big white whale", or "it's about the invasion of Normandy". When folks asked me what "The Bear and the Dragon" was about, I answered, "Oh, it's about 3 pounds. And about 2 inches thick. About 1000 pages, too." The past few Clancy novels have stunk, and while this one is better, it's not nearly as good as "The Hunt for Red October" or "The Cardinal of the Kremlin". As in all of Clancy's books there are like 20 separate plots, some more interesting than others. And it's chock full of neato techno gizmos that Clancy fans adore. When he's describing how the Internet has revolutionized espionage, or how an armored division with real-time intelligence can savage a numerically superior enemy, Clancy delivers the goods. If that's what you like when you pick up a Tom Clancy novel (and remember, lift with your LEGS, not your back), this book is a winner. The rest of the book is not so hot. Critics often slam Clancy for his prose, which I don't think is quite fair. He's not a poet, but he's perfectly competent. But loves his little catchphrases, the military jargon, and it drives you nuts. It may be true that the President Of The United States is called POTUS by the Secret Service, but it is not neccessary for Clancy to use "POTUS" instead of "Ryan" as tags in dialogue. Maybe the Secretaries of the Treasury and Defense are called "SecTres" and "SecDef", but no rational person would actually say, "I need to speak to SecTres". No way. Does Clancy realize how Orwellian that sounds? It's awful. Then there's the problem presented by our hero, Jack Ryan. Ryan is now an elected president, having run for office because, well, he thought it was his duty. Trouble is, he hates being President. And he spends the ENTIRE book complaining about it. He's like a spoiled 6 year old. He doesn't UNDERSTAND what's going on! Why doesn't everyone behave like HE WANTS THEM TO! He thought he had real power but he never gets to DO WHAT HE WANTS! That's really what the Ryan presidency is all about-- whining. Ryan's level of sophistication about the way our govermment works is about that of a 10th grade civics student. For a man who spent virtually his entire live in government service, this makes like zero sense. There's also the problem of Ryan's character. Ryan bemoans "professional" politicians, members of Congress and lobbyists who put their interests above that of the country, yak yak yak. A valid point. But whenever he has to meet with "the common people", giving a speech in Seattle, meeting with a farm delegation from South Dakota, he hardly conceals his contempt for them, for wasting his valuable time. He's terribly elitist, and wasn't that what he hated in the first place? America goes to war in this book, but there is no mention of Ryan consulting with a single member of Congress, or anyone outside his Cabinet. Ryan constantly worries that he's becoming too used to the trappings of power, that he'll become too regal, yet that's how he runs his government. The dialogue is like it is in all of Clancy's books--bizarre. Men call each other "pal" and "fella" in seemingly every other sentence, which is weird and annoying. What is very weird is that every character sounds the same in every situation, so that a coversation about whether a nuclear weapon will be intercepted sounds the same as a conversation about what to have for lunch. The same expressions, the same slang and lingo. It's bizarre. Clancy thankfully tones down his annoying right-wing politcal screeds in this book. Anyone who would vote against strip-mining Yellowstone Park is still labled a "tree-hugger" (the phrase is used 8 or 9 times). Actually it isn't so much WHAT Clancy says that annoys me so much (tho a lot of it does) but HOW MUCH he says it. If the book was only 600 pages there would only be enough for 2 or 3 "tree-hugger" references. But plump the book out to 1000 pages and it's sticks out like it was in highlighter. If Mary Pat Foley called her husband "hunny bunny" one more time I was going to vomit. It's almost like Clancy programs a computer, selects an enemy, throws in some new gizmos and catchphrases, and waits for a book to spew forth. So why do I shell out my hard earned green for Clancy's books? Partly force of habit. Partly because in those 1000 pages are maybe 400 pages that are really cool and fun to read, but unfortunately you don't know which 400 until you read them all. After the last Clancy novels I've wondered what new challenges Jack Ryan and company would have to face, and I have to admit Clancy's always found one more bogeyman to put in the way. But what's next? Who's next? I wonder where Clancy goes on vacation. He can't go to Columbia. Lots of Irish folk wouldn't like him. Russia, eh, still some sore feelings there. Japan, no way. Ditto anywhere in the Middle East. China, not now, no siree. I don't know what the next Jack Ryan novel will be about, but I doubt it'll be about a deadly threat coming from the Caribbean. The man has to save SOMEWHERE to go and unwind.
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Summary: Clancy on Crusie Control - Still a Good Read, BUT...
Review: In every other Clancy novel there are scenes I like to read again from time to time, some of which can bring tears to my eyes. But I don't think I'm going to have any such fond memories from The Bear and the Dragon. Clancy is always a good read and I will always buy his books day one they become available, but this is by far the weakest Jack Ryan offering, with major sections striking me as very derivative of earlier efforts (particularly the battle sequences in Executive Orders and the political resolution of Red Storm Rising). But what bothered me more were the small things: how many times Mao's debauchery with 12-year old virgins and a particular Latin phrase popped up from numerous sources; how long it took for Kathy to show up or to find out about the new baby. I was hoping to have Clancy's take on election politics, especially since his solution to the government at the end of Debt of Honor was so elegant, but that got glossed over. My gut feeling is Clancy wrote this on crusie control. Jack's pretty much been there and done that, to much greater effect. He's not really at the heart of this novel and that's where I want him. But as always, I applaud Clancy's idealism in picturing the future world. Tom Clancy has always represented "Compassionate Conservatism" to me, and that is always worthy of respect. I trust he'll be back on track with Jack next time around.
Rating: 
Summary: Different Book, Same Plot
Review: OK, I have read all of Clancy's fiction, and have enjoyed them, but he is in danger of becoming the Neil Simon of thriller novels. Like Simon, who has written many plays and movies with essentially the same plot, Clancy reuses an old plot, in this case Red Storm Rising, only changing the location and character names. He did the same thing in Rainbow Six, which was essentially a cross between Executive Orders and Patriot Games. I won't even get into the constant moralizing that he beats us over the head with during the course of the novel. We get the point Tom, you don't need to belabor it Also, no novel needs to be over 1000 pages long. Someone needs to remind Clancy that a wise man once said "Brevity is the soul of Wit."
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Summary: The Last Chapter of the Jack Ryan Saga
Review: As far as Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Saga goes, THE BEAR AND THE DRAGON is a step back--and a step forward. The step back is way back to Clancy's second novel, RED STORM RISING, where an intercontinental conflict begins over possession of oil. In this case, the oil (along with a saturated riverbed of pure gold) belong to Russia, and the enemy who wants it is Minister Zhang (whom we first met in DEBT OF HONOR), who goads his fellow members in China's politburo to invade Siberia to answer the nation's money shortage. Clancy has taken RED STORM's basic plot and reworked it for this saga, and the results are generally successful, although somewhat repetitive if readers have already seen RED STORM. Interestingly, although Ryan is clearly the main protagonist, he is also the least involved in the actual action. He does little, if any, of the traditional Clancy heroics; apart from describing the general policy of his government he is, in effect, a bystander. Clancy's other "heroes," John Clark and Ding Chavez of RAINBOW SIX, also play essentially minor roles. The job of heroics go, instead, to a myriad of characters from previous novels who really get a chance to shine. General Bodarenko, from THE CARDINAL OF THE KREMLIN, finds himself defending Siberia from the Chinese invasion. Chuck Nomuri, the CIA operative from DEBT OF HONOR, seduces the secretary of a Politburo member to gain access to their inner thoughts. Mark Gant (the technogeek from DEBT OF HONOR) and Cliff Rutledge (the liberal diplomat from EXECUTIVE ORDERS) confront the Chinese--and themselves--in a trade dispute that pushes the Politburo over the edge. The "spreading out" of heroics is one of the reasons Clancy's works are difficult for Hollywood to adapt; the "stars" don't do much and the "bit players" carry the day. This structure is a refreshing change from the genre works where the "stars" do everything essential to the novel. Clancy has also better managed the technoprops that are a staple of his novels; he has better emphasis on training and tactics than on hardware and gimmickry. Clancy's book has weaknesses, of course. While he has toned down the political ranting of EXECUTIVE ORDERS, it is still here, and still comes across as preachy as The National Review with too much coffee. And the villains here are still very much too one-dimensional; the Chinese ministers are as badly realized as the Russians of RED STORM. Clancy's bad guys have always been arrogant and egotistical to the point of caricature, and these are no exception. He has never been able to top Cortez of CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER for a three-dimensional villain. Clancy, as a writer, has moved forward in his story structure and characterizations (of his heroes and supporting characters at least); unfortunately he has moved backwards in his plots, which is problematic in this new age of geopolitics. In a world where regional conflict (the world of RAINBOW SIX) is the norm, and in the absence of true superpowers to rival the US, the odds are pretty good that President Ryan's current adventure will be his last.
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