Rating: 
Summary: Needs realistic action
Review: The idea is good. Anyone who thinks that this cannot happen has their heads buried in the sand. However, the story itself is weak. The "good guys" win way too easily. Anyone in REAL spec-ops knows it is never this easy. There is even some hints of plagiarism in this book. Tom, have you been reading Dick Marcinko's Rouge Warrior books? If not, and I think you have, you should, and you will see what REAL spec-ops personnel go through.
Rating: 
Summary: This book sucked.
Review: This book reads just like one of his op-center "gee, i need to make an alimony payment, better write something" books. It is terrible, with the worst ending he has ever written. Read "Sum of all fears" instead.
Rating:
Summary: Wish I'd read these reviews before I bought the hardcover!
Review: I love Tom Clancey's novels, but you can skip this one. I was actually bored while reading this.
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointment.
Review: Most of the time I look forward to reading and immersing myself in a Tom Clancy novel, but Rainbow Six the book doesn't fill the bill. The characters in this book do not come alive. In previous Tom Clancy books with Clark and Chavez, they had depth, you could understand what motivated them and they seemed like real people put into impossible situations. Rainbow Six didn't get the job done!? The personal dialogue between The Clark and The Chavez families was especially disappointing in its blandness. The emotional reactions of these two families to the "jobs" Rainbow Six has to do are almost non- existent. This is the first Tom Clancy novel or nonfiction book I have not recommended to my friends! I think Mr. Clancy needs to spend more time on his character development and less on "Gadgets". I also wonder how much of this book was written to sell his new Computer game of the same name? At least in that game, 2-Dimesional characters are understanable due to technological limitations. What the excuse for this does Mr. Clancy have? I hope the next book Mr. Clancy writes will improve in this area. I am going to read reviews next time before I buy another of his books.
Rating: 
Summary: Another interesting premise, but not his best
Review: Rainbow Six is classic Tom Clancy, filled with a horrifying main plot, several sublots, lots of techno-jargon, and plenty of action. The main plot is not the most original, and the action is fairly boring, but there were some scary things suggested by the book. The book starts off well, with a revisit to John Clark, one of my personal favorites, and his son-in-law Ding Chavez, the hero of Clear and Present Danger. A multi-national tactical team is an interesting idea, allowing Clancy to write about the SAS and Delta Force in the same book, but hardly feasable. By far the most annoying part of the book was Clancy's repeated use of the word "niggardly;" using it once makes him sound literate, but using it eight times pisses you off. Clancy is an East Coast snob, and this book illustrated that more than any other. The ending was dull, with almost no suspense built up. The bad guys were caught too easily, making the whole book anticlimatic, although the punishment they got was pure John Clark, and a satisfying note to end the book on. All in all, a decent read, but he has some ground to make up with his next book.
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Summary: OK...Ha Ha....Now tell me..Where is the Real Tom Clancy?
Review: Well Tom you finally did it..740 pages (hardcover) of slow reading, repetetive, predictible nothingness. John Clark the "Dark Side of Jack Ryan" is nothing but a suit and tie white collar whimp. Ding Chavez must have 240" thighs from all of the working out he did. The Rainbow Commandos well, I hope that I can read more comic book stories to my 7 year old about virtually invicible heroes like these guys,the X-Men,and Sergeant Rock.I hear there is a new "Techno-Thriller" coming out called "Tree Squad Six". They are an elite group of commandos who seek out and destroy authors who kill trees for the sake of wasting 740 pages of paper on...well..books that are just plain bad.
Rating:
Summary: Not very inspired writing or story.
Review: I took the recommendation of an earlier reader and bought EYES OF THE HAMMER for four bucks. Great book-- real special ops guys in action. Indeed, based on my military experience in the Rangers, its even more realistic than Clear And Present Danger. I plan on buying the rest of Bob Mayer's series in hardcover-- a better investment of my money than this book was. RANGERS LEAD THE WAY.
Rating:
Summary: Too verbose and slow paced.
Review: I found the book slow moving and over weight. There was too much detail and meaningless info. It felt like he was writing to fill pages rather than fill out the story. Once he got off the soap box, the action was typical Clancy; good. But there wasn't enough of it. This is by far his worst book. I was extremely disappointed, it took me 5 weeks to finish as it never really grabbed me by the throat.
Rating:
Summary: Too many anti-Africa comments and a scary premise
Review: As a lay person Clancy reader, I am greatly disappointed by Rainbow Six. I say I am a lay person, because Clancy, who never met a weapons system he didn't like, spends entirely too much time giving technical stats, alphabet soup + numbers for simple descriptions of items. But, all of that is typical Clancy. I usually skip the sections of massive and tediously technical descriptions and stay with the dialogue of the main characters and do just fine. But, in this story, I began to wonder whether the defense industry has created new toys which Clancy read about, then structured a story so that those new hi-tech kill 'em toys could be show-cased? I am greatly disturbed by something ugly that seemed to rear its head in this book. There were repeated ignorant generalizations about Africa in the text of Rainbow Six. In one instance, He says: " ...what African country has a proper air-defense network.." Mr. Clanceyneeds to ask one of his airforce friends whether they want to overfly South Africa, Egypt, Angola or Lybia without warning. Later he says: "..Africa was not yet a hot bed of international law and integrity..." Wow.. what an unfair condemnation of all 53 African countries. I found that uninformed generalization about Africa to be highly insulting. Still later he says, ".. Africa.. where countries lacked the infrastructure to do much of anything." Really? How uninformed can Clancy be? Just because it isn't on network news doesn't mean it doesn't happen. The infrastructure throughout southern Africa is more high tech and well developed than in areas of rural Mississippi or Lousinana or in the Applacians. Clancy, travel or read more about Africa so that you can make better statements. On top of all of that... Clancy chooses unfortunate adjectives. I counted five uses of the adjective "niggardly" and "niggling." These are two words that get too close to the n-word for my tastes. In this era of trying to be politically correct whenever practicable, perhaps choosing another adjecitve for "stingy" would be better? Five usages of that adjective are a bit much don't you think? Then, Clancy's premise bothers me. God help us when an elite SWAT group sets itself up as judge, jury and executioner answerable to no elected body or official, yet with full ability to use equipment paid for by those very tax-payers cut out of the loop. Just the idea of this European/Anglo police force going across borders to implement their form of law and order is scary. But, this is only a story. In parts, a nice story. I like Ding and Clarke. I liked most of the characters, like Popov. But, so many of the events were predicable like the hostage taking of the two Clark women and the usage of all of the high tech toys that were on display. Clancy missed the mark by a mile this time. Rainbow Six is a dud.
Rating:
Summary: Kept me reading, but a little too farfetched
Review: Clancy's skill for technothrillers has not escaped him, but his plot (which to my mind is far too similar in its bio-technology content to Executive Orders) lacks the essential realism which makes a book of this kind a real winner. We have to be able to believe not only the characters but their actions, and Clancy's thinly-vieled sideswipe at ecological groups is at best crass and at worst a PR disaster. Portraying these groups as potential genocidal maniacs is not based in reality only in the vaguest, most bizarre "what-if" of one's imagination. Not something to write a 740 page novel about. The action is well done, and the characters are progressing well, though I would have preferred more on Ryan and how he handles the presidency, and less on Clark, whom we spent an entire novel with in "Without Remorse", Clancy's best book, in my opinion. There was insufficient background to make the bio-war plot in any way believeable, and the background scenes that were included were virtually carbon-copies of the similar scenes in "Executive Orders". A little more variety, please. And, one small point, as a Brit myself, I got a little tired of Clancy's over-egged Britishisms, which stretch realistic use of the language to breaking point, even the brand of English used in the armed forces. At the same time, the use of American English by Clark and Chavez is similarly unrealistic - does anyone have the mental capacity and dexterity to actually _speak_ like that? Not only does no-one even pause for breath before emitting these clever and witty utterances, they seem to form part of the everyday American language. Not so, in my experience! I look forward to more from Clancy, though the Op-Centre series is failing rapidly. We need more on Ryan and the presidency, and it does not have to be another global conspiracy, just a well-told story, sticking to the point and not trying to shoot down groups of the public with whom Clancy does not agree. Put all that stuff on the back burner and simply do what you are good at - entertain us.
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