Rating: 
Summary: Hard to Swallow
Review: If you can believe that super intellectual Earth Firster's can be bested by even more intellectual military ranger's....this book is for you.Poor character development, ridiculous plot, and paid by the ounce writing style. Do yourself a favor. Forget this one.
Rating: 
Summary: very disappointing
Review: Clancy used to be my favorite writer. However, from now on I will be more careful before I by his books. This book is not that different from Executive Orders....though not as well written. The characters don't seem real, and the plot doesn't sound all the real either. Eco-terrorism is probably a problem of the future. But this book will not be the blue print of some dastardly plan. The Rainbow anti-terrorist story isn't all the believable either. Chavez and Clark need to go back to the world of spooks. It was totally un-necessary to leave Jack Ryan out of the story. Actually the book may have been better with Ryan providing direction. It's obvious Clancy is too distracted these days. Now that he's washed his hands with the NFL, and as soon as he puts whatever type of closure to his marital problems, he should be able to bring us the caliber of story we have all come to expect over the years. The fact that this book has managed to reach number one on the best-seller list is a true testament to the loyalty of Clancy's fans. Let's hope his next book justifies this type of devotion.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Like his other Clark book, _Without Remorse_, _Rainbow Six_ falls short of the high standards Clancy set with his Jack Ryan novels. _Executive Orders_ kept me up night after night with its 900 pages, small type and tiny margins. But with _Rainbow Six_, I felt rushed along through the plot. The detailed subplots and technical minutiae which characterize Clancy's best stuff are in shorter supply than I had hoped. As usual, characters are one-dimensional cardboard cutouts -- fine for Clancy's usual shoot-'em-up fare, but less satisfactory when he tries (as in _Without Remorse_) to handle complex moral issues. I still think Cardinal is the only one of Clancy's characters which might be accepted into the cast of a John Le Carre novel. However, the saying still holds: when Clancy's good, he's superb; when he's bad, he's still pretty darn good. The ending saved this one from 3 stars -- as elegant as anything involving that much destruction could be.
Rating:
Summary: A more 'peaceful' world leads to a dull book...
Review: It seems that the demise of Russia as a superpower has left Clancy, with little grist for his mill. Rainbow Six simply does not live up to his previous novels. I certainly don't mind a long book but this is more like a collection of short stories. By the time you get to the main point of the book it is 85% over. It also seems as though the bad guys have become a little to black-and-white evil leaving for some slim characterizations. Perhaps the days of large scale conflicts are behind us and terrorism will be the 'new' modus operandi but this book just doesn't sell it very well.
Rating:
Summary: Easier to read but the plot is definitely hokey
Review: Rainbow six, while definitely being easier to read than some of Clancy's more recent works, is more boring and predictable than just about any of his other works. Plus it seems that he is running out of things to right about with the plot being one of the most hokey of all. I don't want to give anything away but I surely find it hard to believe that so many people would agree to mass murder on such a scale. Every revolutionary movement has leaks and informers and people who lose interest in the goal so I find it rather unlikely that such a plot would remain a secret for so long. Come on Tom. I loved your earlier stuff. Plus most of the book deals with the uninteresting trials and tribulations of the counterterrorist group that is headed by clark. It would have been so much more interesting had clark been directly involved in their exploits and not just the new admiral greer type character. One of the main problems is probably that Clancy's two main characters, Ryan and Clark are now so high up the food chain that clancy has written himself into a box. He should definitely start new characters and make them the focus. Im not such a big fan of ding.
Rating: 
Summary: Clancy at his best, as expected.
Review: A couple of satirical twists right at the very end. If you are into Clancy, you won't be disappointed. Warning - not recommended for tree-huggers!
Rating: 
Summary: New Character Time!
Review: As usual, I rushed right out to buy the latest work from Tom Clancy. While I am not totally disappointed, I do long for the 1980's when Clancy was at his best. In past works, I've found myself suffering from sleep deprivation in order to finish Clancy's page-turners. The last two books have taken me much longer to finish. While the basic premise of Rainbow Six is a solid idea, the well worn Ebola plot just didn't catch on. Compared to the nuclear terrorist plot in The Sum of All Fears, this one just didn't wash. I realize that with the end of the Cold War, Mr. Clancy's available subject matter has become limited. There are other dangers out there. Perhaps with a little more time and less ancillary work, like OpCenter, (Harry Hamlin as the protagonist runied any hope for this series), he will come back with more fulfilling work. I agree that the book will probably go over well as a movie as long as they stick to the early anti-terrorist action, especially since the movies bare little resemblance to the original works anyway. One word of advice to the screenplay writers: leave the eco-terrorist wackos out of it. It'll take too long to develop and won't go over anyway! If you collect Clancy's books, by all means, buy it. Otherwise, wait for the library's copy or the paperback.
Rating:
Summary: Good story ruined by "magic" tech
Review: I liked it up until the final confrontation where the team used some completely unrealistic "magic" technology to defeat the bad guys without any kind of difficulty. It was rather anti-climactic and destroyed the story.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy at his best with a few minor errors!
Review: I rather enjoyed Rainbow Six. As I was reading it though I was wondering if it had been proof read by anyone. There were several typos, but I can live with that. The seen when the hospital is under attack the terrorists announce that they have Mrs. Clark and Dr. SANCHEZ. How can that get by? I wondered about it for several pages. I am looking forward to the next book and highly recommend this one.
Rating:
Summary: Long but worth it
Review: Like many of the other reviewers on this page, I have read virtually all of Clancy's books. His early books were excellent reads but a few of his more recent efforts seemed overblown. This latest is the best in some time. Terrorism is unfortunately a timely subject and the Rainbow Six concept is out of today's headlines. There is an unreal sense of fabulous success in the missions but this is fiction. As for the subplot, think off it as poetic license, dispense with reality for a few hours and enjoy the patriotic and heroic acts of Rainbow Six.
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